# A Search for OH Megamasers at 𝑧>0.1: Preliminary Results

## 1. Introduction

OH megamasers (OHMs) are found in luminous infrared galaxies, and strongly favor ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). Since photometric surveys have demonstrated that nearly all ULIRGs are the products of major galaxy mergers (Sanders, Surace, & Ishida 1999), OHMs offer a promising means to detect merging galaxies across the greater part of the history of the universe ($`0<z<3`$). The galaxy merger rate plays a central role in the process of galaxy evolution, and must be empirically determined in order disentangle galaxy number evolution from luminosity evolution (Le Févre et al. 1999).

There are a number of observable merger products which surveys can use to measure the galaxy merger rate, but each has its limitations. The most successful methods used to date are optical surveys for the morphological signatures of mergers such as tidal tails, rings, shells, and filaments. Le Févre et al. (1999) has used this method as well as close pair surveys to determine the merger fraction of galaxies up to $`z=0.91`$. Optical surveys, however, require high angular resolution, suffer from dust extinction effects, are biased by the optical brightening which occurs during major mergers, and may exclude advanced mergers. Other survey methods capitalize on the very effects which bias optical surveys. FIR surveys for ULIRGs can use infrared brightening to identify mergers, and this technique can be extended down to the sub-mm regime where several groups have detected sources which may be the high-redshift counterparts of local ULIRGs (Smail et al. 1999). Molecular emission lines are also enhanced by mergers, and some of these lines can mase, such as H<sub>2</sub>O or OH hyperfine transitions. OHMs, in particular, appear to be quite common in ULIRGs: roughly 1 in 6 ULIRGs are observed to host OHMs (Darling & Giovanelli 1999) — it may be that all ULIRGs host OHMs, but the beaming of OHM emission determines the observable fraction. Although the most distant OHM detected to date has $`z=0.265`$ (Baan et al. 1992), the most luminous OHMs should be detectable up to $`z3`$ with current instruments (Briggs 1998). Understanding the relationship between the OHM and ULIRG luminosity functions at low redshift should allow one to measure, via OHM surveys, the merger rate of galaxies across a significant fraction of the epoch of galaxy evolution. One goal of this survey is to carefully quantify the OHM fraction in ULIRGs at $`0.1<z<0.2`$.

## 2. Survey Sample and Preliminary Results

OHM candidates were selected from the IRAS Point Source Catalog redshift survey (PSCz; W. Saunders 1999, private communication) following the criteria: (1) IRAS 60 $`\mu `$m detection, (2) $`0.1<z<0.45`$, and (3) $`0^{}<\delta <37^{}`$ (the Arecibo sky). The lower limit on redshift is set to avoid local radio frequency interference (RFI), and the upper limit is set by the bandpass of the L-band receiver at Arecibo. These candidate selection criteria limit the number of candidates in the PSCz to 296. The lower bound on redshift and the requirement of IRAS detection at 60 $`\mu `$m select candidates which are (U)LIRGs.

From a set of 69 candidate OHMs which were observed at Arecibo, 11 new OHMs and 1 new OH absorber have been detected. We can place upper limits on the OH emission from 53 of the non-detections, while the remaining 4 candidates remain ambiguous due to strong RFI or a strong radio continuum which produced standing waves in the bandpass and confounded line detection. Spectra and observed and derived parameters of the new detections are reported in Darling & Giovanelli (1999). The new OHMs span a wide range of spectral shapes, luminosities, masing conditions, and host properties. The diversity of the OHM spectra represent a corresponding diversity of physical conditions in the masing regions, possibly ranging from spatially extended ($`>100`$ pc) unsaturated emission associated with starbursts to small-scale ($`<1`$ pc) saturated emission associated with AGN.

Figure 1 depicts the observed sample in a FIR color-luminosity plot. The distribution indicates that OHMs strongly favor the most FIR-luminous hosts, and have a lesser tendency to also favor “warmer” hosts. Selection effects influence these trends, particularly Malmquist bias. The non-detections in the lowest $`L_{FIR}`$ range tend to have the least confident OH non-detection thresholds. We estimate from the Malmquist bias-corrected $`L_{FIR}`$-$`L_{OH}`$ relation calculated by Kandalian (1996) that there are perhaps 4 additional OHMs lurking among the non-detections of this sample. This estimate is highly uncertain due to the statistics of small numbers, the uncertainty in the $`L_{FIR}`$-$`L_{OH}`$ relation, and the scatter of the known OHMs about the relation.

## 3. Expectations and Conclusions

Survey work performed to date shows an OHM detection rate of 1 in 6, which indicates that we can expect to discover about 50 new OHMs in the complete survey. This figure doubles the OHM sample and increases the $`z>0.1`$ sample by a factor of six. Based on the set of previously reported OHMs, we can also expect to discover a few OH “gigamasers” ($`L_{OH}>10^4L_{}`$). There are two of these extremely luminous OHMs known today. Detection of more OH gigamasers will solidify confidence in upper end of the OHM luminosity function and will lend merit to the notion that OH gigamasers should be observable up to $`z3`$ with current instruments (Briggs 1998). The existence of OH gigamasers is crucial to the study of the galaxy merger rate at high redshifts.

This survey will provide the first uniform, flux-limited sample of OHMs, finally making it possible to empirically explore the physics of OHM phenomena in a statistically meaningful manner, and to evaluate theoretical models. The uniform sample will also offer the first reliable measure of the incidence of OHMs in ULIRGs as a function of host properties, especially $`L_{FIR}`$. Once the OHM fraction in ULIRGs is quantified at low redshifts, one can perform OHM surveys at higher redshifts to measure the luminosity function of ULIRGs — and hence the merger rate of galaxies — at arbitrary redshifts. The current survey will be able to measure the galaxy merger rate up to $`z=0.25`$.

Our preliminary result demonstrates the high OHM detection rate achievable with the upgraded Arecibo telescope in short integration times. The strong dependence of OHM fraction in ULIRGs on $`L_{FIR}`$ and the selection of the most FIR-luminous LIRGs (via the criterion $`z>0.1`$) produce a high detection rate compared to previous OHM surveys (e.g., Staveley-Smith et al. 1992; Baan, Haschick, & Christian 1992). By extrapolation, we predict that most hyperluminous IR galaxies host detectable OHMs, and that an OHM survey of this class of LIRG would be highly successful. The main barrier to this type of survey is the paucity of detectors at the redshifted frequency of OH in the range $`0.5<z<1.5`$.

ALMA will resolve the molecular cloud structures in galactic nuclei which produce OHMs and provide an unprecedented understanding of the dynamics, density field, and composition of these regions. Tying molecular studies of low redshift galactic nuclei to the corresponding observed OHM properties will allow us to extend that local understanding to a physical study of OHMs at high redshift.

### Acknowledgments.

The authors are very grateful to Will Saunders for access to the PSCz catalog and to the staff of NAIC for observing assistance and support. This research was supported by Space Science Institute archival grant 8373 and made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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