Blind detections of CO J=1-0 IN 11 H-ATLAS Galaxies at z=2.1-3.5 with the GBT/Zpectrometer

Abstract

We report measurements of the carbon monoxide ground state rotational transition ((CO)-C-12-O-16 J = 1-0) with the Zpectrometer ultrawideband spectrometer on the 100 m diameter Green Bank Telescope. The sample comprises 11 galaxies with redshifts between z = 2.1 and 3.5 from a total sample of 24 targets identified by Herschel-ATLAS photometric colors from the SPIRE instrument. Nine of the CO measurements are new redshift determinations, substantially adding to the number of detections of galaxies with rest-frame peak submillimeter emission near 100 mu m. The CO detections confirm the existence of massive gas reservoirs within these luminous dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). The CO redshift distribution of the 350 mu m selected galaxies is strikingly similar to the optical redshifts of 850 mu m-selected submillimeter galaxies in 2.1 <= z <= 3.5. Spectroscopic redshifts break a temperature-redshift degeneracy; optically thin dust models fit to the far-infrared photometry indicate characteristic dust temperatures near 34 K for most of the galaxies we detect in CO. Detections of two warmer galaxies, and statistically significant nondetections, hint at warmer or molecule-poor DSFGs with redshifts that are difficult to determine from Herschel-SPIRE photometric colors alone. Many of the galaxies identified by H-ATLAS photometry are expected to be amplified by foreground gravitational lenses. Analysis of CO linewidths and luminosities provides a method for finding approximate gravitational lens magnifications mu from spectroscopic data alone, yielding mu similar to 3-20. Corrected for magnification, most galaxy luminosities are consistent with an ultraluminous infrared galaxy classification, but three are candidate hyper-LIRGs with luminosities greater than 10(13) L-circle dot