2003/03/04 by M. T. Murphy, S. J. Curran, John K. Webb +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06586.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 342 (2003) 830 · 8 pages, 7 EPS figures, 3 tables, accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2003/03/04 · openalex publication_date 2003/06/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We describe initial results of a search for redshifted molecular absorption towards four millimetre-loud, optically faint quasars. A wide frequency bandwidth of up to 23 GHz per quasar was scanned using the Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope at La Silla. Using a search list of commonly detected molecules, we obtained nearly complete redshift coverage up to zabs = 5. The sensitivity of our data is adequate to have revealed absorption systems with characteristics similar to those seen in the four known redshifted millimetre-band absorption systems, but none were found. Our frequency-scan technique nevertheless demonstrates the value of wide-band correlator instruments for searches such as these. We suggest that a somewhat larger sample of similar observations should lead to the discovery of new millimetre-band absorption systems.