47 research outputs found
CO-Dark Star Formation and Black Hole Activity in 3C 368 at z = 1.131: Coeval Growth of Stellar and Supermassive Black Hole Masses
We present the detection of four far-infrared fine-structure oxygen lines, as
well as strong upper limits for the CO(2-1) and [N II] 205 um lines, in 3C 368,
a well-studied radio-loud galaxy at z = 1.131. These new oxygen lines, taken in
conjunction with previously observed neon and carbon fine-structure lines,
suggest a powerful active galactic nucleus (AGN), accompanied by vigorous and
extended star formation. A starburst dominated by O8 stars, with an age of ~6.5
Myr, provides a good fit to the fine-structure line data. This estimated age of
the starburst makes it nearly concurrent with the latest episode of AGN
activity, suggesting a link between the growth of the supermassive black hole
and stellar population in this source. We do not detect the CO(2-1) line, down
to a level twelve times lower than the expected value for star forming
galaxies. This lack of CO line emission is consistent with recent star
formation activity if the star-forming molecular gas has low metallicity, is
highly fractionated (such that CO is photodissociated through much of the
clouds), or is chemically very young (such that CO has not yet had time to
form). It is also possible, though we argue unlikely, that the ensemble of fine
structure lines are emitted from the region heated by the AGN.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Resolving Star Formation on Sub-Kiloparsec Scales in the High-Redshift Galaxy SDP.11 Using Gravitational Lensing
We investigate the properties of the interstellar medium, star formation, and
the current-day stellar population in the strongly-lensed star-forming galaxy
H-ATLAS J091043.1-000321 (SDP.11), at z = 1.7830, using new Herschel and ALMA
observations of far-infrared fine-structure lines of carbon, oxygen and
nitrogen. We report detections of the [O III] 52 um, [N III] 57 um, and [O I]
63 um lines from Herschel/PACS, and present high-resolution imaging of the [C
II] 158 um line, and underlying continuum, using ALMA. We resolve the [C II]
line emission into two spatially-offset Einstein rings, tracing the red- and
blue-velocity components of the line, in the ALMA/Band-9 observations at 0.2"
resolution. The values seen in the [C II]/FIR ratio map, as low as ~ 0.02% at
the peak of the dust continuum, are similar to those of local ULIRGs,
suggesting an intense starburst in this source. This is consistent with the
high intrinsic FIR luminosity (~ 3 x 10^12 Lo), ~ 16 Myr gas depletion
timescale, and < 8 Myr timescale since the last starburst episode, estimated
from the hardness of the UV radiation field. By applying gravitational lensing
models to the visibilities in the uv-plane, we find that the lensing
magnification factor varies by a factor of two across SDP.11, affecting the
observed line profiles. After correcting for the effects of differential
lensing, a symmetric line profile is recovered, suggesting that the starburst
present here may not be the result of a major merger, as is the case for local
ULIRGs, but instead could be powered by star-formation activity spread across a
3-5 kpc rotating disk.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
Detection of [O III] at z~3: A Galaxy above the Main Sequence, Rapidly Assembling its Stellar Mass
We detect bright emission in the far infrared fine structure [O III] 88m
line from a strong lensing candidate galaxy, H-ATLAS J113526.3-014605,
hereafter G12v2.43, at z=3.127, using the generation Redshift (z)
and Early Universe Spectrometer (ZEUS-2) at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment
Telescope (APEX). This is only the fifth detection of this far-IR line from a
sub-millimeter galaxy at the epoch of galaxy assembly. The observed [O III]
luminosity of likely
arises from HII regions around massive stars, and the amount of Lyman continuum
photons required to support the ionization indicate the presence of
equivalent O5.5 or higher stars;
where would be the lensing magnification factor. The observed line
luminosity also requires a minimum mass of in ionized gas, that is
of the estimated total molecular gas mass of
. We compile multi-band
photometry tracing rest-frame UV to millimeter continuum emission to further
constrain the properties of this dusty high redshift star-forming galaxy. Via
SED modeling we find G12v2.43 is forming stars at a rate of 916
and already has a stellar
mass of . We also
constrain the age of the current starburst to be 5 million years,
making G12v2.43 a gas rich galaxy lying above the star-forming main sequence at
z3, undergoing a growth spurt and, could be on the main sequence within
the derived gas depletion timescale of 66 million years.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Mid-J CO Emission From NGC 891: Microturbulent Molecular Shocks in Normal Star Forming Galaxies
We have detected the CO(6-5), CO(7-6), and [CI] 370 micron lines from the
nuclear region of NGC 891 with our submillimeter grating spectrometer ZEUS on
the CSO. These lines provide constraints on photodissociation region (PDR) and
shock models that have been invoked to explain the H_2 S(0), S(1), and S(2)
lines observed with Spitzer. We analyze our data together with the H_2 lines,
CO(3-2), and IR continuum from the literature using a combined PDR/shock model.
