Submillimeter water and ammonia absorption by the peculiar z~0.89 interstellar medium in the gravitational lens of the PKS 1830-211 system

Abstract

Using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope we have detected the rotational ground-state transitions of ortho-ammonia and ortho-water toward the redshift ~0.89 absorbing galaxy in the PKS 1830-211 gravitational lens system. We discuss our observations in the context of recent space-borne data obtained for these lines with the SWAS and Odin satellites toward Galactic sources. We find commonalities, but also significant differences between the interstellar media in a galaxy at intermediate redshift and in the Milky Way. Future high-quality observations of the ground-state ammonia transition in PKS 1830-211, together with inversion line data, will lead to strong constraints on the variation of the proton to electron mass ratio over the past 7.2 Gyr.

arXiv comment7 pages incl. 2 figures, A&A (in press)

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• Accurate Prediction of the Ammonia Probes of a Variable Proton-to-Electron Mass Ratio
• Interstellar Silicate Dust in the z=0.89 Absorber Towards PKS 1830-211: Crystalline Silicates at High Redshift?
• The inhomogeneous ISM toward PKS1830-211 SW - A detailed view on molecular gas at a look-back time of 7.5 Gyr
• ALMA Observations of Molecular Absorption in the Gravitational Lens PMN 0134-0931
• The Search for Extragalactic Lithium Hydride
• The diffuse molecular component in the nuclear bulge of the Milky Way
• Detection of CI in absorption towards PKS 1830-211 with the eSMA
• Discovery of CO absorption at z=0.05 in G0248+430
• On Measuring the CMB Temperature at Redshift 0.89
• A new constraint on the molecular oxygen abundance at $z\sim 0.886$
• Ammonia in the interstellar medium of a starbursting disc at z=2.6
• Probing the Interstellar Dust in Galaxies over > 10 Gyr of Cosmic History
• Searching for Chameleon-like Scalar Fields
• Constraints on the Variation of the QCD Interaction Scale ${\Lambda }_{\text{QCD}}$