Initial Chemical Enrichment in Galaxies

Abstract

We present evidence that damped Lyman-alpha galaxies detected in spectra of quasars may not have started forming stars until the redshift z~3. If damped Lyman-alpha absorbers are the progenitors of disk galaxies, then the above result may indicate that star formation in galactic disks first began at z~3.

LaTeX, 1 PS figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 18th Texas Symposium (1997)