Molecular absorption lines at high redshift
arXiv:astro-ph/9712139
Abstract
The four known molecular absorption line systems at redshifts z0.25--0.89 are discussed. Two of the systems originate in the galaxy hosting the `background' AGN, while in two cases the absorption occurs in truely intervening galaxies. Indirect evidence for the existence of very small scale structure in the molecular ISM is presented. A new absorption line at z0.89 towards PKS1830--211 opens up interesting possibilities to accurately derive the mass of the lensing galaxy.
8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the Green Bank Symposia ``Highly Redshifted Radio Lines'' Oct 9-11 1997, eds. C. Carilli, et al