Imaging and Spectroscopy of Galaxies Associated with Two z ~ 0.7 Damped Lyα Absorption Systems

We have identified galaxies near two quasars that are at the redshift of damped Lyα (DLA) systems in the UV spectra of the quasars. Both galaxies are actively forming stars. One galaxy has a luminosity close to the break in the local galaxy luminosity function, L*; the other is significantly fainter than L* and appears to be interacting with a nearby companion. Despite the strong selection effects favoring spectroscopic identification of the most luminous DLA galaxies, many of the spectroscopically identified DLA galaxies in the literature are sub-L*, suggesting that the majority of the DLA population is probably sub-L*, in contrast to Mg II absorbers at similar redshifts, whose mean luminosity is close to L*