The Gas Reservoir for present day Galaxies : Damped Ly-alpha Absorption Systems

Abstract

We present results from an ongoing search for galaxy counterparts of a subgroup of Quasar Absorption Line Systems called Damped Ly-alpha Absorbers (DLAs). DLAs have several characteristics that make them essential in the process of understanding how galaxies formed in the early universe and evolved to the galaxies we see today in the local universe. Finally we compare DLAs with recent findings of a population of starforming galaxies at high redshifts, so called Lyman-break galaxies.

4 pages, 1 figure, To appear in the proceedings of the Vatican Symposium on Astrophysical Research and Science Education, Rome, Aug. 1998