  In an effort to study Damped Lyman Alpha galaxies at low redshift, we have
been using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to identify galaxies projected onto QSO
sightlines and to characterize their optical properties. For low redshift
galaxies, the HI 21cm emission line can be used as an alternate tool for
identifying possible DLA galaxies, since HI emitting galaxies typically exhibit
HI columns that are larger than the classical DLA limit. Here we report on
follow-up HI 21 cm emission line observations of two DLA candidates that are
both low-redshift spiral galaxies, Mrk 1456 and SDSS J211701.26-002633.7. The
observations were made using the Green Bank and Arecibo Telescopes,
respectively. Analysis of their HI properties reveal the galaxies to be about
one and two M_HI* galaxies, respectively, and to have average HI mass,
gas-richness, and gas mass fraction for their morphological types. We consider
Mrk 1456 and SDSS J211701.26-002633.7 to be candidate DLA systems based upon
the strength of the CaII absorption lines they cause in their QSO's spectra,
and impact parameters to the QSO that are smaller than the stellar disk.
Compared to the small numbers of other HI-detected DLA and candidate DLA
galaxies, Mrk 1456 and SDSS J211701.26-002633.7 have high HI masses. When
compared with the expected properties of low-z DLAs from an HI-detected sample
of galaxies, Mrk 1456 and SDSS J211701.26-002633.7 fall within the ranges for
impact parameter and B-band absolute magnitude; and the HI mass distribution
for the HI-detected DLAs agrees with that of the expected HI mass distribution
for low-z DLAs. Our observations support galaxy-evolution models in which high
mass galaxies make up an increasing contribution to the DLA cross-section at
lower redshifts. [abridged]
