English

Imaging the Molecular Interstellar Medium in a Gravitationally Lensed Star-forming Galaxy at z=5.7

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2019-07-31 v1

Abstract

Aims: We present and study spatially resolved imaging obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of multiple 12^{12}CO(J=J=6-5, 8-7 and 9-8) and two H2_2O(202_{02}-111_{11} and 211_{11}-202_{02}) emission lines and cold dust continuum toward the gravitationally lensed dusty star forming galaxy SPT0346-52 at z=5.6565.656. Methods: Using a visibility-domain source-plane reconstruction we probe the structure and dynamics of the different components of the interstellar medium (ISM) in this galaxy down to scales of 1 kpc in the source plane. Results: Measurements of the intrinsic sizes of the different CO emission lines indicate that the higher J transitions trace more compact regions in the galaxy. Similarly, we find smaller dust continuum intrinsic sizes with decreasing wavelength, based on observations at rest-frame 130, 300 and 450μ\mum. The source shows significant velocity structure, and clear asymmetry where an elongated structure is observed in the source plane with significant variations in their reconstructed sizes. This could be attributed to a compact merger or turbulent disk rotation. The differences in velocity structure through the different line tracers, however, hint at the former scenario in agreement with previous [CII] line imaging results. Measurements of the CO line ratios and magnifications yield significant variations as a function of velocity, suggesting that modeling of the ISM using integrated values could be misinterpreted. Modeling of the ISM in SPT0346-52 based on delensed fluxes indicate a highly dense and warm medium, qualitatively similar to that observed in high redshift quasar hosts.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.12738,
  title  = {Imaging the Molecular Interstellar Medium in a Gravitationally Lensed Star-forming Galaxy at z=5.7},
  author = {Yordanka Apostolovski and Manuel Aravena and Timo Anguita and Justin Spilker and Axel Weiss and Matthieu Bethermin and Scott C. Chapman and Chian-Chou Chen and Daniel Cunningham and Carlos De Breuck and Chenxing Dong and Christopher C. Hayward and Yashar Hezaveh and Sreevani Jarugula and Katrina Litke and Jingzhe Ma and Daniel P. Marrone and Desika Narayanan and Kaja Rotermund and Joaquin Vieira},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.12738},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics