We report a deep search for redshifted HI 21 cm emission from three damped and sub-damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) at $z \approx 0.1$ with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). No evidence for a redshifted HI 21 cm 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 HI 21 cm emission yield strong constraints on the HI masses of the associated galaxies, M$_{ \rm HI} < 2.3 \times 10^9 \times (\Delta V/100)^{ 1/2}$ M$_\odot$ for the sub-DLA at $z = 0.0830$ towards J1553+3548, and M$_{ \rm HI} < 2.7 \times 10^9 \times (\Delta V/100)^{ 1/2}$ M$_\odot$ for the DLA at $z = 0.0963$ towards J1619+3342, where $\Delta V$ is the HI 21 cm line width, in km s$^{ -1}$. This continues the trend of low HI masses found in all low-$z$ DLAs and sub-DLAs that have been searched for redshifted HI 21 cm emission. Low-redshift absorbers with relatively low HI column densities, $\lesssim few \times 10^{ 20}$ cm$^{ -2}$, thus do not typically arise in massive gas-rich galaxies.
Categories: astro-ph.GA astro-ph.CO