Directly imaging damped Ly-alpha galaxies at z>2. II: Imaging and spectroscopic observations of 32 quasar fields

Understand

Damped Ly-alpha absorbers (DLAs) are a well-studied class of absorption line systems, and yet the properties of their host galaxies remain largely unknown.

• To investigate the origin of these systems, we have conducted an imaging survey of 32 quasar fields with intervening DLAs between z~1.9-3.8, leveraging a technique that allows us to image galaxies at any small angular separation from the background quasars.
• In this paper, we present the properties of the targeted DLA sample, new imaging observations of the quasar fields, and the analysis of new and archival spectra of the background quasars.