Rich and diverse molecular gas environments of closely-separated dual quasars viewed by ALMA (2407.09399v1)

Abstract: We present a study of the molecular gas in five closely-spaced ($R_{\perp}<20$ kpc) dual quasars ($L_{\rm bol}\gtrsim10^{44}~\mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$) at redshifts $0.4<z<0.8$ with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The dual quasar phase represents a distinctive stage during the interaction between two galaxies for investigating quasar fueling and feedback effects on the gas reservoir. The dual quasars were selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, with confirmatory spectroscopic validation. Based on the detection of the CO J=2--1 emission line with Band 4, we derived key properties including CO luminosities, line widths, and molecular gas masses for these systems. Among the ten quasars of the five pairs, eight have line detections exceeding $5\sigma$. The detected sources prominently harbor substantial molecular gas reservoirs, with molecular gas masses ($M_{\text{molgas}}$) between $10^{9.6-10.5}~\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$, and molecular gas-to-stellar mass ratios ($\mu_{\text{molgas}}$) spanning $18-97\%$. The overall $\mu_{\text{molgas}}$ of these dual quasars agrees with that of inactive star-forming main-sequence galaxies at comparable redshifts, indicating no clear evidence of quenching. However, intriguing features in each individual system show possible evidence of AGN feedback, matter transfer, and compaction processes.