Spectroscopy of Damped Ly{alpha} (DLA) systems

Using a sample of 100 H I-selected damped Ly{alpha} (DLA) systems, observed with the High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer on the Keck I telescope, we present evidence that the scatter in the well-studied correlation between the redshift and metallicity of a DLA is largely due to the existence of a mass-metallicity relationship at each redshift. To describe the fundamental relations that exist between redshift, metallicity, and mass, we use a fundamental plane description, which is described by the following equation: [M/H]=(-1.9+/-0.5)+(0.74+/-0.21)*log{Delta}v_90_-(0.32+/-0.06)*z.

Here, we assert that the velocity width, {Delta}v_90_, which is defined as the velocity interval containing 90% of the integrated optical depth, traces the mass of the underlying dark matter halo. This description provides two significant improvements over the individual descriptions of the mass-metallicity correlation and metallicity-redshift correlation. Firstly, the fundamental equation reduces the scatter around both relationships by about 20%, providing a more stringent constraint on numerical simulations modeling DLAs.