Complete Ionisation of the Neutral Gas in High Redshift Radio Galaxies and Quasars

Abstract

Cool neutral gas provides the raw material for all star formation in the Universe, and yet, from a survey of the hosts of high redshift radio galaxies and quasars, we find a complete dearth of atomic (Hi 21-cm) and molecular (OH, CO, HCO⁺ & HCN) absorption at redshifts z ≳ 3 (Curran et al. 2008). Upon a thorough analysis of the optical photometry, we find that all of our targets have ionising (λ ≤ 912 Å) ultra-violet continuum luminosities of L_UV ≳ 10²³ W Hz⁻¹. We therefore attribute this deficit to the traditional optical selection of targets biasing surveys towards the most ultra-violet luminous objects, where the intense radiation excites the neutral gas to the point where it cannot engage in star formation (Curran & Whiting 2010). However, this hypothesis does not explain why there is a critical luminosity, rather than a continuum where the detections gradually become fewer and fewer as the harshness of the radiation increases. We show that by placing a quasar within a galaxy of gas there is always a finite ultra-violet luminosity above which all of the gas is ionised. This demonstrates that these galaxies are probably devoid of star-forming material rather than this being at abundances below the sensitivity limits of current radio telescopes.