A Search for OH Megamasers at z > 0.1: Preliminary Results

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We report the discovery of 11 OH megamasers and one OH absorber, along with upper limits on the OH luminosity of 53 other luminous infrared galaxies at z > 0.1. The new megamasers show a wide range of spectral properties, but are consistent with the extant set of 55 previously reported objects, 8 of which have z > 0.1. The new OH detections are the preliminary results of a OH megamaser survey in progress at the Arecibo Observatory, which is expected to produce several dozen detections and calibrate the luminosity function of OH megamasers to the low-redshift galaxy merger rate (0.1 < z < 0.2).