ALMACAL III: A combined ALMA and MUSE Survey for Neutral, Molecular, and Ionised Gas in an HI-Absorption-Selected System

Abstract

Studying the flow of baryons into and out of galaxies is an important part of understanding the evolution of galaxies over time. We present a detailed case study of the environment around an intervening Ly $\alpha$ absorption line system at $z_{\mathrm{abs}}=0.633$, seen towards the quasar J0423$-$0130 ($z_{\mathrm{QSO}}=0.915$). We detect with ALMA the ${}^{12}$CO(2--1), ${}^{12}$CO(3--2) and $1.2$~mm continuum emission from a galaxy at the redshift of the Ly $\alpha$ absorber at a projected distance of $135$ kpc. From the ALMA detections, we infer ISM conditions similar to those in low redshift Luminous Infrared Galaxies. DDT MUSE integral field unit observations reveal the optical counterpart of the ${}^{12}$CO emission line source and three additional emission line galaxies at the absorber redshift, which together form a galaxy group. The ${}^{12}$CO emission line detections originate from the most massive galaxy in this group. While we cannot exclude that we miss a fainter host, we reach a dust-uncorrected star-formation rate (SFR) limit of > $0.3{\text{M}}_{\odot }{\text{ yr}}^{-1}$ within $100$ kpc from the sightline to the background quasar. We measure the dust-corrected SFR (ranging from $3$ to $50$ M${}_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$), the morpho-kinematics and the metallicities of the four group galaxies to understand the relation between the group and the neutral gas probed in absorption. We find that the Ly $\alpha$ absorber traces either an outflow from the most massive galaxy or intra-group gas. This case study illustrates the power of combining ALMA and MUSE to obtain a census of the cool baryons in a bounded structure at intermediate redshift.

17 pages, 9 figures, 9 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• The Cosmic Baryon and Metal Cycles
• Predictions for the Angular Dependence of Gas Mass Flow Rate and Metallicity in the Circumgalactic Medium
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z~1 galaxies
• Multi-phase Circum-Galactic Medium probed with MUSE and ALMA
• The MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF). II. Survey design and the gaseous properties of galaxy groups at 0.5 < z < 1.5
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- IV: The gaseous environment of $z\sim$ 3-4 Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies
• MUSE-ALMA Halos V: Physical properties and environment of z < 1.4 HI quasar absorbers
• The Geometry of Cold, Metal-Enriched Gas Around Galaxies at $z\sim 1.2$
• Into the Lyα jungle: exploring the circumgalactic medium of galaxies at z ~ 4-5 with MUSE
• Metallicity has followed local gravitational potential of galaxies since z=3
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes VIII: Statistical Study of Circumgalactic Medium Gas
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes VII: Survey Science Goals & Design, Data Processing and Final Catalogues
• MUSE-ALMA Halos VI: Coupling Atomic, Ionised & Molecular Gas Kinematics of Galaxies
• MUSE-ALMA Halos XI: Gas flows in the circumgalactic medium
• The Column Densities of Molecular Gas across Cosmic Time: Bridging Observations and Simulations
• ASW${}^2$DF: Census of the obscured star formation in a galaxy cluster in formation at $z=2.2$
• CO Excitation and Line Energy Distributions in Gas-selected Galaxies
• Observations of cold extragalactic gas clouds at $z=0.45$ towards PKS 1610-771
• A Sub-Damped Ly$\alpha$ Absorber with Unusual Abundances: Evidence of Gas Recycling in a Low-Redshift Galaxy Group
• H_2 molecular gas absorption-selected systems trace CO molecular gas-rich galaxy overdensities
• GRB host galaxies with strong H${}_2$ absorption: CO-dark molecular gas at the peak of cosmic star formation
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes XIII. Molecular gas in $z\sim 0.5$ HI-selected galaxies