Constraint on the Gas-to-Dust Ratio in Massive Star-Forming Galaxies at z~1.4

Abstract

We carried out 12CO(J=2-1) observations toward three star-forming galaxies on the main sequence at z~1.4 with the Nobeyama 45m radio telescope. These galaxies are detected with Spitzer/MIPS in 24 um, Herschel/SPIRE in 250 um and 350 um, and their gas metallicity, derived from optical emission line ratios based on near infrared spectroscopic observations, is close to the solar metallicity. Although weak signal-like features of CO were seen, we could not detect significant CO emission. The dust mass and the upper limits on the molecular gas mass are (3.4-6.7) x 10^{8} Msun and (9.7-14) x 10^{10} Msun, respectively. The upper limits on the gas-to-dust ratios at z~1.4 are 150-410 which are comparable to the gas-to-dust ratios in local galaxies with similar gas metallicity. A line stacking analysis enables us to detect a significant CO emission and to derive an average molecular gas mass of 1.3 x 10^{11} Msun and gas-to-dust ratio of 250. This gas-to-dust ratio is also near that in local galaxies with solar metallicity. These results suggest that the gas-to-dust ratio in star-forming galaxies with solar metallicity does not evolve significantly up to z~1.4. By comparing to a theoretical calculation, a rapid increase of the dust mass in an earlier epoch of galaxy evolution is suggested.