No Arabic abstract
We present the rest-frame optical spectrum of a strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z =1.7 behind the cluster Abell 1689. We detect the temperature sensitive auroral line [O III] 4363, which allows the first direct metallicity measurement for galaxies at z > 1. Our high signal-to-noise spectrum indicates that the target is an extremely low metallicity star-forming galaxy.We estimate an intrinsic absolute B band magnitude of M_{B}=-18.3 pm 0.1$, with a stellar mass of 4.4$pm1.2times10^{8}$ M$_{odot}$. This galaxy extends the luminosity-metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies at z > 2 by more than an order of magnitude. Given the double-nuclei like morphology and velocity profile of ha, we tentatively suggest that it could be a merger or a proto-rotating disk galaxy.
We report the detection of a massive neutral gas outflow in the z=2.09 gravitationally lensed Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy HATLASJ085358.9+015537 (G09v1.40), seen in absorption with the OH+(1_1-1_0) transition using spatially resolved (0.5x0.4) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. The blueshifted OH+ line is observed simultaneously with the CO(9-8) emission line and underlying dust continuum. These data are complemented by high angular resolution (0.17x0.13) ALMA observations of CH+(1-0) and underlying dust continuum, and Keck 2.2 micron imaging tracing the stellar emission. The neutral outflow, dust, dense molecular gas and stars all show spatial offsets from each other. The total atomic gas mass of the observed outflow is 6.7x10^9 M_sun, >25% as massive as the gas mass of the galaxy. We find that a conical outflow geometry best describes the OH+ kinematics and morphology and derive deprojected outflow properties as functions of possible inclination (0.38 deg-64 deg). The neutral gas mass outflow rate is between 83-25400 M_sun/yr, exceeding the star formation rate (788+/-300 M_sun/yr) if the inclination is >3.6 deg (mass-loading factor = 0.3-4.7). Kinetic energy and momentum fluxes span 4.4-290x10^9 L_sun and 0.1-3.7x10^37 dyne, respectively (energy-loading factor = 0.013-16), indicating that the feedback mechanisms required to drive the outflow depend on the inclination assumed. We derive a gas depletion time between 29 and 1 Myr, but find that the neutral outflow is likely to remain bound to the galaxy, unless the inclination is small, and may be re-accreted if additional feedback processes do not occur.
We report on the galaxy MACSJ0032-arc at z=3.6314 discovered during the Herschel Lensing snapshot Survey of massive galaxy clusters, and strongly lensed by the cluster MACSJ0032.1+1808. The successful detections of its rest-frame UV, optical, FIR, millimeter, and radio continua, and of its CO emission enable us to characterize, for the first time at such a high redshift, the stellar, dust, and molecular gas properties of a compact star-forming galaxy with a size smaller than 2.5 kpc, a fairly low stellar mass of 4.8x10^9 Msun, and a moderate IR luminosity of 4.8x10^11 Lsun. We find that the bulk of the molecular gas mass and star formation seems to be spatially decoupled from the rest-frame UV emission. About 90% of the total star formation rate is undetected at rest-frame UV wavelengths because of severe obscuration by dust, but is seen through the thermal FIR dust emission and the radio synchrotron radiation. The observed CO(4-3) and CO(6-5) lines demonstrate that high-J transitions, at least up to J=6, remain excited in this galaxy, whose CO spectral line energy distribution resembles that of high-redshift submm galaxies, even though the IR luminosity of MACSJ0032-arc is ten times lower. This high CO excitation is possibly due to the compactness of the galaxy. We find evidence that this high CO excitation has to be considered in the balance when estimating the CO-to-H2 conversion factor. The inferred depletion time of the molecular gas in MACSJ0032-arc supports the decrease in the gas depletion timescale of galaxies with redshift, although to a lesser degree than predicted by galaxy evolution models. Instead, the measured molecular gas fraction as high as 60-79% in MACSJ0032-arc favors the continued increase in the gas fraction of galaxies with redshift as expected, despite the plateau observed between z~1.5 and z~2.5.
We discuss the optical spectrum of a multiply-imaged arc resolved by HST in the $z$=0.175 cluster A2218. The spectrum, obtained with LDSS-2 on the 4.2m William Herschel telescope, reveals the source to be a galaxy at a redshift $z$=2.515 in excellent agreement with the value predicted by Kneib et al. (1996) on the basis of their inversion of a highly-constrained mass model for the lensing cluster. The source is extremely blue in its optical-infrared colours, consistent with active star formation, and the spectrum reveals absorption lines characteristic of a young stellar population. Of particular significance is the absence of Lyman-$alpha$ emission but the presence of a broad Lyman-$alpha$ absorption. The spectrum is similar to that of other, much fainter, galaxies found at high redshift by various techniques and illustrates the important role that lensing can play in detailed studies of the properties of distant galaxies.
We present observations of SPT-S J053816-5030.8, a gravitationally-lensed dusty star forming galaxy (DSFG) at z = 2.7817, first discovered at millimeter wavelengths by the South Pole Telescope. SPT 0538-50 is typical of the brightest sources found by wide-field millimeter-wavelength surveys, being lensed by an intervening galaxy at moderate redshift (in this instance, at z = 0.441). We present a wide array of multi-wavelength spectroscopic and photometric data on SPT 0538-50, including data from ALMA, Herschel PACS and SPIRE, Hubble, Spitzer, VLT, ATCA, APEX, and the SMA. We use high resolution imaging from HST to de-blend SPT 0538-50, separating DSFG emission from that of the foreground lens. Combined with a source model derived from ALMA imaging (which suggests a magnification factor of 21 +/- 4), we derive the intrinsic properties of SPT 0538-50, including the stellar mass, far-IR luminosity, star formation rate, molecular gas mass, and - using molecular line fluxes - the excitation conditions within the ISM. The derived physical properties argue that we are witnessing compact, merger-driven star formation in SPT 0538-50, similar to local starburst galaxies, and unlike that seen in some other DSFGs at this epoch.
We examine the diagnostic power of rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) nebular emission lines, and compare them to more commonly used rest-frame optical emission lines, using the test case of a single star-forming knot of the bright lensed galaxy RCSGA 032727-132609 at redshift z~1.7. This galaxy has complete coverage of all the major rest-frame UV and optical emission lines from Magellan/MagE and Keck/NIRSPEC. Using the full suite of diagnostic lines, we infer the physical properties: nebular electron temperature (T_e), electron density (n_e), oxygen abundance (log(O/H)), ionisation parameter (log(q)) and interstellar medium (ISM) pressure (log(P/k)). We examine the effectiveness of the different UV, optical and joint UV-optical spectra in constraining the physical conditions. Using UV lines alone we can reliably estimate log(q), but the same is difficult for log(O/H). UV lines yield a higher (~1.5 dex) log(P/k) than the optical lines, as the former probes a further inner nebular region than the latter. For this comparison, we extend the existing Bayesian inference code IZI, adding to it the capability to infer ISM pressure simultaneously with metallicity and ionisation parameter. This work anticipates future rest-frame UV spectral datasets from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at high redshift and from the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) at moderate redshift.