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Issue A&A
Volume 440, Number 2, September III 2005
Page(s) L51 - L54
Section Letters
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200500165



A&A 440, L51-L54 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500165

Letter

First detection of [CII]158 $\mu$m at high redshift: vigorous star formation in the early universe

R. Maiolino1, P. Cox2, P. Caselli1, A. Beelen3, F. Bertoldi4, C. L. Carilli5, M. J. Kaufman6, K. M. Menten3, T. Nagao1, 7, A. Omont8, A. Weiß9, 3, C. M. Walmsley1 and F. Walter10

1  INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, L.go E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
    e-mail: maiolino@arcetri.astro.it
2  IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine, 38406 St.-Marin-d'Hères, France
3  Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
4  Radioastronomisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
5  National Radio Astronomy Observatory, PO Box O, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
6  Department of Physics, San Jose State University, 1 Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192, USA
7  National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
8  Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
9  Instituto de Radioastronomia Milimetrica, Avenida Divina Pastora 7, 18012 Granada, Spain
10  Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

(Received 14 June 2005 / Accepted 29 July 2005 )

Abstract
We report the detection of the $^2\rm P_{3/2} \rightarrow {^2P_{1/2}}$ fine-structure line of $\rm C^+$ at 157.74 $\rm\mu m$ in SDSS J114816.64+525150.3 (hereafter J1148+5251), the most distant known quasar, at z=6.42, using the IRAM 30-m telescope. This is the first detection of the [CII] line at high redshift, and also the first detection in a Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxy ( $L_{\rm FIR} > 10^{13} \, L_\odot$). The [CII] line is detected at a significance level of 8$\sigma$ and has a luminosity of $ 4.4\times 10^9 \,L_\odot$. The $L_{\rm [CII]}/L_{\rm FIR}$ ratio is $\rm 2\times 10^{-4}$, about an order of magnitude smaller than observed in local normal galaxies and similar to the ratio observed in local Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. The [CII] line luminosity indicates that the host galaxy of this quasar is undergoing an intense burst of star formation with an estimated rate of $ \approx$ $ 3000 \, M_\odot \, \rm yr^{-1}$. The detection of $\rm C^+$ in SDSS J1148+5251 suggests a significant enrichment of metals at $z\sim 6$ (age of the universe ~870 Myr), although the data are consistent with a reduced carbon to oxygen ratio as expected from chemical evolutionary models of the early phases of galaxy formation.


Key words: galaxies: high redshift -- galaxies: ISM -- quasars: individual: J114816.64+525150.3 -- infrared: galaxies -- submillimeter -- ISM: abundances

SIMBAD Objects



© ESO 2005


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