Searches for CO emission in high-redshift objects have traditionally suffered from the accuracy of optically-derived redshifts due to lack of bandwidth in correlators at radio observatories .
This problem has motivated the creation of the new COBRA continuum correlator , with 4 GHz available bandwidth , at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array .
Presented here are the first scientific results from COBRA .
We report detections of redshifted CO ( J = 3 \rightarrow 2 ) emission in the QSOs SMM J04135+10277 and VCV J140955.5+562827 , as well as a probable detection in RX J0911.4+0551 .
At redshifts of z = 2.846 , z = 2.585 , and z = 2.796 , we find integrated CO flux densities of 5.4 ~ { } \textrm { Jy~ { } km~ { } s } ^ { -1 } , 2.4 ~ { } \textrm { Jy~ { } km~ { } s } ^ { -1 } , and 2.9 ~ { } \textrm { Jy~ { } km~ { } s } ^ { -1 } for SMM J04135+10277 , VCV J140955.5+562827 , and RX J0911.4+0551 , respectively , over linewidths of \Delta V _ { FWHM } \sim 350 ~ { } \textrm { km~ { } s } ^ { -1 } .
These measurements , when corrected for gravitational lensing , correspond to molecular gas masses of order M ( \textrm { H } _ { 2 } ) \sim 10 ^ { 9.6 - 11.1 } M _ { \sun } , and are consistent with previous CO observations of high-redshift QSOs .
We also report 3 \sigma upper limits on CO ( 3 \rightarrow 2 ) emission in the QSO LBQS 0018-0220 of 1.3 ~ { } \textrm { Jy~ { } km~ { } s } ^ { -1 } .
We do not detect significant 3 mm continuum emission from any of the QSOs , with the exception of a tentative ( 3 \sigma ) detection in RX J0911.4+0551 of S _ { 3 mm } = 0.92 ~ { } \textrm { mJy~ { } beam } ^ { -1 } .