Quasar Host Galaxy Dynamics Through the Magnifying Glass: A Molecular Einstein Ring at z=4.12

Details Quasar Host Galaxy Dynamics Through the Magnifying Glass: A Molecular Einstein Ring at z=4.12 Quasar Host Galaxy Dynamics Through the Magnifying Glass: A Molecular Einstein Ring at z=4.12

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.4502r&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #45.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.796

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present sensitive interferometric imaging of the molecular gas in the host galaxy of the high redshift quasar PSS J2322+1944 (z=4.12) at 0.3" resolution, using the Very Large Array (VLA) in its extended configurations. These 70 hours of observations show that the molecular gas in the host galaxy of this quasar is lensed into a full Einstein ring, and reveal the internal dynamics of the molecular gas in this system. Through a model-based lens inversion, we recover the velocity gradient of the molecular reservoir in the quasar host galaxy of PSS J2322+1944. The Einstein ring lens configuration enables us to zoom in on the emission and to resolve scales down to 650 pc. From the model-reconstructed source, we find that the molecular gas is distributed on a scale of 3 kpc, and has a total mass of M(H2)=1.7 x 1010 Msun. The gas mass in this system thus is of the same order as the dynamical mass, which is found to be Mdyn = 2.6 x 1010 sin-2i Msun. The (at least partially) disturbed structure of the molecular gas suggests that the system is interacting. Such an interaction, possibly caused by a major `wet' merger, may be responsible for both feeding the quasar and fueling the massive starburst of 760 Msunyr-1 in this system. These findings are in agreement with recently suggested scenarios of quasar activity and galaxy assembly in the early universe.

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