1999/06/08 by Christopher L. Carilli, C. L. Carilli, Karl M. Menten +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Luminosity #Physics #Redshift #Spectral energy distribution #Star formation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/312179
standard AAS LATEX format
arxiv created 1999/06/08 · openalex publication_date 1999/08/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have detected redshifted CO (2-1) emission at 43 GHz and radio continuum emission at 1.47 and 4.86 GHz from the z = 4.4 QSO BRI 1335-0417 using the Very Large Array. The CO data imply optically thick emission from warm (>30 K) molecular gas with a total mass, M (H 2 ), of (1.5 ± 0.3) × 10 11 M ☉ , using the standard Galactic gas mass-to-CO luminosity conversion factor. We set an upper limit to the CO source size of 1 1 and a lower limit of 0 23( T ex /50 K) -1/2 , where T ex is the gas excitation temperature. We derive an upper limit to the dynamical mass of 2 × 10 10 sin −2 i M ☉ , where i is the disk inclination angle. Reconciling the gas mass with the dynamical mass requires either a nearly face-on disk ( i < 25°) or a gas mass-to-CO luminosity conversion factor significantly lower than the Galactic value. The spectral energy distribution from the radio to the rest-frame infrared of BRI 1335-0417 is consistent with that expected from a nuclear starburst galaxy, with an implied massive star formation rate of 2300 ± 600 M ☉ yr -1 .