We find that the mid-J CO originates almost entirely from shock-excited warm
molecular gas; contributions from PDRs are negligible. Also, almost all the H_2
S(2) and half of the S(1) line is predicted to emerge from shocks. Shocks with
a pre-shock density of 2x10^4 cm^-3 and velocities of 10 km/s and 20 km/s for
C-shocks and J-shocks, respectively, provide the best fit. In contrast, the
[CI] line emission arises exclusively from the PDR component, which is best
parameterized by a density of 3.2x10^3 cm^-3 and a FUV field of G_o = 100 for
both PDR/shock-type combinations. Our mid-J CO observations show that
turbulence is a very important heating source in molecular clouds, even in
normal quiescent galaxies. The most likely energy sources for the shocks are
supernovae or outflows from YSOs. The energetics of these shock sources favor
C-shock excitation of the lines.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables, accepted by Ap
Molecular Gas in Three z ∼ 7 Quasar Host Galaxies
We present ALMA band 3 observations of the CO(6-5), CO(7-6), and [C i] 369 μm emission lines in three of the highest-redshift quasar host galaxies at . These measurements constitute the highest-redshift CO detections to date. The target quasars have previously been detected in [C ii] 158 μm emission and the underlying FIR dust continuum. We detect (spatially unresolved, at a resolution of > 2″, or ≈14 kpc) CO emission in all three quasar hosts. In two sources, we detect the continuum emission around 400 μm (rest-frame), and in one source we detect [C i] at low significance. We derive molecular gas reservoirs of (1-3) T10 10 in the quasar hosts, i.e., approximately only 10 times the mass of their central supermassive black holes. The extrapolated [C ii]-to-CO(1-0) luminosity ratio is 2500-4200, consistent with measurement s in galaxies at lower redshift. The detection of the [C i] line in one quasar host galaxy and the limit on the [C i] emission in the other two hosts enables a first characterization of the physical properties of the interstellar medium in z ∼ 7 quasar hosts. In the sources, the derived global CO/[C ii] /[C i] line ratios are consistent with expectations from photodissociation regions, but not X-ray-dominated regions. This suggest that quantities derived from the molecular gas and dust emission are related to ongoing star-formation activity in the quasar hosts, providing further evidence that the quasar hosts studied here harbor intense starbursts in addition to their active nucleus
ALMA reveals a chemically evolved submillimeter galaxy at z=4.76
The chemical properties of high-z galaxies provide important information to
constrain galaxy evolutionary scenarios. However, widely-used metallicity
diagnostics based on rest-frame optical emission lines are not usable for
heavily dust-enshrouded galaxies (such as Sub-Millimeter Galaxies; SMGs),
especially at z>3. Here we focus on the flux ratio of the far-infrared
fine-structure emission lines [NII]205um and [CII]158um to assess the
metallicity of high-z SMGs. Through ALMA cycle 0 observations, we have detected
the [NII]205um emission in a strongly [CII]-emitting SMG, LESS J033229.4-275619
at z=4.76. The velocity-integrated [NII]/[CII] flux ratio is 0.043 +/- 0.008.
