The Molecular ISM of Quasar Host Galaxies in the Early Universe

Details The Molecular ISM of Quasar Host Galaxies in the Early Universe The Molecular ISM of Quasar Host Galaxies in the Early Universe

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20919506r&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #195.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

Detailed studies of the molecular gas phase in the host galaxies of the highest redshift quasars are important for our understanding of the formation and evolution of quasars and their bulges, since it is the molecular gas out of which stars form. I will discuss recent observations in the radio/millimeter wavelength regime that have concentrated on adressing three main questions: 1) How massive are the molecular gas reservoirs of distant quasars? 2) What is the structure and dynamical mass of their host galaxies? 3) What are the composition and excitation conditions of the molecular ISM in these early systems? Observational highlights within this framework include 1) high velocity resolution (up to 25 kms-1) CO(1-0) spectroscopy in z>4 QSOs with the NRAO Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and the MPIfR Effelsberg 100m telescope, leading to typical molecular gas masses of M(H2) =4x1010 M&sun;2) high spatial resolution (up to 0.15", or 1 kpc at z=4) CO imaging with the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA), revealing spatially and dynamically resolved molecular structures in the targeted systems; and 3) the first high-z detections of emission from HCO+, CN, and CS with the VLA and the IRAM Interferometer (PdBI), raising the total number of detected molecules in emission at high z from 2 (CO/HCN) to 5. All these observations uniquely constrain the properties of the molecular environments in key targets among the earliest galaxies currently observable, and thus provide an important foundation for future studies with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).

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