English

High Resolution Imaging of PHIBSS z~2 Main Sequence Galaxies in CO J=1-0

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2015-09-09 v2

Abstract

We present Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array observations of the CO J=1-0 transition in a sample of four z2z\sim2 main sequence galaxies. These galaxies are in the blue sequence of star-forming galaxies at their redshift, and are part of the IRAM Plateau de Bure HIgh-zz Blue Sequence Survey (PHIBSS) which imaged them in CO J=3-2. Two galaxies are imaged here at high signal-to-noise, allowing determinations of their disk sizes, line profiles, molecular surface densities, and excitation. Using these and published measurements, we show that the CO and optical disks have similar sizes in main-sequence galaxies, and in the galaxy where we can compare CO J=1-0 and J=3-2 sizes we find these are also very similar. Assuming a Galactic CO-to-H2_2 conversion, we measure surface densities of Σmol1200\Sigma_{mol}\sim1200 M_\odotpc2^{-2} in projection and estimate Σmol500900\Sigma_{mol}\sim500-900 M_\odotpc2^{-2} deprojected. Finally, our data yields velocity-integrated Rayleigh-Jeans brightness temperature line ratios r31r_{31} that are approximately unity. In addition to the similar disk sizes, the very similar line profiles in J=1-0 and J=3-2 indicate that both transitions sample the same kinematics, implying that their emission is coextensive. We conclude that in these two main sequence galaxies there is no evidence for significant excitation gradients or a large molecular reservoir that is diffuse or cold and not involved in active star-formation. We suggest that r31r_{31} in very actively star-forming galaxies is likely an indicator of how well mixed the star formation activity and the molecular reservoir are.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1507.05652,
  title  = {High Resolution Imaging of PHIBSS z~2 Main Sequence Galaxies in CO J=1-0},
  author = {A. D. Bolatto and S. R. Warren and A. K. Leroy and L. J. Tacconi and N. Bouché and N. M. Förster Schreiber and R. Genzel and M. C. Cooper and D. B. Fisher and F. Combes and S. García-Burillo and A. Burkert and F. Bournaud and A. Weiss and A. Saintonge and S. Wuyts and A. Sternberg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.05652},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

To appear in ApJ