1. CO(1--0) imaging reveals 10-kiloparsec molecular gas reservoirs around star-forming galaxies at high redshift
- Author
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Rybak, Matus, Jansen, J. T., Castillo, M. Frias, Hodge, J. A., van der Werf, P. P., Smail, I., Rivera, G. Calistro, Chapman, S., Chen, C. -C., da Cunha, E., Dannerbauer, H., Jiménez-Andrade, E. F., Lagos, C., Liao, C. -L., Murphy, E. J., Scott, D., Swinbank, A. M., and Walter, F.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
Massive, intensely star-forming galaxies at high redshift require a supply of molecular gas from their gas reservoirs, replenished by infall from the surrounding circumgalactic medium, to sustain their immense star-formation rates. However, our knowledge of the extent and morphology of their cold-gas reservoirs is still in its infancy. We present the results of stacking 80 hours of JVLA observations of CO(1--0) emission -- which traces the cold molecular gas -- in 19 $z=2.0-4.5$ dusty, star-forming galaxies from the AS2VLA survey. The visibility-plane stack reveals extended emission with a half-light radius of $3.8\pm0.5$~kpc, 2--3$\times$ more extended than the dust-obscured star formation and $1.4\pm0.2\times$ more extended than the stellar emission. Similarly, stacking the [CI](1--0) observations for a subsample of our galaxies yields sizes consistent with CO(1--0). The CO(1--0) size is comparable to the [CII] halos detected around high-redshift star-forming galaxies.The bulk (up to 80\%) of molecular gas resides outside the star-forming region; only a small part of their molecular gas reservoir directly contributes to their current star formation. Photon-dissociation region modelling indicates that the extended CO(1--0) emission arises from clumpy, dense clouds rather than smooth, diffuse gas., Comment: Submitted to A&A. 9 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2024