Column density distribution and cosmological mass density of neutral gas: Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Data Release 9

We present the first results from an ongoing survey for damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs) in the spectra of z > 2 quasars observed in the course of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III. Our full (non-statistical) sample, based on Data Release 9, comprises 12 081 systems with log N(H i) ≥ 20, out of which 6839 have log N(H i) ≥ 20.3. This is the largest DLA sample ever compiled, superseding that from SDSS-II by a factor of seven.