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Register a new userA survey of the cold molecular gas in gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxies at z>2
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Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we conducted a survey of CO J=1-0 and J=2-1 line emission towards strongly lensed high-redshift dusty star forming galaxies (DSFGs) previously discovered with the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Our sample comprises 17 sources that had CO-based spectroscopic redshifts obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX). We detect all sources with known redshifts in either CO J=1-0 or J=2-1. Twelve sources are detected in the 7-mm continuum. The derived CO luminosities imply gas masses in the range (0.5-11)x10^{10} M_sun and gas depletion timescales <200 Myr, using a CO to gas mass conversion factor alpha_CO=0.8 M_sun (K km/s pc^2)^{-1}. Combining the CO luminosities and dust masses, along with a fixed gas-to-dust ratio, we derive alpha_CO factors in the range 0.4-1.8, similar to what is found in other starbursting systems. We find small scatter in alpha_CO values within the sample, even though inherent variations in the spatial distribution of dust and gas in individual cases could bias the dust-based alpha_CO estimates. We find that lensing magnification factors based on the CO linewidth to luminosity relation (mu_CO) are highly unreliable, but particularly when mu<5. Finally, comparison of the gas and dynamical masses suggest that the average molecular gas fraction stays relatively constant at z=2-5 in the SPT DSFG sample.
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Most molecular gas studies of $z > 2.5$ galaxies are of intrinsically bright objects, despite the galaxy population being primarily normal galaxies with less extreme star formation rates. Observations of normal galaxies at high redshift provide a more representative view of galaxy evolution and star formation, but such observations are challenging to obtain. In this work, we present ALMA $rm ^{12}CO(J = 3 rightarrow 2)$ observations of a sub-millimeter selected galaxy group at $z = 2.9$, resulting in spectroscopic confirmation of seven images from four member galaxies. These galaxies are strongly lensed by the MS 0451.6-0305 foreground cluster at $z = 0.55$, allowing us to probe the molecular gas content on levels of $rm 10^9-10^{10} ; M_odot$. Four detected galaxies have molecular gas masses of $rm (0.2-13.1) times 10^{10} ; M_odot$, and the non-detected galaxies have inferred molecular gas masses of $rm < 8.0 times 10^{10} ; M_odot$. We compare these new data to a compilation of 546 galaxies up to $z = 5.3$, and find that depletion times decrease with increasing redshift. We then compare the depletion times of galaxies in overdense environments to the field scaling relation from the literature, and find that the depletion time evolution is steeper for galaxies in overdense environments than for those in the field. More molecular gas measurements of normal galaxies in overdense environments at higher redshifts ($z > 2.5$) are needed to verify the environmental dependence of star formation and gas depletion.
We report on the galaxy MACSJ0032-arc at z=3.6314 discovered during the Herschel Lensing snapshot Survey of massive galaxy clusters, and strongly lensed by the cluster MACSJ0032.1+1808. The successful detections of its rest-frame UV, optical, FIR, millimeter, and radio continua, and of its CO emission enable us to characterize, for the first time at such a high redshift, the stellar, dust, and molecular gas properties of a compact star-forming galaxy with a size smaller than 2.5 kpc, a fairly low stellar mass of 4.8x10^9 Msun, and a moderate IR luminosity of 4.8x10^11 Lsun. We find that the bulk of the molecular gas mass and star formation seems to be spatially decoupled from the rest-frame UV emission. About 90% of the total star formation rate is undetected at rest-frame UV wavelengths because of severe obscuration by dust, but is seen through the thermal FIR dust emission and the radio synchrotron radiation. The observed CO(4-3) and CO(6-5) lines demonstrate that high-J transitions, at least up to J=6, remain excited in this galaxy, whose CO spectral line energy distribution resembles that of high-redshift submm galaxies, even though the IR luminosity of MACSJ0032-arc is ten times lower. This high CO excitation is possibly due to the compactness of the galaxy. We find evidence that this high CO excitation has to be considered in the balance when estimating the CO-to-H2 conversion factor. The inferred depletion time of the molecular gas in MACSJ0032-arc supports the decrease in the gas depletion timescale of galaxies with redshift, although to a lesser degree than predicted by galaxy evolution models. Instead, the measured molecular gas fraction as high as 60-79% in MACSJ0032-arc favors the continued increase in the gas fraction of galaxies with redshift as expected, despite the plateau observed between z~1.5 and z~2.5.