This is the first measurement of the [NII]/[CII] flux ratio in high-z galaxies,
and the inferred flux ratio is similar to the ratio observed in the nearby
universe (~0.02-0.07). The velocity-integrated flux ratio and photoionization
models suggest that the metallicity in this SMG is consistent with solar,
implying the chemical evolution has progressed very rapidly in this system at
z=4.76. We also obtain a tight upper limit on the CO(12-11) transition, which
translates into CO(12-11)/CO(2-1) <3.8 (3 sigma). This suggests that the
molecular gas clouds in LESS J033229.4-275619 are not affected significantly by
the radiation field emitted by the AGN in this system.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysics Letter
CO-Dark Star Formation and Black Hole Activity in 3C 368 at z = 1.131: Coeval Growth of Stellar and Supermassive Black Hole Masses
We present the detection of four far-infrared fine-structure oxygen lines, as well as strong upper limits for the CO(2–1) and [N ii] 205 μm lines, in 3C 368, a well-studied radio-loud galaxy at z = 1.131. These new oxygen lines, taken in conjunction with previously observed neon and carbon fine-structure lines, suggest a powerful active galactic nucleus (AGN), accompanied by vigorous and extended star formation. A starburst dominated by O8 stars, with an age of ~6.5 Myr, provides a good fit to the fine-structure line data. This estimated age of the starburst makes it nearly concurrent with the latest episode of AGN activity, suggesting a link between the growth of the supermassive black hole and stellar population in this source. We do not detect the CO(2–1) line, down to a level twelve times lower than the expected value for star-forming galaxies. This lack of CO line emission is consistent with recent star formation activity if the star-forming molecular gas has low metallicity, is highly fractionated (such that CO is photodissociated throughout much of the clouds), or is chemically very young (such that CO has not yet had time to form). It is also possible, although we argue it is unlikely, that the ensemble of fine-structure lines is emitted from the region heated by the AGN
A 158 Micron [CII] Line Survey of Galaxies at z ~ 1 to 2: An Indicator of Star Formation in the Early Universe
We have detected the 158 {\mu}m [CII] line from 12 galaxies at z~1-2. This is
the first survey of this important starformation tracer at redshifts covering
the epoch of maximum star-formation in the Universe and quadruples the number
of reported high z [CII] detections. The line is very luminous, between
<0.024-0.65% of the far-infrared continuum luminosity of our sources, and
arises from PDRs on molecular cloud surfaces. An exception is PKS 0215+015,
where half of the [CII] emission could arise from XDRs near the central AGN.
The L[CII] /LFIR ratio in our star-formation-dominated systems is ~8 times
larger than that of our AGN-dominated systems. Therefore this ratio selects for
star-formation-dominated systems. Furthermore, the L[CII]/LFIR and
L[CII]/L(CO(1-0)) ratios in our starforming galaxies and nearby starburst
galaxies are the same, so that luminous starforming galaxies at earlier epochs
(z~1-2) appear to be scaled up versions of local starbursts entailing
kilo-parsec-scale starbursts. Most of the FIR and [CII] radiation from our
AGN-dominated sample (excepting PKS 0215+015) also arises from kpc scale
starformation, but with far-UV radiation fields ~8 times more intense than in
our star-formation-dominated sample. We speculate that the onset of AGN
activity stimulates large-scale star-formation activity within AGN-dominated
systems. This idea is supported by the relatively strong [OIII] line emission,
indicating very young stars, that was recently observed in high z composite
AGN/starburst systems. Our results confirm the utility of the [CII] line, and
in particular, the L[CII]/L(FIR) and L[CII]/LCO(1-0) ratios as a tracers of
star-formation in galaxies at high redshifts.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure