The primary goal of this thesis is to determine physical conditions in high redshift galaxies known as Damped Lymna alpha Systems. To this end, we present several key results. First, we discuss a radio-selected quasar survey that demonstrates that dust bias is likely not an issue affecting surveys for DLAs. In other words, we are seeing the true and complete population of DLAs and not missing some very high column density, dusty DLAs . Second, we use neutral carbon (CI) fine structure states to show the presence of gas with densities and pressures 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than those expected in the global DLA, i.e. the presence of knots of dense cold gas existing in the larger diffuse DLA. To solve the imbalance of pressure between these two phases, we speculate that these regions are created by shocks that provide relatively high densities that in turn allow for the existence of CI. Alternatively, these could be photodissociation regions on the edges of even more dense molecular clouds that could even be hosting star formation. This model would explain the presence of a radiation field generally above the background. We also present unambiguous evidence of the presence of cold gas in DLAs -- the discovery of narrow sub-resolution, sub-1 km s⁻¹ CI components with thermal temperatures < ̃100 K. In the third section we summarize 10+ years of high resolution observations of DLAs that reveal a bimodality in their implied cooling rate, l_c. This cooling rate is linked to the star formation rate via the assumption of thermal equilibrium. The bimodality shows that the two populations, the "high-cool" and the "low-cool" DLAs may be representative of two types of DLAs -- the high-cool DLAs are heated by a centrally located core of star formation, i.e. a bright, star-forming Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG), while the low-cool DLAs are not hosting a central LBG. Finally, we discuss our discovery of a strong (84 [Mu]G) magnetic field at a redshift of z̃0.7. This is unexpected given the current theories of dynamo formation of magnetic fields (for time scale arguments) and also because the general magnetic field permeating the Milky Way is more than order of magnitude smaller at ̃6 [Mu]G. While this single detection could be a unique event caused by some unique geometry, it certainly inspires further observations of other objects to test whether large magnetic fields could possibly be a general feature of high redshift galaxies. In either case, it spawns the idea that magnetic fields likely play a larger role in galaxy formation and cosmology than has been previously appreciated

Abstract The circumgalactic medium (CGM) plays a vital role in the formation and evolution of galaxies, acting as a lifeline between galaxies and the surrounding intergalactic medium. In this study, we leverage a unique sample of quasar pairs to investigate the properties of the CGM with absorption line tomography. We present a new sample of medium-resolution Keck/ESI, Magellan/MagE, and VLT/XSHOOTER spectra of 29 quasar pairs at redshift 2 < z < 3. We supplement the sample with additional spectra of 32 pairs from the literature, creating a catalog of 61 quasar pairs with angular separations between 1.″7 and 132.″9 and projected physical separations (r ⊥) between 14 kpc and 887 kpc. We construct a catalog of 906 metal-line absorption doublets of C iv (λλ1548, 1550) with equivalent widths ranging from 6 m Å ≤ W r,1550 ≤ 2053 m Å. The best-fit linear model to the log-space equivalent width frequency distribution ( log f ( W r ) = m log ( W r ) + b ) of the sample yields coefficients of m = −1.44 ± 0.16 and b = −0.43 ± 0.16. To constrain the projected extent of C iv, we calculate the transverse autocorrelation function. The flattening of the autocorrelation function at low r ⊥ provides a lower limit for the coherence length of the metal enriched CGM—on the order of 200 h −1 comoving kpc. This physical size constraint allows us to refine our understanding of the metals in the CGM, where the extent of C iv in the CGM depends on gas flows, feedback, timescale of metal injection and mixing, and the mass of the host galaxies.

FRB 190608 was detected by ASKAP and localized to a spiral galaxy at $z_{host}=0.11778$ in the SDSS footprint. The burst has a large dispersion measure ($DM_{FRB}=339.8$ $pc/cm^3$) compared to the expected cosmic average at its redshift. It also has a large rotation measure ($RM_{FRB}=353$ $rad/m^2$) and scattering timescale ($\tau=3.3$ $ms$ at $1.28$ $GHz$). Chittidi et al (2020) perform a detailed analysis of the ultraviolet and optical emission of the host galaxy and estimate the host DM contribution to be $110\pm 37$ $pc/cm^3$. This work complements theirs and reports the analysis of the optical data of galaxies in the foreground of FRB 190608 to explore their contributions to the FRB signal. Together, the two manuscripts delineate an observationally driven, end-to-end study of matter distribution along an FRB sightline; the first study of its kind. Combining KCWI observations and public SDSS data, we estimate the expected cosmic dispersion measure $DM_{cosmic}$ along the sightline to FRB 190608. We first estimate the contribution of hot, ionized gas in intervening virialized halos ($DM_{halos} \approx 7-28$ $pc/cm^3$). Then, using the Monte Carlo Physarum Machine (MCPM) methodology, we produce a 3D map of ionized gas in cosmic web filaments and compute the DM contribution from matter outside halos ($DM_{IGM} \approx 91-126$ $pc/cm^3$). This implies a greater fraction of ionized gas along this sightline is extant outside virialized halos. We also investigate whether the intervening halos can account for the large FRB rotation measure and pulse width and conclude that it is implausible. Both the pulse broadening and the large Faraday rotation likely arise from the progenitor environment or the host galaxy.