On the possibility of gas-rich dwarf galaxies in the Lyman-alpha forest

It is argued here that the high-column density absorbers in the Lyman-alpha forest are low surface brightness, gas-rich, high space density dwarf galaxies that appear in the line of sight, thus lending the impression that spiral galaxies must have been enormous in early epochs. It is shown that the frequency distribution of dwarf galaxy radii inferred by Tyson and Scalo (1988) quite naturally accounts for the observed number of high column density absorbers in the Lyman-alpha forest without invoking extremely large H I parameters at early epochs and without interfering with the more securely established bright end of the luminosity function. 21 references.