2014MNRAS.443L..29M

We report a deep search for redshifted H i 21cm emission from three damped and sub-damped Lyman α absorbers (DLAs) at z ~ 0.1 with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). No evidence for a redshifted H i 21cm emission signal was obtained in the GBT spectra of two absorbers, with the data on the third rendered unusable by terrestrial interference. The non-detections of H i 21cm emission yield strong constraints on the H i masses of the associated galaxies, MHi < 2.3x10⁹x(Δ V/100)1/2 M_☉ for the sub-DLA at z = 0.0830 towards J1553+3548 and MHi < 2.7x10⁹x(Δ V/100)1/2 M_☉ for the DLA at z = 0.0963 towards J1619+3342, where ΔV is the H i 21cm line width, in km/s. This continues the trend of low H i masses found in all low-z DLAs and sub-DLAs that have been searched for redshifted H i 21cm emission. Low-redshift absorbers with relatively low H i column densities, ≲ fewx10²⁰/cm2, thus do not typically arise in massive gas-rich galaxies.