Water ($rm H_{2}O$), one of the most ubiquitous molecules in the universe, has bright millimeter-wave emission lines easily observed at high-redshift with the current generation of instruments. The low excitation transition of $rm H_{2}O$, p$-$$rm H_{2}O$(202 $-$ 111) ($ u_{rest}$ = 987.927 GHz) is known to trace the far-infrared (FIR) radiation field independent of the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) over many orders-of-magnitude in FIR luminosity (L$_{rm FIR}$). This indicates that this transition arises mainly due to star formation. In this paper, we present spatially ($sim$0.5 arcsec corresponding to $sim$1 kiloparsec) and spectrally resolved ($sim$100 kms$^{-1}$) observations of p$-$$rm H_{2}O$(202 $-$ 111) in a sample of four strong gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxies with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). In addition to increasing the sample of luminous ($ > $ $10^{12}$L$_{odot}$) galaxies observed with $rm H_{2}O$, this paper examines the L$_{rm H_{2}O}$/L$_{rm FIR}$ relation on resolved scales for the first time at high-redshift. We find that L$_{rm H_{2}O}$ is correlated with L$_{rm FIR}$ on both global and resolved kiloparsec scales within the galaxy in starbursts and AGN with average L$_{rm H_{2}O}$/L$_{rm FIR}$ =$2.76^{+2.15}_{-1.21}times10^{-5}$. We find that the scatter in the observed L$_{rm H_{2}O}$/L$_{rm FIR}$ relation does not obviously correlate with the effective temperature of the dust spectral energy distribution (SED) or the molecular gas surface density. This is a first step in developing p$-$$rm H_{2}O$(202 $-$ 111) as a resolved star formation rate (SFR) calibrator.
Absorption spectroscopy of gravitationally lensed quasars (GLQs) enables study of spatial variations in the interstellar and/or circumgalactic medium of foreground galaxies. We report observations of 4 GLQs, each with two images separated by 0.8-3.0, that show strong absorbers at redshifts 0.4$<$$z_{abs}$$<$1.3 in their spectra, including some at the lens redshift with impact parameters 1.5-6.9 kpc. We measure H I Lyman lines along two sight lines each in five absorbers (10 sight lines in total) using HST STIS, and metal lines using Magellan Echellette or Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our data have doubled the lens galaxy sample with measurements of H I column densities ($N_{rm H I}$) and metal abundances along multiple sight lines. Our data, combined with the literature, show no strong correlation between absolute values of differences in $N_{rm H I}$, $N_{rm Fe II}$, or [Fe/H] and the sight line separations at the absorber redshifts for separations of 0-8 kpc. The estimated abundance gradients show a tentative anti-correlation with abundances at galaxy centers. Some lens galaxies show inverted gradients, possibly suggesting central dilution by mergers or infall of metal-poor gas. [Fe/H] measurements and masses estimated from GLQ astrometry suggest the lens galaxies lie below the total mass-metallicity relation for early-type galaxies as well as measurements for quasar-galaxy pairs and gravitationally lensed galaxies at comparable redshifts. This difference may arise in part from the dust depletion of Fe. Higher resolution measurements of H and metals (especially undepleted elements) for more GLQ absorbers and accurate lens redshifts are needed to confirm these trends.
We study the molecular gas content of 24 star-forming galaxies at $z=3-4$, with a median stellar mass of $10^{9.1}$ M$_{odot}$, from the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) Survey. Selected by their Lyman-alpha-emission and H-band magnitude, the galaxies show an average EW $approx 20$ angstrom, below the typical selection threshold for Lyman Alpha Emitters (EW $> 25$ angstrom), and a rest-frame UV spectrum similar to Lyman Break Galaxies. We use rest-frame optical spectroscopy from KMOS and MOSFIRE, and the UV features observed with MUSE, to determine the systemic redshifts, which are offset from Lyman alpha by 346 km s$^{-1}$, with a 100 to 600 km s$^{-1}$ range. Stacking CO(4-3) and [CI](1-0) (and higher-$J$ CO lines) from the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey of the HUDF (ASPECS), we determine $3sigma$ upper limits on the line luminosities of $4.0times10^{8}$ K km s$^{-1}$pc$^{2}$ and $5.6times10^{8}$ K km s$^{-1}$pc$^{2}$, respectively (for a 300 km s$^{-1}$ linewidth). Stacking the 1.2 mm and 3 mm dust continuum flux densities, we find a $3sigma$ upper limits of 9 $mu$Jy and $1.2$ $mu$Jy, respectively. The inferred gas fractions, under the assumption of a Galactic CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor and gas-to-dust ratio, are in tension with previously determined scaling relations. This implies a substantially higher $alpha_{rm CO} ge 10$ and $delta_{rm GDR} ge 1200$, consistent with the sub-solar metallicity estimated for these galaxies ($12 + log(O/H) approx 7.8 pm 0.2$). The low metallicity of $z ge 3$ star-forming galaxies may thus make it very challenging to unveil their cold gas through CO or dust emission, warranting further exploration of alternative tracers, such as [CII].
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