MOLECULAR GAS IN INFRARED ULTRALUMINOUS QSO HOSTS

We report CO detections in 17 out of 19 infrared ultr aluminous QSO (IR QSO) hosts observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope. The cold molecular gas reservoir in these objects is in a range of (0.2-2.1) x 10 super(10) M sub([middot in circle]) (adopting a CO-to-H sub(2) conversion factor alpha sub(CO) =...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2012-05, Vol.750 (2), p.1-13
Main Authors: XIA, X. Y, GAO, Y, HAO, C.-N, TAN, Q. H, MAO, S, OMONT, A, FLAQUER, B. O, LEON, S, COX, P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Active galactic nuclei
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
BOLOMETERS
CARBON MONOXIDE
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
Correlation
CORRELATIONS
COSMIC DUST
DETECTION
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
HYDROGEN
Infrared
INFRARED RADIATION
LINE WIDTHS
LUMINOSITY
PHOTON EMISSION
RED SHIFT
Reservoirs
Sciences of the Universe
Star formation
STARS
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report CO detections in 17 out of 19 infrared ultr aluminous QSO (IR QSO) hosts observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope. The cold molecular gas reservoir in these objects is in a range of (0.2-2.1) x 10 super(10) M sub([middot in circle]) (adopting a CO-to-H sub(2) conversion factor alpha sub(CO) = 0.8 M sub([middot in circle]) (K km s super(-1) pc super(2 )) super(-1). We find that the molecular gas properties of IR QSOs, such as the molecular gas mass, star formation efficiency (L sub(FIR)/L' sub(CO)), and CO (1-0) line widths, are indistinguishable from those of local ultr aluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). A comparison of low- and high-redshift CO-detected QSOs reveals a tight correlation between L sub(FIR) and L' sub(CO(1-0)) for all QSOs. This suggests that, similar to ULIRGs, the far-infrared emissions of all QSOs are mainly from dust heated by star formation rather than by active galactic nuclei (AGNs), confirming similar findings from mid-infrared spectroscopic observations by Spitzer. A correlation between the AGN-associated bolometric luminosities and the CO line luminosities suggests that star formation and AGNs draw from the same reservoir of gas and there is a link between star formation on ~kpc scale and the central black hole accretion process on much smaller scales.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/750/2/92