On the Evolution of Damped Lyman Alpha Systems to Galactic Disks

Abstract

The mean metallicity of the thick disk of the Galaxy is 0.5 dex higher than that of the damped Lyman alpha systems. This has been interpreted to argue that stars in the former do not arise out of gas in the latter. Using new metallicity and H I column-density data we show the metal-rich damped systems do contain sufficient baryons at the thick-disk metallicity to account for the stellar masses of thick disks. Comparing our kinematic data with the metallicities we show that damped Lyman alpha systems exhibiting the largest profile velocity widths span a narrow range of high metallicities, while systems with small velocity widths span a wider range of metallicities. This is naturally explained by passage of the damped Lyman alpha sightlines through rapidly rotating disks with negative radial gradients in metallicity. The systematically lower N(H I) of systems with high velocity widths indicates (a) the gaseous disks have centrally located holes, and (b) an apparent inconsistency with the protogalactic clump model for damped Lyman alpha systems. The higher metallicity of systems with low N(H I) further implies that stars rather than gas dominate the baryonic content of the most metal-rich damped systems.