MOLECULAR GAS IN LENSEDz>2 QUASAR HOST GALAXIES AND THE STAR FORMATION LAW FOR GALAXIES WITH LUMINOUS ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI

2011/01/31 by Dominik A. Riechers
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Elliptical galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Luminous infrared galaxy #Peculiar galaxy #Quasar #Redshift #Star formation #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/730/2/108

published as Astrophys.J.730:108,2011 · 15 pages, 12 figures, to appear in ApJ (accepted January 28, 2011); v2: Typo fixed, thanks to E. Chiang for pointing this out

arxiv created 2011/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2011/03/10 · arxiv updated 2015/03/18 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We report the detection of luminous CO(J = 2→1), CO(J = 3→2), and CO(J = 4→3) emission in the strongly lensed high-redshift quasars B1938+666 (z = 2.059), HE 0230-2130 (z = 2.166), HE 1104-1805 (z = 2.322), and B1359+154 (z = 3.240), using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy. B1938+666 was identified in a "blind" CO redshift search, demonstrating the feasibility of such investigations with millimeter interferometers. These galaxies are lensing-amplified by factors of μ_L ≃ 11-170, and thus allow us to probe the molecular gas in intrinsically fainter galaxies than currently possible without the aid of gravitational lensing. We report lensing-corrected intrinsic CO line luminosities of L'_(CO) = 0.65-21×10⁹ K km s^(-1) pc², translating to H₂ masses of M(H₂) = 0.52-17 × 10⁹ (α_(CO)/0.8) M_☉. To investigate whether or not the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in luminous quasars substantially contributes to L FIR, we study the L'_(CO)-L_(FIR) relation for quasars relative to galaxies without a luminous AGN as a function of redshift. We find no substantial differences between submillimeter galaxies and high-z quasars, but marginal evidence for an excess in L_(FIR) in nearby low-L FIR AGN galaxies. This may suggest that an AGN contribution to L_(FIR) is significant in systems with relatively low gas and dust content, but only minor in the most far-infrared-luminous galaxies (in which L_(FIR) is dominated by star formation).

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