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Register a new userAn ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Near-infrared morphologies and stellar sizes
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Chian-Chou Chen Dr.
Publication date
2014
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Chian-Chou Chen
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We analyse HST WFC3/$H_{160}$-band observations of a sample of 48 ALMA-detected submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South field, to study their stellar morphologies and sizes. We detect 79$pm$17% of the SMGs in the $H_{160}$-band imaging with a median sensitivity of 27.8 mag, and most (80%) of the non-detections are SMGs with 870$mu$m fluxes of $S_{870} < $3 mJy. With a surface brightness limit of $mu_H sim $26 mag arcsec$^{-2}$, we find that 82$pm$9% of the $H_{160}$-band detected SMGs at $z =$ 1-3 appear to have disturbed morphologies, meaning they are visually classified as either irregulars or interacting systems, or both. By determining a Sersic fit to the $H_{160}$ surface-brightness profiles we derive a median Sersic index of $n = $1.2$pm$0.3 and a median half-light radius of $r_e = $4.4$^{+1.1}_{-0.5}$ kpc for our SMGs at $z = $1-3. We also find significant displacements between the positions of the $H_{160}$-component and 870$mu$m emission in these systems, suggesting that the dusty star-burst regions and less-obscured stellar distribution are not co-located. We find significant differences in the sizes and the Sersic index between our $z = $2-3 SMGs and $z sim $2 quiescent galaxies, suggesting a major transformation of the stellar light profile is needed in the quenching processes if SMGs are progenitors of the red-and-dead $zsim$2 galaxies. Given the short-lived nature of SMGs, we postulate that the majority of the $z = $2-3 SMGs with $S_{870} gtrsim $2 mJy are early/mid-stage major mergers.
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We present a study of the radio properties of 870$mu$m-selected submillimetre galaxies (SMGs), observed at high resolution with ALMA in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. From our initial sample of 76 ALMA SMGs, we detect 52 SMGs at $>3sigma$ significance in VLA 1400MHz imaging, of which 35 are also detected at $>3sigma$ in new 610MHz GMRT imaging. Within this sample of radio-detected SMGs, we measure a median radio spectral index $alpha_{610}^{1400} = -0.79 pm 0.06$, (with inter-quartile range $alpha=[-1.16,-0.56]$) and investigate the far-infrared/radio correlation via the parameter $q_{rm IR}$, the logarithmic ratio of the rest-frame 8-1000$mu$m flux and monochromatic radio flux. Our median $q_{rm IR} = 2.56 pm 0.05$ (inter-quartile range $q_{rm IR}=[2.42,2.78]$) is higher than that typically seen in single-dish 870$mu$m-selected sources ($q_{rm IR} sim 2.4$), which may reflect the fact that our ALMA-based study is not biased to radio-bright counterparts, as previous samples were. Finally, we search for evidence that $q_{rm IR}$ and $alpha$ evolve with age in a co-dependent manner, as predicted by starburst models: the data populate the predicted region of parameter space, with the stellar mass tending to increase along tracks of $q_{rm IR}$ versus $alpha$ in the direction expected, providing the first observational evidence in support of these models.
We present an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 0 survey of 126 submillimeter sources from the LABOCA ECDFS Submillimeter Survey (LESS). Our 870 micron survey with ALMA (ALESS) has produced maps ~3X deeper and with a beam area ~200X smaller than the original LESS observations, doubling the current number of interferometrically-observed submillimeter sources. The high resolution of these maps allows us to resolve sources that were previously blended and accurately identify the origin of the submillimeter emission. We discuss the creation of the ALESS submillimeter galaxy (SMG) catalog, including the main sample of 99 SMGs and a supplementary sample of 32 SMGs. We find that at least 35% (possibly up to 50%) of the detected LABOCA sources have been resolved into multiple SMGs, and that the average number of SMGs per LESS source increases with LESS flux density. Using the (now precisely known) SMG positions, we empirically test the theoretical expectation for the uncertainty in the single-dish source positions. We also compare our catalog to the previously predicted radio/mid-infrared counterparts, finding that 45% of the ALESS SMGs were missed by this method. Our ~1.6 resolution allows us to measure a size of ~9 kpc X 5 kpc for the rest-frame ~300 um emission region in one resolved SMG, implying a star formation rate surface density of 80 M_sol yr^-1 kpc^-2, and we constrain the emission regions in the remaining SMGs to be <10 kpc. As the first statistically reliable survey of SMGs, this will provide the basis for an unbiased multiwavelength study of SMG properties.
