A new twist to an old story: HE 0450-2958, and the ULIRG$\to$(optically bright QSO) transition hypothesis

Abstract

We report on interferometric imaging of the CO J=1--0 and J=3--2 line emission from the controversial QSO/galaxy pair HE 0450--2958. {\it The detected CO J=1--0 line emission is found associated with the disturbed companion galaxy not the luminous QSO,} and implies ${\mathrm{M}}_{\mathrm{gal}}({\mathrm{H}}_2)\sim (1-2)\times 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, which is $\ga 30% $ of the dynamical mass in its CO-luminous region. Fueled by this large gas reservoir this galaxy is the site of an intense starburst with $\mathrm{SFR}\sim 370{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$, placing it firmly on the upper gas-rich/star-forming end of Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs, ${\mathrm{L}}_{\mathrm{IR}}>10^{12}{\mathrm{L}}_{\odot }$). This makes HE 0450--2958 the first case of extreme starburst and powerful QSO activity, intimately linked (triggered by a strong interaction) but not coincident. The lack of CO emission towards the QSO itself renews the controversy regarding its host galaxy by making a gas-rich spiral (the typical host of Narrow Line Seyfert~1 AGNs) less likely. Finally, given that HE 0450--2958 and similar IR-warm QSOs are considered typical ULIRG$\to$(optically bright QSO) transition candidates, our results raise the possibility that some may simply be {\it gas-rich/gas-poor (e.g. spiral/elliptical) galaxy interactions} which ``activate'' an optically bright unobscured QSO in the gas-poor galaxy, and a starburst in the gas-rich one. We argue that such interactions may have gone largely unnoticed even in the local Universe because the combination of tools necessary to disentagle the progenitors (high resolution and S/N optical {\it and} CO imaging) became available only recently.

25 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal