A Simple Analytical Model for the Abundance of Damped Lyα Absorbers

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Abstract
A simple analytic model for estimating the fraction (Omega_{gas}) of matter in gaseous form within the collapsed dark matter (DM) haloes is presented. The model is developed using (i) the Press-Schechter formalism to estimate the fraction of baryons in DM haloes, and (ii) the observational estimates of the star formation rate at different redshifts. The prediction for Omega_{gas} from the model is in broad agreement with the observed abundance of the damped Ly-alpha systems. Furthermore, it can be used for estimating the circular velocities of the collapsed haloes at different redshifts, which could be compared with future observations