No Arabic abstract
The [CII] 157.74 $mu$m transition is the dominant coolant of the neutral interstellar gas, and has great potential as a star formation rate (SFR) tracer. Using the Herschel KINGFISH sample of 46 nearby galaxies, we investigate the relation of [CII] surface brightness and luminosity with SFR. We conclude that [CII] can be used for measurements of SFR on both global and kiloparsec scales in normal star-forming galaxies in the absence of strong active galactic nuclei (AGN). The uncertainty of the $Sigma_{rm [CII]}-Sigma_{rm SFR}$ calibration is $pm$0.21 dex. The main source of scatter in the correlation is associated with regions that exhibit warm IR colors, and we provide an adjustment based on IR color that reduces the scatter. We show that the color-adjusted $Sigma_{rm[CII]}-Sigma_{rm SFR}$ correlation is valid over almost 5 orders of magnitude in $Sigma_{rm SFR}$, holding for both normal star-forming galaxies and non-AGN luminous infrared galaxies. Using [CII] luminosity instead of surface brightness to estimate SFR suffers from worse systematics, frequently underpredicting SFR in luminous infrared galaxies even after IR color adjustment (although this depends on the SFR measure employed). We suspect that surface brightness relations are better behaved than the luminosity relations because the former are more closely related to the local far-UV field strength, most likely the main parameter controlling the efficiency of the conversion of far-UV radiation into gas heating. A simple model based on Starburst99 population-synthesis code to connect SFR to [CII] finds that heating efficiencies are $1%-3%$ in normal galaxies.
The scatter in the relationship between the strength of [CII] 158$mu$m emission and the star formation rate at high-redshift has been the source of much recent interest. Although the relationship is well-established locally, several intensely star-forming galaxies have been found whose [CII] 158$mu$m emission is either weak, absent or spatially offset from the young stars. Here we present new ALMA data for the two most distant, gravitationally-lensed and spectroscopically-confirmed galaxies, A2744_YD4 at $z=$8.38 and MACS1149_JD1 at $z=$9.11, both of which reveal intense [OIII] 88$mu$m emission. In both cases we provide stringent upper limits on the presence of [CII] 158$mu$m with respect to [OIII] 88$mu$m. We review possible explanations for this apparent redshift-dependent [CII] deficit in the context of our recent hydrodynamical simulations. Our results highlight the importance of using several emission line diagnostics with ALMA to investigate the nature of the interstellar medium in early galaxies.
We study the effects of a metallicity variation on the thermal balance and [CII] fine-structure line strengths in interstellar photon dominated regions (PDRs). We find that a reduction in the dust-to-gas ratio and the abundance of heavy elements in the gas phase changes the heat balance of the gas in PDRs. The surface temperature of PDRs decreases as the metallicity decreases except for high density ($n>10^6$ cm$^{-3}$) clouds exposed to weak ($chi< 100$) FUV fields where vibrational H$_2$-deexcitation heating dominates over photoelectric heating of the gas. We incorporate the metallicity dependence in our KOSMA-$tau$ PDR model to study the metallicity dependence of [CII]/CO line ratios in low metallicity galaxies. We find that the main trend in the variation of the observed CII/CO ratio with metallicity is well reproduced by a single spherical clump, and does not necessarily require an ensemble of clumps as in the semi-analytical model presented by Bolatto et al. (1999).
The brightest observed emission line in many star-forming galaxies is the [CII] 158 micron line, making it detectable up to z~7. In order to better understand and quantify the [CII] emission as a tracer of star-formation, the theoretical ratio between the [NII] 205 micron emission and the [CII] 158 micron emission has been employed to empirically determine the fraction of [CII] emission that originates from the ionized and neutral phases of the ISM. Sub-kiloparsec measurements of the [CII] 158 micron and [NII] 205 micron line in nearby galaxies have recently become available as part of the Key Insights in Nearby Galaxies: a Far Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH) and Beyond the Peak (BtP) programs. With the information from these two far-infrared lines along with the multi-wavelength suite of KINGFISH data, a calibration of the [CII] emission line as a star formation rate indicator and a better understanding of the [CII] deficit are pursued. [CII] emission is also compared to PAH emission in these regions to compare photoelectric heating from PAH molecules to cooling by [CII] in the neutral and ionized phases of the ISM. We find that the [CII] emission originating in the neutral phase of the ISM does not exhibit a deficit with respect to the infrared luminosity and is therefore preferred over the [CII] emission originating in the ionized phase of the ISM as a star formation rate indicator for the normal star-forming galaxies included in this sample.
We present bright [CII] 158 $mu$m line detections from a strongly magnified and multiply-imaged ($musim20-160$) sub-$L^{*}$ ($M_{rm UV}$ = $-19.75^{+0.55}_{-0.44}$) Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) at $z=6.0719pm0.0004$ from the ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey (ALCS). Emission lines are identified at 268.7 GHz at $geq$ 8$sigma$ exactly at positions of two multiple images of the LBG behind the massive galaxy cluster RXCJ0600$-$2007. Our lens models, updated with the latest spectroscopy from VLT/MUSE, indicate that a sub region of the LBG crosses the caustic and is lensed into a long ($sim6$) arc with a local magnification of $musim 160$, for which the [CII] line is also significantly detected. The source-plane reconstruction resolves the interstellar medium (ISM) structure, showing that the [CII] line is co-spatial with the rest-frame UV continuum at the scale of $sim$300 pc. The [CII] line properties suggest that the LBG is a rotation-dominated system whose velocity gradient explains a slight difference of redshifts between the whole LBG and its sub region. The star formation rate (SFR)-$L_{rm [CII]}$ relations from the sub to the whole regions of the LBG are consistent with those of local galaxies. We evaluate the lower limit of the faint-end of the [CII] luminosity function at $z=6$, and find that it is consistent with predictions from semi analytical models and from the local SFR-$L_{rm [CII]}$ relation with a SFR function at $z=6$. These results imply that the local SFR-$L_{rm [CII]}$ relation is universal for a wide range of scales including the spatially resolved ISM, the whole region of galaxy, and the cosmic scale, even in the epoch of reionization.
We consider the capabilities of ALMA and the ngVLA to detect and image the[CII] 158,$mu$m line from galaxies into the cosmic `dark ages ($z sim 10$ to 20). The [CII] line may prove to be a powerful tool in determining spectroscopic redshifts, and galaxy dynamics, for the first galaxies. In 40,hr, ALMA has the sensitivity to detect the integrated [CII] line emission from a moderate metallicity, active star-forming galaxy [$Z_A = 0.2,Z_{odot}$; star formation rate (SFR)= 5,$M_odot$,yr$^{-1}$], at $z = 10$ at a significance of 6$sigma$. The ngVLA will detect the integrated [CII] line emission from a Milky-Way like star formation rate galaxy ($Z_{A} = 0.2,Z_{odot}$, SFR = 1,$M_odot$,yr$^{-1}$), at $z = 15$ at a significance of 6$sigma$. Imaging simulations show that the ngVLA can determine rotation dynamics for active star-forming galaxies at $z sim 15$, if they exist. The [CII] detection rate in blind surveys will be slow (of order unity per 40,hr pointing.