The z=0.89 molecular absorber toward PKS1830­211:

molecules as cosmological probes

Sébastien Muller Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden

Cosmology for All – Lund, 2013 Feb. 4

- Chemical inventory and gas properties in distant galaxies

- No distance dilution

- Spatial resolution (continuum illumination ~ few mas)

Interests of molecular absorption studies at z>0

As cosmological probes

- CMB temperature as a function of redshift

- Test of variations of fundamental constants (, μ=mp/m

e)

- H0

- Chemical enrichment of the Universe (isotopic ratios)

  

Source z(abs)Background continuum 

flux(Jy @3mm)

N(H2)

(cm­2)

Molecules detected

Cen A 0.002 6 2 x 1020  CO, OH, NH3, CN, HCO+, HCN, N2H+, CS, H2CO, C3H2

3C293 0.045 2 x 1019 CO, HCO+, HCN

4C31.04 0.060 1 x 1019 CO, HCO+, HCN

PKS 1413+135 0.247 0.5 5 x 1020 CO, CN, HCO+, HCN, HNC

B 1504+377 0.673 0.4 5 x 1020 CO, HCO+, HCN, HNC

B 0218+357 0.685 0.5lensed

4 x 1021 CO, NH3, H20, HCO+, HCN, HNC, CS, H2S, H2CO

PKS 0132­097 0.765 0.4 OH (only)

PKS 1830­211 0.886 2­3lensed

2 x 1022 > 40 ! species (not incl. isotopic variants)

Extragalactic radio­mm molecular absorbers

e.g. see review by Combes 2008

PKS1830-211 is the most notableradio molecular absorber at z>0

Of the only 5 distant radio molecular absorbers known to date(0.24 < z < 0.89)

PKS1830-211 has:

- highest redshift: z=0.89

- brightest mm continuum

- largest amount of absorbing material

- gravitational lens

- molecular absorption toward the SW and NEimages of the quasar

- time variations (continuum & molecular profile)

PKS1830-211

Foreground z=0.19 galaxy

Lensed images of the quasar

z=0.89 absorber

HST, Courbin et al

Unbiased ATCA-7mm spectral survey

- Frequency coverage 30 - 50 GHz with ATCA

- 28 species + 8 isotopic variants detected toward the SW LOS

- Molecular abundances similar to that of Galactic diffuse/translucent cloudsUniversality of chemistry !

- Excitation mostly coupled with the CMB photons

- Additional velocity components at -300, -225, and +170 km/s (unknown origin)

Muller et al 2011

ALMA Early Science (Cycle 0) data

APEX - Menten et al 2008

The ground-state transition of ortho-water:-> Deepest absorption of all observed lines-> Heavy saturation toward SW LOS-> Multiple velocity components toward both LOS-> Absorption spanning a large velocity range

Muller et al in prep

H2O

ALMA: Main absorption along the SW LOS

SaturatedOptically thick

Optically thin

ALMA: Absorption along the NE LOS

- Multiple velocitycomponents

- Large velocity span

- Similarity of H2O and

HCO+ profiles

- Optically thin lines

ATCA Muller et al 2011

1 atom 2 atoms 3 atoms 4 atoms 5 atoms 6 atoms 7 atoms

H CH NH2

NH3

CH2NH CH

3OH CH

3NH

2

C OH H2O H

2CO c-C

3H

2CH

3CN CH

3CCH

CO C2H l-C

3H l-C

3H

2NH

2CHO CH

3CHO

CS HCN HNCO H2CCN

SiO HNC HOCO+ H2CCO

NS N2H+ H

2CS C

4H

SO HCO+ HC3N

SO+ HCO

HOC+

H2S

H2Cl+

HCS+

C2S

Chemical inventory toward the SW LOS

42 species+ 14 isotopic variants

See Muller et al 2011, 2013 + in prep

@ z=0.89 !

