2001/06/30 by R. H. D. Townsend, Richard Townsend, Rob Ivison +7 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.05101.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 328 (2001) L19 · 4 pages, 1 figure, MNRAS Letter
openalex publication_date 2001/12/01 · arxiv created 2002/01/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We discuss the possibility of using OH and H2O gigamasers to trace the redshift distribution of luminous, dust-obscured, star-forming galaxies. It has long been thought that ultraluminous, interacting galaxies should host gigamasers, owing to their vast pumping infrared (IR) luminosity, the large column density of molecules available to populate the maser states and the turbulent motion of the gas in these dynamically complex systems, which allows unsaturated maser emission. OH masers may thus be well suited to the redshift-blind detection of ultraluminous and hyperluminous infrared galaxies such as those uncovered by the SCUBA submillimetre camera. The bandwidth requirement is low, <1 GHz for (lower still if additional redshift constraints are available) and the dual-line 1665-/1667-MHz OH spectral signature can act as a check on the reality of detections.