  We investigate the population of z=3 damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) in a
recent series of high resolution galaxy formation simulations. The simulations
are of interest because they form at z=0 some of the most realistic disk
galaxies to date. No free parameters are available in our study: these have
been fixed by physical and z=0 observational constraints, and thus our study
provides a genuine consistency test. The precise role of DLAs in galaxy
formation remains in debate, but they provide a number of strong constraints on
the nature of our simulated bound systems at z=3 because of their coupled
information on neutral H I densities, kinematics, metallicity and estimates of
star formation activity.
  Our results, without any parameter-tuning, closely match the observed
incidence rate and column density distributions of DLAs. Our simulations are
the first to reproduce the distribution of metallicities (with a median of
Z_{DLA} = Z_{solar}/20) without invoking observationally unsupported mechanisms
such as dust biasing. This is especially encouraging given that these
simulations have previously been shown to have a realistic 0<z<2 stellar
mass-metallicity relation. Additionally, we see a strong positive correlation
between sightline metallicity and low-ion velocity width, the normalization and
slope of which comes close to matching recent observational results. However,
we somewhat underestimate the number of observed high velocity width systems;
the severity of this disagreement is comparable to other recent DLA focused
studies. By z=0 the majority of the z=3 neutral gas forming the DLAs has been
converted into stars, in agreement with rough physical expectations.
  [Abridged]
