Submillimeter H2O lines are unique diagnostic tools of the physical conditions of the interstellar medium and properties of the radiation field in the warm dense gaseous regions of infrared-luminous galaxies at high redshift. H2O is the second strongest molecular emitter in the submillimeter band after the CO lines in these starburst galaxies. Therefore, H2O lines are readily accessible at high redshift when they are shifted into atmospheric millimeter windows, especially in the strongly lensed galaxies with current ground-based (sub)mm telescopes. This talk gives a brief review of the recent progress of the observations of the emission and absorption lines of H2O at high-redshift based on recent NOEMA and ALMA results and discusses the physical properties of the interstellar medium and the radiation fields inferred from the excitation of the H2O lines. Besides H2O, the talk also presents recent detections of H2O+ lines in a few high-redshift sources, which enables us to study the ionization state of the interstellar medium in the early universe and the formation of H2O through ionic reactions.

Water vapor in galaxies at high redshift

2019 Fall National Meeting

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