D. T. Frayer and N. Z. Scoville
Caltech

We present CO and mm continuum observations of the luminous population of high-redshift sub-mm galaxies taken at the OVRO Millimeter Array. Studies of sub-mm galaxies are vital to our understanding of the formation and early evolution of galaxies since this population could account for a significant fraction of the total amount of star formation and AGN activity at high redshift. We discuss the CO detections for SMM ,J02399-0136 at z=2.8 and SMM J14011+0252 at z=2.6. The CO data show the presence of massive molecular gas reservoirs (M(H₂) ~ few x 10¹⁰-10¹¹ M) and provide the only two confirmed redshifts for the sub-mm population of galaxies. These data suggest that the sub-mm galaxies are gas-rich systems which have properties similar to ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Many sub-mm galaxies are thought to be at very high redshift (z 3) since their radio and optical emissions are extremely weak. In these cases, interferometric mm-continuum observations are required to obtain an accurate position for the sub-mm counter-part. We report the detection of mm-continuum emission from one sub-mm galaxy which has yet to be detected at optical/near-infrared wavelengths (I 26, K 21). These results highlight the importance that future mm/sub-mm observations will have on our understanding of the high redshift universe.