2003/07/31 by R. Neri, R. Genzel, R. J. Ivison +7 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/379968
published as Astrophys.J.597:L113-L116,2003 · only minor modifications to comply with the ApJL edition rules
openalex publication_date 2003/10/28 · arxiv created 2003/11/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We report IRAM millimeter interferometry of three z ~ 2.4-3.4 Submillimeter Common-User Bolometric Array deep field galaxies. Our CO line observations confirm the rest-frame UV/optical redshifts, thus more than doubling the number of confirmed published redshifts of the faint submillimeter population and proving their high- z nature. In all three sources our measurements of the intrinsic gas and dynamical mass are large (10 10 -10 11 M ☉ ). In at least two cases the data show that the submillimeter sources are part of an interacting system. Together with recent information gathered in the X-ray, optical, and radio bands, our observations support the interpretation that the submillimeter population, at least the radio-detected ones, consists of gas-rich (gas-to-dynamical mass ratio ~0.5) and massive interacting starburst/active galactic nucleus systems.