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JOINT DAUT-ICTP-OATS-SISSA COLLOQUIUM
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Speaker: Raghunathan Srianand (Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India)

Title: Molecular hydrogen in high-z DLAs: Physical conditions in proto-galaxies

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Abstract: Damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs with HI column densities in excess of 10^20 cm^-2) are believed to originate in gas associated with protogalaxies that lie along our line of sight to background quasars. The physical conditions within DLAs can reveal the star formation history determine the chemical composition of the associated ISM and hence document the first steps in the formation of present day galaxies. In this talk the speaker will present the results from their survey of H2 molecules and C I in DLAs using UV echelle spectrograph on VLT unit 2. A detail comparison will be made between the results from DLAs and that of our Galaxy LMC and SMC sightlines. He will also present the results of modeling the physical conditions in DLAs based on a full numerical PDR code.
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