ABSTRACT
We present detections of emission at 250 GHz (1.2 mm) from two high-redshift QSOs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample using the bolometer array at the IRAM 30 m telescope. The sources are SDSSp 015048.83+004126.2 at z=3.7 and SDSSp J033829.31+002156.3 at z=5.0; the latter is the third highest redshift QSO known and the highest redshift millimeter-emitting source yet identified. We also present deep radio continuum imaging of these two sources at 1.4 GHz using the Very Large Array. The combination of centimeter and millimeter observations indicate that the 250 GHz emission is most likely thermal dust emission, with implied dust masses approximately 108 M middle dot in circle. We consider possible dust heating mechanisms, including UV emission from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a massive starburst concurrent with the AGN, with implied star formation rates greater than 103 M middle dot in circle yr-1.
ABSTRACT
We report the detection of a strong submillimeter-wavelength HCN laser line at a frequency near 805 GHz toward the carbon star IRC +10216. This line, the J=9-8 rotational transition within the (0400) vibrationally excited state, is one of a series of HCN laser lines that were first detected in the laboratory in the early days of laser spectroscopy. Since its lower energy level is 4200 K above the ground state, the laser emission must arise from the innermost part of IRC +10216's circumstellar envelope. To better characterize this environment, we observed other, thermally emitting, vibrationally excited HCN lines and found that they, like the laser line, arise in a region of temperature approximately 1000 K that is located within the dust formation radius; this conclusion is supported by the line width of the laser. The (0400), J=9-8 laser might be chemically pumped and may be the only known laser (or maser) that is excited both in the laboratory and in space by a similar mechanism.