ATCA 7 mm + 3 mmRADEX + Monte Carlo Markov ChainsBest fit to the data:

TCMB

= 5.08 ± 0.10 K (68%)

Tkin

~ 80 K

n(H2) ~ 1000 - 2000 cm-3

Muller et al 2013

Multi-transition excitation analysis

TCMB

= 5.08 ± 0.10 K

-> Consistent with adiabatic expansion of the Universe:

TCMB

(z) = T0 x (1+z) … = 5.14 K @z=0.89

The TCMB

– redshift law

See Noterdaeme et al 2011

  

Probing the cosmological variations offundamental constants of Physics with molecules

­ Astronomical constraints toward high­z quasars cover longer time (and space) spanthan laboratory measurements

­ A variation of e.g.  or µ=mp/m

e would introduce a shift in transition frequency

Hence a velocity offset between two lines i,j with different freq dependence in a, µ

∆Vij / c = (Kµ

i –  Kµ

j ) ∆µ/µ + (Kα

i –  Kα

j ) ∆α/α

Sensitivity coefficients

- H2: |∆Kµ| ~ 0.01

- Inversion lines of NH3 wrt a rotational line: |∆Kµ| = 3.5 Flambaum & Kozlov 2007

- Various lines of CH3OH have different sensitivity: Kµ = -40 to +50 Jansen et al 2011

- CI wrt a rotational line |∆Kµ| = 1, |∆Kα| = 2

- CH @532,536 GHz wrt a rotational line: |∆Kµ| = 0.8, |∆Kα| = 1.6 de Nijs et al 2012

- OH conjugate lines have sensitivity to G=gp(µα2)1.85 e.g. Kanekar et al 2010

  

e.g. Constraints on ∆µ/µ using moleculesMethod Target ∆µ/µ Ref.

inv.NH3 vs (HCO+, HCN) B0218+357 z=0.68 < 1.8 x 10­6 Murphy et al 2008

inv.NH3 vs HC

3N PKS1830­211 z=0.89 < 1.4 x 10-6 Henkel et al 2009

inv.NH3 vs (CS, H

2CO) B0218+357 z=0.68 < 3.6 x 10-7 Kanekar 2011

inv.NH3 vs (average of 22 species) PKS1830­211 z=0.89 < 2.2 x 10-6 Muller et al 2011

CH3OH vs (average of 22 species) PKS1830­211 z=0.89 < 1.4 x 10-6 Muller et al 2011

CH3OH PKS1830­211 z=0.89 < 6.3 x 10-7 Ellingsen et al 2012

CH3OH PKS1830­211 z=0.89 < 3.0 x 10-7 Bagdonaite et al 2013

Issues:

- Chemical segregation -> Observe self-reference (e.g. CH3OH)

-> Statistical constraint wrt multi references

- Excitation/opacity effects

- Time variability of the continuum -> Simultaneous observation of reference

- Change of the continuum morphology with frequency

Time delay and H0

Altern. using molecules

Wiklind & Combes (1999)

SEST monitoringHCO+ J=2-1 line

Time delay: 24 (-4 +5) days

+ Lens model (Nair et al 1993)

H0 = 69 (-11 +12)km s-1 Mpc-1 (q0=0.5)

Total continuum fluxNE + SW images

Depth of HCO+ 2-1 line (= flux of SW image)

Time delay + lens model => geometrical measurement of H0

Need to 1) Resolve the NE-SW images, separated by 1''2) Disentangle the core-jet emission of the quasar

ATCA 8.6 GHz Time delay = 26 (-5+4) days (Lovell et al 1998)

Isotopic ratios

Ratio @z=0.89 Note Earth 

D/H < 7e­4 Upper limit Cosmic 2.5e­5

12C/13C 30 ­ ? Difficult to measure due to opacity / fractionation effects 89

14N/15N 100 ­ 200 ~<  (Uncertainty from 12C/13C) 272

16O/18O ~100 <     (Uncertainty from 12C/13C) 499

18O/17O 13  ± 3 > 5.5

28Si/29Si 7 ± 0.5(preliminary)

< 22

29Si/30Si 1.9 ± 0.3(preliminary)

~ 1.5

32S/34S 10.5 ± 0.5 < 22.5

35Cl/37Cl ~3 ~ 3.1

  

- PKS1830-211 is a unique target for molecular absorption studies

-> Basic gas properties and interstellar chemistryin the disk of a z=0.89 galaxy

- Molecules as cosmological probes:

-> Evolution of the CMB temperature with z-> Variations of fundamental constants-> H0-> Isotopic ratios and nucleosynthesis constraints

- Unfortunately, only a handful of known z>0 mm-radio absorbersNeed to find more !

Summary