A Near-Infrared Search for Molecular Gas in the Fermi Bubbles
  We present Gemini/NIFS near-IR integral field spectroscopy of the
fields-of-view around two AGNs behind the Fermi Bubbles (PDS 456 and
1H1613-097) to search for molecular gas in the Milky Way's nuclear wind. These
two AGN sightlines were selected by the presence of high-velocity neutral and
ionized gas seen in UV absorption. We do not detect any extended emission from
the H2 ro-vibrational S(0) and S(1) lines at 2.224 and 2.122 microns in either
direction. For the S(1) line, the 3-sigma surface brightness limits derived
from spectra extracted across the full 3x3 arcsecond NIFS field-of-view are
2.4e-17 erg/cm2/s/A/arcsec2 for PDS 456 and and 4.9e-18 erg/cm2/s/A/arcsec2 for
1H1613-097. Given these non-detections, we conclude that CO emission-line
studies and H2 UV absorption-line studies are more promising approaches for
characterizing the molecular gas in the Fermi Bubbles.
