Probing the Cool Baryons at z~5 - Observatoire de Paris Access content directly
Other Publications ATNF proposal id.C1954 Year : 2009

Probing the Cool Baryons at z~5

Elizabeth Stanway
  • Function : Author
Ilana Feain
  • Function : Author
Malcolm Bremer
  • Function : Author
Mark Birkinshaw
  • Function : Author
Laura Douglas
  • Function : Author
Luke Davies
  • Function : Author

Abstract

Star-forming systems are now used to study the universe at z>5, but these galaxies represent <3% of the total baryonic mass. In a pilot programme, we detected CO(2-1) emission at z=5.1245+/-0.0001 (with no optical counterpart to R>28 and I>27) in a field hosting an overdensity of UV-luminous star-forming Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at the same redshift. The emission line has a peak flux density of 0.94 mJy and FWHM of 110 km/s. Assuming standard conversion factors and that the line width represents a virialised system, this implies M(H_2)=2x10^{10} solar masses, more the total UV-bright stellar mass in the structure. This detection implies that CO lines may probe the bulk of the baryonic matter in z>=5 structures. We must now determine whether our initial detection was typical and intend to study the cool gas in a second field which contains the richest overdensity in our LBG survey. To this end, we will probe an additional three pointings in the CO(2-1) line, and also begin to constrain the temperature from CO(1-0) emission at the same locations.

Keywords

No file

Dates and versions

obspm-03857206 , version 1 (17-11-2022)

Identifiers

Cite

Elizabeth Stanway, Ilana Feain, Malcolm Bremer, Mark Birkinshaw, Matthew Lehnert, et al.. Probing the Cool Baryons at z~5. 2009, 146, p. 18-23. ⟨obspm-03857206⟩

Collections

OBSPM PSL
7 View
0 Download

Share

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More