Internal Structure of Molecular Gas in a Main-sequence Galaxy With a UV Clump at z = 1.45

Abstract

Abstract We present results of subarcsec Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO(2–1) and CO(5–4) toward a massive main-sequence galaxy at z = 1.45 in the Subaru-XMM/Newton Deep Survey/UDS field, aiming at examining the internal distribution and properties of molecular gas in the galaxy. Our target galaxy consists of the bulge and disk, and has a UV clump in the Hubble Space Telescope images. The CO emission lines are clearly detected, and the CO(5–4)/CO(2–1) flux ratio (R 52) is ∼1, similar to that of the Milky Way. Assuming a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H2 conversion factor and a CO(2–1)/CO(1–0) flux ratio of 2 (the Milky Way value), the molecular gas mass and the gas-mass fraction (f gas = ratio of the molecular gas mass to the molecular gas mass + stellar mass) are estimated to be ∼1.5 × 1011 M ⊙ and ∼0.55, respectively. We find that R 52 peak coincides with the position of the UV clump and that its value is approximately twice higher than the galactic average. This result implies a high gas density and/or high temperature in the UV clump, which qualitatively agrees with a numerical simulation of a clumpy galaxy. The CO(2–1) distribution is well represented by a rotating-disk model, and its half-light radius is ∼2.3 kpc. Compared to the stellar distribution, the molecular gas is more concentrated in the central region of the galaxy. We also find that f gas decreases from ∼0.6 at the galactic center to ∼0.2 at three times the half-light radius, indicating that the molecular gas is distributed in the more central region of the galaxy than stars and seems to be associated with the bulge rather than with the stellar disk.