The gas mass and star formation rate of damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs), a population of high-redshift absorption-selected galaxies, have been open questions in the field of galaxy evolution for more than three decades. This talk will describe new results from ALMA searches for CO and CII-158 micron emission from a sample of DLAs over a wide range of redshifts, z~0.5-4.2. These are the first CO and CII-158 micron detections in DLA host galaxies, providing a new window on physical conditions in absorption-selected galaxies, and yielding a new tool to identify DLA host galaxies at high redshifts.
Local contact: M. Arabsalmani
Organizer: V. Lebouteiller
SAP