DLA system from SDSS DR5

The sample contains 99 DLAs towards 89 quasars selected from the SDSS DR5 DLA sample in a uniform way. We analyse the metallicities and kinematic diagnostics, including the velocity width of 90 percent of the optical depth, {Delta}V_90_, and the equivalent widths of the SiII {lambda}1526 (W}{lambda}1526), CIV {lambda}1548 and MgII {lambda}2796 transitions.

To avoid strong line-saturation effects on the metallicities measured in medium-resolution spectra (FWHM~71km/s), we derived metallicities from metal transitions which absorbed at most 35 percent of the quasar continuum flux. We find the evolution in cosmic mean metallicity of the sample, <Z>=(-0.04+/-0.13)z-(1.06+/-0.36), consistent with no evolution over the redshift range z~[2.2, 4.4], but note that the majority of our sample falls at z~[2.2, 3.5].