Program: GN-2024A-Q-312

Estimating molecular gas mass in metal-poor star-forming galaxies is challenging, due to the substantial variation of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor and dust-to-gas ratio in terms of metallicity. H2 pure rotational lines in mid-infrared and/or rotation-vibration lines in the near-infrared may provide an alternative and independent method to trace cold molecular gas through the relatively consistent warm-to-cold gas mass ratio. In this program, we propose to obtain near-infrared spectra of metal-poor galaxies with CO detection to test the possibility of using near-infrared H2 lines as a tracer of cold gas.