The Quasar Feedback Survey: characterizing CO excitation in quasar host galaxies

We present a comprehensive study of the molecular gas properties of 17 Type 2 quasars at z < 0.2 from the Quasar Feedback Survey (L$_{\rm [O~{\small III}]}$ > 10^42.1 $\rm ergs^{-1}$), selected by their high [O III] luminosities and displaying a large diversity of radio jet properties, but dominated by LIRG-like galaxies. With these data, we are able to investigate the impact of AGN and AGN feedback mechanisms on the global molecular interstellar medium. Using Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment and ALMA ACA observations, we measure the total molecular gas content using the CO(1-0) emission and homogeneously sample the carbon monoxide (CO) spectral line energy distributions, observing CO transitions (J_up = 1, 2, 3, 6, 7). We observe high r₂₁ ratios (r₂₁ = L'_CO(2-1)/L'_CO(1-0)) with a median r₂₁ = 1.06, similar to local (U)LIRGs (with r₂₁ ~ 1) and higher than normal star-forming galaxies (with r₂₁ ~ 0.65). Despite the high r₂₁ values, for the seven targets with the required data, we find low excitation in CO(6-5) & CO(7-6) (r₆₁ and r₆₂ < 0.6 in all but one target), unlike high-redshift quasars in the literature, which are far more luminous and show higher line ratios. The ionized gas traced by [O III] exhibits systematically higher velocities than the molecular gas traced by CO. We conclude that any effects of quasar feedback (e.g. via outflows and radio jets) do not have a significant instantaneous impact on the global molecular gas content and excitation and we suggest that it only occurs on more localized scales.