A SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy Survey for Galaxy Counterparts to
  Damped Lyman-alpha Systems - I. New Detections and Limits for Intervening and
  Associated Absorbers
  Detailed studies of Damped and sub-Damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLA), the
galaxies probed by the absorption they produce in the spectra of background
quasars, rely on identifying the galaxy responsible for the absorber with more
traditional methods. Integral field spectroscopy provides an efficient way of
detecting faint galaxies near bright quasars, further providing immediate
redshift confirmation. Here, we report the detection of H-alpha emission from a
DLA and a sub-DLA galaxy among a sample of 6 intervening quasar absorbers
targeted. We derive F(H-alpha)=7.7+/-2.7*10^-17 erg/s/cm^2 (SFR=1.8+/-0.6
M_sun/yr) at impact parameter b=25 kpc towards quasar Q0302-223 for the DLA at
z_abs=1.009 and F(H-alpha)=17.1+/-6.0*10^-17 erg/s/cm^2 (SFR=2.9+/-1.0
M_sun/yr) at b=39 kpc towards Q1009-0026 for the sub-DLA at z_abs=0.887. These
results are in line with low star formation rates previously reported in the
literature for quasar absorbers. We use the NII 6585/H-alpha ratio to derive
the HII emission metallicities and compare them with the neutral gas H I
absorption metallicities derived from high-resolution spectra. In one case, the
absorption metallicity is actually found to be higher than the emission line
metallicity. For the remaining objects, we achieve 3-sigma limiting fluxes of
the order F(H-alpha)~10^-17 erg/s/cm^2 (corresponding to SFR~ 0.1 M_sun/yr at
z~1 and ~1 M_sun/yr at z~2), i.e. among the lowest that have been possible with
ground-based observations. We also present two other galaxies associated with C
IV systems and serendipitously discovered in our data.