We present the first photometric redshift distribution for a large unbiased sample of 870um selected submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) with robust identifications based on observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). In our analysis we consider 96 SMGs in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South, 77 of which have 4-19 band, optical-near-infrared, photometry. We model the Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) for these 77 SMGs, deriving a median photometric redshift of z=2.3+/-0.1. The remaining 19 SMGs have insufficient optical or near-infrared photometry to derive photometric redshifts, but a stacking analysis of IRAC and Herschel observations confirms they are not spurious. Assuming these sources have an absolute H-band magnitude distribution comparable to that of a complete sample of z~1-2 SMGs, we demonstrate that the undetected SMGs lie at higher redshifts, raising the median redshift for SMGs to z=2.5+/-0.2. More critically we show that the proportion of galaxies undergoing an SMG phase at z>3 is 35+/-5% of the total population. We derive a median stellar mass for SMGs of Mstar=(8+/-1)x10^10Mo, but caution that there are significant systematic uncertainties in our stellar mass estimate, up to x5 for individual sources. We compare our sample of SMGs to a volume-limited, morphologically classified sample of ellipticals in the local Universe. Assuming the star formation activity in SMGs has a timescale of ~100Myr we show that their descendants at z~0 would have a space density and M_H distribution which are in good agreement with those of local ellipticals. In addition the inferred mass-weighted ages of the local ellipticals broadly agree with the look-back times of the SMG events. Taken together, these results are consistent with a simple model that identifies SMGs as events that form most of the stars seen in the majority of luminous elliptical galaxies at the present day.
The large gas and dust reservoirs of submm galaxies (SMGs) could potentially provide ample fuel to trigger an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), but previous studies of the AGN fraction in SMGs have been controversial largely due to the inhomogeneity and limited angular resolution of the available submillimeter surveys. Here we set improved constraints on the AGN fraction and X-ray properties of the SMGs with ALMA and Chandra observations in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (E-CDF-S). This study is the first among similar works to have unambiguously identified the X-ray counterparts of SMGs; this is accomplished using the fully submm-identified, statistically reliable SMG catalog with 99 SMGs from the ALMA LABOCA E-CDF-S Submillimeter Survey (ALESS). We found 10 X-ray sources associated with SMGs (median redshift z = 2.3), of which 8 were identified as AGNs using several techniques that enable cross-checking. The other 2 X-ray detected SMGs have levels of X-ray emission that can be plausibly explained by their star-formation activity. 6 of the 8 SMG-AGNs are moderately/highly absorbed, with N_H > 10e23 cm-2. An analysis of the AGN fraction, taking into account the spatial variation of X-ray sensitivity, yields an AGN fraction of 17+16-6% for AGNs with rest-frame 0.5-8 keV absorption-corrected luminosity >7.8x10e42 erg s-1; we provide estimated AGN fractions as a function of X-ray flux and luminosity. ALMAs high angular resolution also enables direct X-ray stacking at the precise positions of SMGs for the first time, and we found 4 potential SMG-AGNs in our stacking sample.
We present spectroscopic redshifts of S(870)>2mJy submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) which have been identified from the ALMA follow-up observations of 870um detected sources in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (the ALMA-LESS survey). We derive spectroscopic redshifts for 52 SMGs, with a median of z=2.4+/-0.1. However, the distribution features a high redshift tail, with ~25% of the SMGs at z>3. Spectral diagnostics suggest that the SMGs are young starbursts, and the velocity offsets between the nebular emission and UV ISM absorption lines suggest that many are driving winds, with velocity offsets up to 2000km/s. Using the spectroscopic redshifts and the extensive UV-to-radio photometry in this field, we produce optimised spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using Magphys, and use the SEDs to infer a median stellar mass of M*=(6+/-1)x10^{10}Msol for our SMGs with spectroscopic redshifts. By combining these stellar masses with the star-formation rates (measured from the far-infrared SEDs), we show that SMGs (on average) lie a factor ~5 above the main-sequence at z~2. We provide this library of 52 template fits with robust and well-sampled SEDs available as a resource for future studies of SMGs, and also release the spectroscopic catalog of ~2000 (mostly infrared-selected) galaxies targeted as part of the spectroscopic campaign.
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