A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies

By M. Bothwell, I. Smail, S. Chapman, R. Genzel, R. Ivison, L. Tacconi, S. Alaghband-Zadeh, F. Bertoldi, A. Blain, C. Casey and 6 more. 2012

368 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the results from a survey of 12CO emission in 40 luminous sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs), with 850-μm fluxes of S850 μm = 4–20 mJy, conducted with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. We detect 12CO emission in 32 SMGs at z ∼ 1.2–4.1, including 16 SMGs not previously published. Using multiple 12CO line (Jup = 2–7) observations, we derive a median spectral line energy distribution for luminous SMGs. We report the discovery of a fundamental relationship between 12CO FWHM and 12CO line luminosity in high-redshift starbursts, which we interpret as a natural consequence of the baryon-dominated dynamics within the regions probed by our observations. We use far-infrared luminosities to assess the star formation efficiency in our SMGs, finding that the slope of the L′CO-LFIR relation is close to linear. We derive molecular gas masses, finding a mean gas mass of (5.3 ± 1.0) × 1010 M⊙. Combining these with dynamical masses, we determine the redshift evolution of the gas content of SMGs, finding that they do not appear to be significantly more gas rich than less vigorously star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. Finally, we collate X-ray observations, and study the interdependence of gas and dynamical properties of SMGs with their AGN activity and supermassive black hole masses (MBH), finding that SMGs lie significantly below the local MBH-σ relation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ce94358ba5653d04be1849a4f75f68b6f7010f80

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. D. Narayanan
4. D. M. Alexander
5. F. Walter
6. R. Somerville
7. R. Dav'e
8. C. Casey

Citations in the corpus

• AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: THE REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTION OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “…reservoirs (which comprise ∼ 50 per cent of the dynamical mass in the central few kpc; Greve et al. 2005; Riechers et al. 2010; Carilli et al. 2010; Bothwell et al. 2013) and star-formation rates mean they have the potential to form a significant proportion of the stars in a ∼ 1011 M⊙ galaxy in…”
• Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “For example, CO dynamical mass measurements (e.g. Greve et al., 2005; Tacconi et al., 2008; Bothwell et al., 2013a) in combination with an assumed dark halo profile can provide a constraint on the remaining stellar mass.”
• Cool Gas in High-Redshift Galaxies (2013, methodology): “…(Frayer et al. 1998, Frayer et al. 1999 using OVRO) and extensive campaigns, in particular done at the PdBI (Neri et al. 2003, Greve et al. 2005, Tacconi et al. 2006, 2008, Engel et al. 2010, Bothwell et al. 2010, 2013) have characterized the molecular interstellar medium in exquisite detail.”
• UNLEASHING POSITIVE FEEDBACK: LINKING THE RATES OF STAR FORMATION, SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE ACCRETION, AND OUTFLOWS IN DISTANT GALAXIES (2013, background): “The models are: 1. constant gas fraction as observed at high redshift in starforming galaxies (Bothwell et al. 2013), discussed above, so that ρg(r) ∝ ρ∗(r), 2. closed box (Mg + M∗ = constant) as might be appropriate for a major merger-induced gas supply, 3. cosmological accretion (Mg = Mg,0(1 +…”
• An ALMA survey of sub-millimetre Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: the far-infrared properties of SMGs (2013, methodology): “Most of the constraints on the gas masses have been derived from low- and mid-J 12CO observations and then have to adopt CO–H2 conversion factor (e.g. Frayer et al. 1998; Greve et al. 2005; Tacconi et al. 2006, 2008; Ivison et al. 2011; Riechers et al. 2011; Bothwell et al. 2013).”
• COMBINED CO AND DUST SCALING RELATIONS OF DEPLETION TIME AND MOLECULAR GAS FRACTIONS WITH COSMIC TIME, SPECIFIC STAR-FORMATION RATE, AND STELLAR MASS (2014, methodology): “…correction factors are empirically motivated by recent CO ladder observations in low- and high-z SFGs (Weiss et al. 2007, Dannerbauer et al. 2009, Ivison et al. 2011, Riechers et al. 2010, Combes et al. 2013, Bauermeister et al. 2013, Bothwell et al. 2013, Aravena et al. 2014, Daddi et al. 2014).”
• An Extreme Protocluster of Luminous Dusty Starbursts in the Early Universe (2017, methodology): “Using this line flux to measure the molecular gas mass of this DRC component, assuming the average luminosity ratio of CO lines in DSFGs, ¢ ¢ =- -( ) ( )L L 0.46CO 4 3 CO 1 0 (Ivison et al. 2011; Bothwell et al. 2013; Carilli & Walter 2013) and the aCO for local ULIRGs, a = - -( )M0.”
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field: physical properties of 707 sub-millimetre galaxies (2019, background): “With such high star-formation rates, SMGs can rapidly increase their (apparently already significant) stellar masses on a timescale of just ∼100 Myr (e.g. Bothwell et al. 2013).”
• A fundamental relation between the metallicity, gas content, and stellar mass of local galaxies (2013, methodology): “We use a sample of ‘submillimetre galaxies’ (SMGs), which have metallicities estimated using their [N II]λ6584/Hα ratio (using data from Swinbank et al. 2006), molecular gas masses taken from Bothwell et al. (2013) and stellar masses derived by Hainline et al. (2011).”
• THE EVOLUTION OF INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM MASS PROBED BY DUST EMISSION: ALMA OBSERVATIONS AT z = 0.3–2 (2014, background): “These observations are time consuming and only ∼75 galaxies have been detected and imaged in CO (Baker et al. 2004; Solomon & Vanden Bout 2005; Coppin et al. 2009; Tacconi et al. 2010; Bothwell et al. 2013; Tacconi et al. 2013; Carilli & Walter 2013, and references therein).”
• An ALMA [C ii] Survey of 27 Quasars at z > 5.94 (2018, methodology): “Similarly, we compare the width distribution of [C II] in >z 6 quasars with the one of CO in sub-mm galaxies at = –z 1 3 from Bothwell et al. (2013).”
• KILOPARSEC-SCALE DUST DISKS IN HIGH-REDSHIFT LUMINOUS SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES (2016, background): “If we assume an average stellar mass of M∗ ∼ 8×1010 M (Simpson et al. 2014) and a gas mass of Mgas ∼ 5×1010 M (Bothwell et al. 2013; consistent with that derived from the dust masses for our sources), then the z ∼ 0 descendants of these SMGs would have total masses of M∗ ∼ 1–2×1011 M (assuming…”
• PHIBSS: Unified Scaling Relations of Gas Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions (2017, methodology): “19 CO 2-1, 3-2 or 4-3 detections of above main-sequence submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) between z=1.2 and 3.4, obtained with the IRAM PdBI by Greve et al. (2005), Tacconi et al. (2006, 2008) and Bothwell et al. (2013).”
• Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, methodology): “The cold gas content shows a similar correlation, with high H i-mass galaxies having lower metallicities (Bothwell et al. 2013a, Lara-López et al. 2013).”
• THE SCUBA-2 COSMOLOGY LEGACY SURVEY: ALMA RESOLVES THE REST-FRAME FAR-INFRARED EMISSION OF SUB-MILLIMETER GALAXIES (2014, background): “Studies of resolved Hα and 12CO emission lines indicate SMGs have dynamical masses of (1–2)×1011 M⊙ (Swinbank et al. 2006; Alaghband-Zadeh et al. 2012; Bothwell et al. 2013), placing an upper limit on the stellar masses, but the number of SMGs with measured dynamical masses is small and the samples…”