UC San Diego

In this thesis we provide insight into the chemical composition, physical conditions and cosmic distribution of atomic gas at high redshift. We study this gas in absorption against bright background quasars in absorption systems known as Damped Ly-alpha Systems (DLAs). These systems contain the bulk of the atomic gas at high redshift and are the likely progenitors of modern-day galaxies. In Chapter 2, we find that the atomic gas in DLAs obeys a mass-metallicity relationship that is similar to the mass-metallicity relationship seen in star-forming galaxies. The evolution of this relationship is linear with redshift, allowing for a planar equation to accurately describe this evolution, which provides a more stringent constraint on simulations modeling DLAs. Furthermore, the concomitant evolution of the mass- metallicity relationship of atomic gas and star-forming galaxies suggests an intimate link between the two. We next use a novel way to measure the physical conditions of the gas by using fine-structure line ratios of singly ionized carbon and silicon. By measuring the density of the upper and lower level states, we are able to determine the temperature, hydrogen density and electron density of the gas. We find that the conditions present in this high redshift gas are consistent with the conditions we see in the local interstellar medium (ISM). A few absorbers have higher than expected pressure, which suggests that they probe the ISM of star-forming galaxies. Finally in Chapter 4, we measure the cosmic neutral hydrogen density at redshifts below 1.6. Below this redshift, the Ly-alpha line of hydrogen is absorbed by the atmosphere, making detection difficult. Using the archive of the Hubble Space Telescope, we compile a comprehensive list of quasars for a search of DLAs at redshift below 1.6. We find that the incidence rate of DLAs and the cosmic neutral hydrogen density is smaller than previously measured, but consistent with the values both locally and at redshifts of about 2. Altogether, these results improve our understanding of atomic gas at high redshift and help illuminate how this important component shapes the galaxies we see today