NICMOS Snapshot Survey of Damped Lyα Quasars

We image 19 quasars with 22 damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems using the F160Wfilter and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multiobject Spectrograph aboard theHubble Space Telescope, in both direct and coronagraphic modes. We reach 5sigma detection limits of ~H=22 in the majority of our images. We compare ourobservations to the observed Lyman-break population of high-redshift galaxies,as well as Bruzual & Charlot evolutionary models of present-day galaxiesredshifted to the distances of the absorption systems. We predict H magnitudesfor our DLAs, assuming they are producing stars like an L* Lyman-break galaxy(LBG) at their redshift. Comparing these predictions to our sensitivity, wefind that we should be able to detect a galaxy around 0.5-1.0 L* (LBG) for mostof our observations. We find only one new possible candidate, that nearLBQS0010-0012. This scarcity of candidates leads us to the conclusion that mostDLA systems are not drawn from a normal LBG luminosity function nor a localgalaxy luminosity function placed at these high redshifts.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for Feb. 10 issue of Ap