A Search for Molecular Gas in GHz-peaked Spectrum Radio Sources

Abstract

We present searches for molecular gas (CO, OH, CS, and NH3) in six gigahertz-peaked spectrum (GPS) radio sources. We do not detect gas in any source and place upper limits on the mass of molecular gas that are generally in the range from ~109 to a few times 1010 M⊙. These limits are consistent with the following interpretations: (1) GPS sources do not require very dense gas in their hosts, and (2) the GPS sources are unlikely to be confined by dense gas and will evolve to become larger radio sources.