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Molecular gas budget of strongly magnified low-mass star-forming galaxies at cosmic noon
Astronomy & Astrophysics ( IF 5.4 ) Pub Date : 2024-12-13 , DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451892
V. Catán, J. González-López, M. Solimano, L. F. Barrientos, A. Afruni, M. Aravena, M. Bayliss, J. A. Hernández, C. Ledoux, G. Mahler, K. Sharon, N. Tejos

Aims. The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular gas content of strongly magnified low-mass star-forming galaxies (SFGs) around the cosmic noon period (z ∼ 2) through observations of carbon monoxide (CO) emission lines and dust continuum emission, both of which serve as tracers of molecular gas (H2).Methods. We observed 12 strongly lensed arcs with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) to detect CO mid-J rotational transitions and dust continuum. Thanks to the strong lensing, we were able to probe the previously understudied low-mass regime. With a compiled set of observations, we recalibrated empirical relations between star formation rate density (ΣSFR) and the CO line ratios. We derived galaxy properties using spectral energy distribution fitting (SED). We also performed galaxy stacking to combine faint signals. In all cases, molecular gas masses were estimated using both tracers.Results. We detected CO emission in 3 of the 12 arcs and dust continuum emission in another 3. The obtained H2 masses indicate that most of these galaxies (M* < 1010.7 M) have lower molecular gas fractions and shorter depletion times compared to expectations from established scaling relations at these redshifts. We explored several possible explanations for this gas deficit, including uncertainties in mass estimates, effects of low-metallicity environments, larger atomic gas reservoirs in low-mass systems, and the possibility that these represent low-mass analogs of main sequence starburst (MS SBs) galaxies that are undergoing sustained star formation due to gas compaction despite low overall gas fractions.Conclusions. We conclude that these mass and metallicity regimes present a molecular gas deficit. Our results suggest that this deficit is likely due to a significant amount of atomic gas, which our stacking indicates is about 91% of the total gas. However, this estimation might be an upper limit, as the possibility remains that our galaxies contain CO-dark gas.

中文翻译:


宇宙正午强放大的低质量恒星形成星系的分子气体收支



目标。本研究的目的是通过观测一氧化碳 (CO) 发射线和尘埃连续体发射来研究宇宙正午周期 (z ∼ 2) 周围强放大的低质量恒星形成星系 (SFG) 的分子气体含量,这两者都是分子气体 (H2) 的示踪剂。方法。我们使用阿塔卡马紧凑阵列 (ACA) 观察到 12 个强透镜弧,以检测 CO mid-J 旋转跃迁和尘埃连续体。多亏了强大的透镜效应,我们能够探测到以前研究不足的低质量状态。通过一组编译的观测结果,我们重新校准了恒星形成速率密度 (ΣSFR) 和 CO 线比之间的经验关系。我们使用光谱能量分布拟合 (SED) 推导出了星系属性。我们还进行了星系堆叠以组合微弱的信号。在所有情况下,使用两种示踪剂估计分子气体质量。结果。我们在 12 个弧中的 3 个中检测到 CO 排放,在另外 3 个弧中检测到尘埃连续发射。获得的 H2 质量表明,与这些红移下已建立的缩放关系的预期相比,这些星系中的大多数 (M* < 1010.7 M⊙) 具有较低的分子气体分数和更短的耗尽时间。我们探讨了这种气体短缺的几种可能解释,包括质量估计的不确定性、低金属度环境的影响、低质量系统中更大的原子气藏,以及这些代表主序星暴 (MS SBs) 星系的低质量类似物的可能性,尽管总体气体分数较低,但由于气体压缩而正在经历持续的恒星形成。结论。我们得出结论,这些质量和金属度机制存在分子气体不足。 我们的结果表明,这种赤字可能是由于大量的原子气体造成的,我们的堆叠表明原子气体约占总气体的 91%。然而,这个估计可能是一个上限,因为我们的星系仍然有可能含有 CO 暗气体。
更新日期:2024-12-16