ALMA Detections of CO Emission in the Most Luminous, Heavily Dust-obscured Quasars at z > 3

作者：Fan, Lulu^*; Knudsen, Kirsten K.; Fogasy, Judit; Drouart, Guillaume

来源：Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2018, 856(1): L5.

DOI：10.3847/2041-8213/aab496

• galaxies: active
• galaxies: evolution
• galaxies: high-redshift
• galaxies: interactions
• quasars: general

We report the results of a pilot study of CO(4 - 3) emission line of three Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)-selected hyper-luminous, dust-obscured quasars (QSOs) with sensitive ALMA Band 3 observations. These obscured QSOs with L-bol > 10(14) L-circle dot are among the most luminous objects in the universe. All three QSO hosts are clearly detected both in continuum and in CO(4 - 3) emission line. Based on CO(4 - 3) emission line detection, we derive the molecular gas masses (similar to 10(10-11) M-circle dot), suggesting that these QSOs are gas-rich systems. We find that the obscured QSOs in our sample follow the similar L-CO'-L-FIR relation as unobscured QSOs at high redshifts. We also find the complex velocity structures of CO(4 - 3) emission line, which provide the possible evidence for a gas-rich merger in W0149+2350 and possible molecular outflow in W0220+0137 and W0410-0913. Massive molecular outflow can blow away the obscured interstellar medium and make obscured QSOs evolve toward the UV/optical bright, unobscured phase. Our result is consistent with the popular active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback scenario involving the co-evolution between the supermassive black holes and host galaxy.

• 出版日期2018-3-20
• 单位山东大学