Recent CO surveys of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at z ~ 2 have revolutionized our picture of massive galaxies. It is time to expand these studies toward the more common z ~ 2 SFGs with SFR < 40 M ⊙ yr−1 and M * < 2.5 × 1010 M⊙. We have derived molecular gas, stars, and dust in 8 such lensed SFGs. They extend the L IR–L'CO(1-0) distribution of massive z>1 SFGs and increase the spread of the SFG star formation efficiency (SFE). A single star formation relation is found when combining all existing CO-detected galaxies. Our low-M * SFGs also reveal a SFE decrease with M * as found locally. A rise of the molecular gas fraction (f gas) with redshift is observed up to z ~ 1.6, but it severely flattens toward higher redshifts. We provide the first insight into the f gas upturn at the low-M * end 109.4 < M */M⊙ < 1010 reaching f gas ~ 0.7, it is followed by a f gas decrease toward higher M *. Finally, we find a non-universal dust-to-gas ratio among local and high-redshift SFGs and starbursts with near-solar metallicities.

Current star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with CO measurements at z ~ 2 suffer from a bias toward high star formation rates (SFR) and high stellar masses (M *). It is yet essential to extend the CO measurements to the more numerous z ~ 2 SFGs with L IR < L ⋆ = 4× 1011 L⊙ and M * < 2.5× 1010 M⊙. We have achieved CO, stars, and dust measurements in 8 such sub-L ⋆ SFGs with the help of gravitational lensing. Combined with CO-detected galaxies from the literature, we find that the L IR, L′CO(1−0) data are best-fitted with a single relation that favours a universal star formation. This picture emerges because of the enlarged star formation efficiency spread of the current z>1 SFGs sample. We show that this spread is mostly triggered by the combination of redshift, specific SFR, and M *. Finally, we find evidence for a non-universal dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) with a clear trend for a lower DGR mean in z>1 SFGs by a factor of 2 with respect to local galaxies and high-redshift sub-mm galaxies at fixed about solar metallicity.

To extend the molecular gas measurements to typical L* star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at z ∼ 1.5 − 3, we have observed CO emission for five strongly-lensed galaxies selected from the Herschel Lensing Survey. The combined sample of our L* SFGs with CO-detected SFGs at z >1 from the literature shows a large spread in star formation efficiency (SFE). We find that this spread in SFE is due to variations of several physical parameters, primarily the specific star formation rate, but also stellar mass and redshift. An increase of the molecular gas fraction (fgas) is observed from z ∼ 0.2 to z ∼ 1.2, followed by a quasi non-evolution toward higher redshifts, as found in earlier studies. We provide the first measure of fgas of z >1 SFGs at the low-stellar mass end between 109.4 < M∗/M⊙ < 109.9, which shows a clear fgas upturn.