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Molecular gas in high redshift QSOs

C. L. Carilli, F. Bertoldi, F. Walter, K. M. Menten, A. Beelen, P. Cox, A. Omont

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0402573

Abstract

We review cm and mm observations of thermal molecular line emission from high redshift QSOs. These observations reveal the massive gas reservoirs (1010 to 1011 Msun) required to fuel star formation at high rates. We discuss evidence for active star formation in QSO host galaxies, and we show that these high redshift, FIR-luminous QSOs follow the non-linear trend of increasing LFIR/L'(CO) with increasing LFIR. We conclude with a brief discussion of the recent CO detection of the most distant QSO at z=6.42, and its implications for cosmic reionization.

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