Jansky Very Large Array Detections of CO(1–0) Emission in H i-absorption-selected Galaxies at z ≳ 2
Abstract

We report a Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array search for redshifted CO(1–0) emission from three Hi-absorption-selected galaxies atz≈ 2, identified earlier in their CO(3–2) or CO(4–3) emission. We detect CO(1–0) emission from DLA B1228-113 atz≈ 2.1933 and DLA J0918+1636 atz≈ 2.5848; these are the first detections of CO(1–0) emission in high-zHi-selected galaxies. We obtain high molecular gas masses,Mmol≈ 1011× (αCO/4.36)M, for the two objects with CO(1–0) detections, which are a factor of ≈1.5–2 lower than earlier estimates. We determine the excitation of the mid-JCO rotational levels relative to theJ= 1 level,rJ1, in Hi-selected galaxies for the first time, obtainingr31= 1.00 ± 0.20 andr41= 1.03 ± 0.23 for DLA J0918+1636, andr31= 0.86 ± 0.21 for DLA B1228-113. These values are consistent with thermal excitation of theJ= 3 andJ= 4 levels. The excitation of theJ= 3 level in the Hi-selected galaxies is similar to that seen in massive main-sequence and submillimeter galaxies atz≳2, but higher than that in main-sequence galaxies atz≈ 1.5; the higher excitation of the galaxies atz≳ 2 is likely to be due to their higher star formation rate (SFR) surface density. We use Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 imaging to detect the rest-frame near-ultraviolet (NUV) more »

Authors:
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Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10368931
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume:
933
Issue:
2
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
Article No. L42
ISSN:
2041-8205
Publisher:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
National Science Foundation
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2. Abstract

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