arXiv · 1711.10827
Total Molecular Gas Masses of Planck - Herschel Selected Strongly Lensed Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxies
Abstract
We report the detection of CO(1 - 0) line emission from seven Planck and Herschel selected hyper luminous (LIR(8-1000um) > 10^13Lsun) infrared galaxies with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). CO(1 - 0) measurements are a vital tool to trace the bulk molecular gas mass across all redshifts. Our results place tight constraints on the total gas content of these most apparently luminous high-z star-forming galaxies (apparent IR luminosities of LIR > 10^(13-14) Lsun), while we confirm their predetermined redshifts measured using the Large Millimeter Telescope, LMT (zCO = 1.33 - 3.26). The CO(1 - 0) lines show similar profiles as compared to Jup = 2 -4 transitions previously observed with the LMT. We report enhanced infrared to CO line luminosity ratios of = 110 (pm 22) Lsun(K km s^-1 pc^-2)^-1 compared to normal star-forming galaxies, yet similar to those of well-studied IR-luminous galaxies at high-z. We find average brightness temperature ratios of = 0.93 (2 sources), = 0.34 (5 sources), and = 0.18 (1 source). The r31 and r41 values are roughly half the average values for SMGs. We estimate the total gas mass content as uMH2 = (0.9 - 27.2) x 10^11(alphaCO/0.8)Msun, where u is the magnification factor and alphaCO is the CO line luminosity to molecular hydrogen gas mass conversion factor. The rapid gas depletion times are, on average, tau = 80 Myr, which reveal vigorous starburst activity, and contrast the Gyr depletion timescales observed in local, normal star-forming galaxies.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
K. C. Harrington, M. S. Yun, B. Magnelli, D. T. Frayer, A. Karim, A. Wei, D. Riechers, E. F. Jiménez-Andrade, D. Berman, J. Lowenthal, F. Bertoldi. 2017-11-29. Total Molecular Gas Masses of Planck - Herschel Selected Strongly Lensed Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxies. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstx3043
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.