This project will create a homogeneous, public data set of echelle spectrograph observations of about a hundred Lyman limit systems (LLS), which are the most poorly understood of the major classes of quasar absorption-line systems. This survey of LLS will take advantage of recent instrumentation advances at the Keck and Las Campanas Observatories, and will provide new insight into gas accretion in proto-galactic halos, galactic winds, ionization edges in galactic disks, chemical enrichment, the interface between proto-galaxies and the intergalactic medium, radiative transfer, galactic feedback, and all aspects of galaxy formation in the early Universe. The sample to be observed will be drawn from several well-defined quasar surveys, but new high-resolution data are needed to determine accurate characteristics of LLS. This program will synthesize the talents of observer, experimentalist, and theorist to reach an understanding of the remarkable physical properties of LLS, but there will be additional significant scientific impact on studies of other quasar absorption-line systems, of gas at high redshift, and of structures in the early Universe.
The results will be spread to the community in the usual ways, but in addition, a dedicated Web site will reach beyond the astronomical population to provide high school tutorials and lab assignments, undergraduate introductions, and graduate level examples of the quantitative analysis of LLS.
