CO Emission, Molecular Gas, and Metallicity in Main-sequence Star-forming Galaxies at z ∼ 2.3

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 942; no. 1; p. 24
• Main Authors: Sanders, Ryan L., Shapley, Alice E., Jones, Tucker, Shivaei, Irene, Popping, Gergö, Reddy, Naveen A., Davé, Romeel, Price, Sedona H., Mobasher, Bahram, Kriek, Mariska, Coil, Alison L., Siana, Brian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia IOP Publishing 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Astrophysics; CO line emission; Correlation; Depletion; Galaxies; Galaxy evolution; High-redshift galaxies; Luminosity; Main sequence stars; Metallicity; Molecular gas; Molecular gases; Scattering; Space telescopes; Spectroscopy; Star formation; Stars; Stars & galaxies

Abstract We present observations of CO(3−2) in 13 main-sequence z = 2.0–2.5 star-forming galaxies at log ( M * / M ⊙ ) = 10.2 – 10.6 that span a wide range in metallicity (O/H) based on rest-optical spectroscopy. We find that L CO ( 3 − 2 ) ′ /SFR decreases with decreasing metallicity, implying that...