Molecular gas at intermediate redshifts

We present Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations of OH absorption in B3~1504+377 ($z sim 0.673$) and PKS 1413+135 ($z sim 0.247$). OH has now been detected in absorption towards four intermediate redshift systems, viz. the lensing galaxies towards B~0218+357 ($z sim 0.685$; Kanekar et al. 2001) and 1830-211 ($z sim 0.886$; Chengalur et al. 1999), in addition to the two systems listed above. All four systems also give rise to well studied millimetre wavelength molecular line absorption from a host of molecules, including HCO$^+$. Comparing our OH data with these millimetre line transitions, we find that the linear correlation between $N_{ m OH}$ and $N_{ m HCO^+}$ found in molecular clouds in the Milky Way (Liszt & Lucas 1996) persists out to $z sim 1$. It has been suggested (Liszt & Lucas 1999) that OH is a good tracer of ${ m H_2}$, with $N_{ m H_2}/N_{ m OH} approx 10^7$ under a variety of physical conditions. We use this relationship to estimate $N_{ m H_2}$ in these absorbers. The estimated $N_{ m H_2}$ is $ga 10^{22}$ in all four cases and substantially different from estimates based on CO observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter