1 research outputs found
Molecular gas in galaxies at all redshifts
I review some recent results about the molecular content of galaxies,
obtained essentially from the CO lines, but also dense tracers, or the dust
continuum emission. New results have been obtained on molecular cloud physics,
and their efficiency to form stars, shedding light on the Kennicutt-Schmidt law
as a function of surface density and galaxy type.
Large progress has been made on galaxy at moderate and high redshifts,
allowing to interprete the star formation history and star formation efficiency
as a function of gas content, or galaxy evolution.
In massive galaxies, the gas fraction was higher in the past, and galaxy
disks were more unstable and more turbulent.
ALMA observations will allow the study of more normal galaxies at high z with
higher spatial resolution and sensitivity.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in proceedings of the IAU 277th
Symposium, Editors: C. Carignan, F. Combes, K. Freema