2011/05/04 by Bjorn Emonts, B. H. C. Emonts, Ilana Feain +21 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Physics #Radio galaxy #Radio telescope #Star formation #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/734/1/l25
Accepted for publication in ApJL -- 8 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2011/05/04 · openalex publication_date 2011/05/23 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the detection of molecular CO(1–0) gas in the high- z radio galaxy MRC 0152-209 ( z = 1.92) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array Broadband Backend (ATCA/CABB). This is the third known detection of CO(1–0) in a high- z radio galaxy to date. CO(1–0) is the most robust tracer of the overall molecular gas content (including the widespread, low-density, and sub-thermally excited component), hence observations of CO(1–0) are crucial for studying galaxy evolution in the early universe. We derive L ' CO = 6.6 ± 2.0 × 10 10 K km s −1 pc 2 for MRC 0152-209, which is comparable to that derived from CO(1–0) observations of several high- z submillimeter and star-forming BzK galaxies. The CO(1–0) traces a total molecular hydrogen mass of = 5 × 10 10 (α x /0.8) M ☉ . MRC 0152-209 is an infrared bright radio galaxy, in which a large reservoir of cold molecular gas has not (yet) been depleted by star formation or radio source feedback. Its compact radio source is reliably detected at 40 GHz and has a steep spectral index of α = −1.3 between 1.4 and 40 GHz (4–115 GHz in the galaxy's rest frame). MRC 0152-209 is part of an ongoing systematic ATCA/CABB survey of CO(1–0) in high- z radio galaxies between 1.7 < z < 3.