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Reconciling the Metallicity Distributions of Gamma-ray Burst, Damped Lyman-α, and Lyman-break Galaxies at z ≈ 3

Fynbo, Johan P. U. ; Prochaska, J. Xavier ; Sommer-Larsen, Jesper ; Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava ; Møller, Palle

In: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2008, vol. 4, no. S254, p. 41-48

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    Title
    • Reconciling the Metallicity Distributions of Gamma-ray Burst, Damped Lyman-α, and Lyman-break Galaxies at z ≈ 3
    Author
    • Fynbo, Johan P. U.. Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark email: jfynbo@dark-cosmology.dk
    • Prochaska, J. Xavier. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, US
    • Sommer-Larsen, Jesper. Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München; Boltz-manstr. 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
    • Dessauges-Zavadsky, Miroslava. Observatoire de Genève, 51 Ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
    • Møller, Palle. European Southern Observatory, Karl-Scharschild-strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 2008, vol. 4, no. S254, p. 41-48. Cambridge University Press
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:301499
    Summary
    We test the hypothesis that the host galaxies of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as well as quasar-selected damped Lyman-α (DLA) systems are drawn from the population of UV-selected star-forming, high z galaxies (generally referred to as Lyman-break galaxies). Specifically, we compare the metallicity distributions of the GRB and DLA populations against simple disk models where these galaxies are drawn randomly from the distribution of star-forming galaxies according to their star-formation rate and HI cross-section respectively. We find that it is possible to match both observational distributions assuming very simple and constrained relations between luminosity, metallicity, metallicity gradients and HI sizes. The simple model can be tested by observing the luminosity distribution of GRB host galaxies and by measuring the luminosity and impact parameters of DLA selected galaxies as a function of metallicity. Our results support the expectation that GRB and DLA samples, in contrast with magnitude limited surveys, provide an almost complete census of star-forming galaxies at z ≈ 3