Cambridge University Press (CUP), Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, 14(2), p. 263-263, 2006
DOI: 10.1017/s1743921307010460
Full text: Unavailable
AbstractObservations of the most distant (z≃6) QSOs in the centimetre and millimetre regime currently serve as the only direct probe of the host galaxies of these extreme systems in the Epoch of Re-ionization. Such observations reveal that about 1'3 of the hosts contain massive reservoirs of dust (>108M⊙) and molecular gas (>1010M⊙) – the fuel for galaxy formation, and also indicate coeval starbursts at a rate >103M⊙yr−1 adequate to form a large elliptical galaxy in a dynamical timescale. These data imply that a highly metal enriched, molecular ISM, can be generated in galaxies within 870 Myr of the Big Bang. High-resolution imaging of the gas also provide an estimate of the host galaxy dynamical mass. However, current observations are restricted to rare, hyper-luminous IR galaxies. I will close by considering the prospects of observing the gas, dust, and star formation in the first ‘normal’ galaxies (e.g., the Ly-α galaxies) into cosmic reionization (z>6), using ALMA and the EVLA.