Element abundances at high redshift: MIKE observations of sub-damped Lyman α absorbers at 1.7 < z < 2.4

Abstract

We present chemical abundance measurements from high-resolution observations of five subdamped Lyman α absorbers (sub-DLAs) at 1.7 < z<2.4 observed with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph on the 6.5-m Magellan II (Clay) telescope. Lines of Zn II, MgI, MgII, Al II, Al III, S II, Si II, Si IV, CII, CII*, CIV, Ni II, MnII and Fe II were detected and column densities were determined. The metallicity of the absorbing gas, inferred from the nearly undepleted element Zn, is in the range of