Cold Molecular Gas and Free-Free Emission from Hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies at $z$~3

TL;DR

This study uses VLA observations to analyze cold molecular gas and radio emission in hot, dust-obscured galaxies at z~3, revealing they have less cold gas and are dominated by radio-quiet AGN compared to typical star-forming galaxies.

Contribution

First detection of CO(1-0) in Hot DOGs at high redshift, showing they have less cold gas and are primarily powered by radio-quiet AGN.

Findings

All five Hot DOGs show CO(1-0) emission.

Most 115 GHz continuum is due to synchrotron or free-free emission.

Hot DOGs have a deficit in cold gas compared to similar high-redshift galaxies.

Abstract

We report on observations of redshifted CO(1-0) line emission and observed-frame $\rm\sim$ 30GHz radio continuum emission from five ultra-luminous, mid-IR selected hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies (Hot DOGs) at $z\rm\gtrsim$ 3 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. We detect CO(1-0) line emission in all five Hot DOGs, with one of them at high signal to noise. We analyse FIR-radio spectral energy distributions, including dust, free-free and synchrotron emission for the galaxies. We find that most of the 115 GHz rest-frame continuum is mostly due to synchrotron or free-free emission, with only a potentially small contribution from thermal emission. We see a deficit in the rest-frame 115 GHz continuum emission compared to dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift, suggesting that Hot DOGs do not have similar cold gas reserves compared with star-forming galaxies. One target, W2305-0039, is detected in the FIRST 1.4 GHz survey, and is likely to possess compact radio jets. We compare to the FIR-radio correlation, and find that at least half of the Hot DOGs in our sample are radio-quiet with respect to normal galaxies. These findings suggest that Hot DOGs have comparably less cold molecular gas than star-forming galaxies at lower, $z\rm\sim$ 2 redshifts, and are dominated by powerful, yet radio-quiet AGN.