An ALMA CO(2-1) Survey of Nearby Palomar-Green Quasars

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA to survey molecular gas in nearby PG quasars, revealing typical line ratios, gas properties, and no significant difference in CO conversion factors compared to normal galaxies.

Contribution

First comprehensive CO(2-1) survey of nearby PG quasars, combining new ALMA data with literature, to analyze molecular gas properties and compare with star-forming galaxies.

Findings

CO(2-1) emission detected in 91% of quasars

Line ratio R_21 is subthermal and consistent with nearby galaxies

No significant difference in CO-to-H2 conversion factor compared to normal galaxies

Abstract

The properties of the molecular gas can shed light on the physical conditions of quasar host galaxies and the effect of feedback from accreting supermassive black holes. We present a new CO(2-1) survey of 23 z<0.1 Palomar-Green quasars conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. CO emission was successfully detected in 91% (21/23) of the objects, from which we derive CO luminosities, molecular gas masses, and velocity line widths. Together with CO(1-0) measurements in the literature for 32 quasars (detection rate 53%), there are 15 quasars with both CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) measurements and in total 40 sources with CO measurements. We find that the line ratio R_21 = L'_CO(2-1)/L'_CO(1-0) is subthermal, broadly consistent with nearby galaxies and other quasars previously studied. No clear correlation is found between R_21 and the intensity of the interstellar radiation field or the luminosity of the active nucleus. As with the general galaxy population, quasar host galaxies exhibit a strong, tight, linear L_IR-L_CO relation, with a normalization consistent with that of starburst systems. We investigate the molecular-to-total gas mass fraction with the aid of total gas masses inferred from dust masses previously derived from infrared observations. Although the scatter is considerable, the current data do not suggest that the CO-to-H_2 conversion factor of quasar host galaxies significantly differs from that of normal star-forming galaxies.