No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we investigate the physical associations between blended far-infrared (FIR)-emitting galaxies, in order to identify the level of line-of-sight projection contamination in the single-dish Herschel data. Building on previous work, and as part of the Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project (HELP), we identify a sample of galaxies in the COSMOS field which are found to be both FIR-bright (typically $sim 15$ mJy) and blended within the Herschel 250 $mu$m beam. We identify a spectroscopic or photometric redshift for each FIR-bright source. We conduct a joint probability distribution analysis on the redshift probability density functions to determine the fraction of the FIR sources with multiple FIR-bright counterparts which are likely to be found at consistent ($Delta z$ $< 0.01$) redshifts. We find that only 3 (0.4 per cent) of the pair permutations between counterparts are $>50$ per cent likely to be at consistent redshifts. A majority of counterparts (72 per cent) have no overlap in their redshift probability distributions whatsoever. This is in good agreement with the results of recent simulations, which indicate that single-dish observations of the FIR sky should be strongly contaminated by line of sight projection effects. We conclude that for our sample of 3.6- and 24-$mu$m selected, FIR-bright objects in the COSMOS field, the overwhelming majority of multi-component FIR systems are line of sight projections within the 18.1 arcsec Herschel beam, rather than physical associations.
We present a method of selection of 24~$mu$m galaxies from the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Deep Field down to $150 mbox{ }mu$Jy and measurements of their two-point correlation function. We aim to associate various 24 $mu$m selected galaxy populations with present day galaxies and to investigate the impact of their environment on the direction of their subsequent evolution. We discuss using of Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithm applied to infrared photometric data to perform star-galaxy separation, in which we achieve an accuracy higher than 80%. The photometric redshift information, obtained through the CIGALE code, is used to explore the redshift dependence of the correlation function parameter ($r_{0}$) as well as the linear bias evolution. This parameter relates galaxy distribution to the one of the underlying dark matter. We connect the investigated sources to their potential local descendants through a simplified model of the clustering evolution without interactions. We observe two different populations of star-forming galaxies, at $z_{med}sim 0.25$, $z_{med}sim 0.9$. Measurements of total infrared luminosities ($L_{TIR}$) show that the sample at $z_{med}sim 0.25$ is composed mostly of local star-forming galaxies, while the sample at $z_{med}sim0.9$ is composed of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) with $L_{TIR}sim 10^{11.62}L_{odot}$. We find that dark halo mass is not necessarily correlated with the $L_{TIR}$: for subsamples with $L_{TIR}= 10^{11.15} L_{odot}$ at $z_{med}sim 0.7$ we observe a higher clustering length ($r_{0}=6.21pm0.78$ $[h^{-1} mbox{Mpc}]$) than for a subsample with mean $L_{TIR}=10^{11.84} L_{odot}$ at $z_{med}sim1.1$ ($r_{0}=5.86pm0.69$ $h^{-1} mbox{Mpc}$). We find that galaxies at $z_{med}sim 0.9$ can be ancestors of present day $L_{*}$ early type galaxies, which exhibit a very high $r_{0}sim 8$~$h^{-1} mbox{Mpc}$.
We investigate the multiplicity of extragalactic sources detected by the Herschel Space Observatory in the COSMOS field. Using 3.6- and 24-$mu$m catalogues, in conjunction with 250-$mu$m data from Herschel, we seek to determine if a significant fraction of Herschel sources are composed of multiple components emitting at 250 $mu$m. We use the XID+ code, using Bayesian inference methods to produce probability distributions of the possible contributions to the observed 250-$mu$m flux for each potential component. The fraction of Herschel flux assigned to the brightest component is highest for sources with total 250-$mu$m fluxes < 45 mJy; however, the flux in the brightest component is still highest in the brightest Herschel sources. The faintest 250-$mu$m sources (30-45 mJy) have the majority of their flux assigned to a single bright component; the second brightest component is typically significantly weaker, and contains the remainder of the 250-$mu$m source flux. At the highest 250-$mu$m fluxes (45-110 mJy), the brightest and second brightest components are assigned roughly equal fluxes, and together are insufficient to reach 100 per cent of the 250-$mu$m source flux. This indicates that additional components are required, beyond the brightest two components, to reproduce the observed flux. 95 per cent of the sources in our sample have a second component that contains more than 10 per cent of the total source flux. Particularly for the brightest Herschel sources, assigning the total flux to a single source may overestimate the flux contributed by around 150 per cent.
We perform lens modelling and source reconstruction of Submillimeter Array (SMA) data for a sample of 12 strongly lensed galaxies selected at 500$mu$m in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey H-ATLAS. A previous analysis of the same dataset used a single S`ersic profile to model the light distribution of each background galaxy. Here we model the source brightness distribution with an adaptive pixel scale scheme, extended to work in the Fourier visibility space of interferometry. We also present new SMA observations for seven other candidate lensed galaxies from the H-ATLAS sample. Our derived lens model parameters are in general consistent with previous findings. However, our estimated magnification factors, ranging from 3 to 10, are lower. The discrepancies are observed in particular where the reconstructed source hints at the presence of multiple knots of emission. We define an effective radius of the reconstructed sources based on the area in the source plane where emission is detected above 5$sigma$. We also fit the reconstructed source surface brightness with an elliptical Gaussian model. We derive a median value $r_{eff},sim 1.77,$kpc and a median Gaussian full width at half maximum $sim1.47,$kpc. After correction for magnification, our sources have intrinsic star formation rates SFR$,sim900-3500,M_{odot}yr^{-1}$, resulting in a median star formation rate surface density $Sigma_{SFR}sim132,M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$ (or $sim 218,M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$ for the Gaussian fit). This is consistent with what observed for other star forming galaxies at similar redshifts, and is significantly below the Eddington limit for a radiation pressure regulated starburst.
We present a sample of 80 candidate strongly lensed galaxies with flux density above 100mJy at 500{mu}m extracted from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), over an area of 600 square degrees. Available imaging and spectroscopic data allow us to confirm the strong lensing in 20 cases and to reject it in one case. For other 8 objects the lensing scenario is strongly supported by the presence of two sources along the same line of sight with distinct photometric redshifts. The remaining objects await more follow-up observations to confirm their nature. The lenses and the background sources have median redshifts z_L = 0.6 and z_S = 2.5, respectively, and are observed out to z_L = 1.2 and z_S = 4.2. We measure the number counts of candidate lensed galaxies at 500{mu}m and compare them with theoretical predictions, finding a good agreement for a maximum magnification of the background sources in the range 10-20. These values are consistent with the magnification factors derived from the lens modelling of individual systems. The catalogue presented here provides sub- mm bright targets for follow-up observations aimed at exploiting gravitational lensing to study with un-precedented details the morphological and dynamical properties of dusty star forming regions in z >~ 1.5 galaxies.
We present a sample of 290 24-micron-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) mostly at z ~ 0.3 -- 2.5, within 5.2 square degrees distributed as 25 X 25 fields around each of 30 galaxy clusters in the Local Cluster Substructure Survey (LoCuSS). The sample is nearly complete to 1 mJy at 24 microns, and has a rich multi-wavelength set of ancillary data; 162 are detected by Herschel. We use spectral templates for AGNs, stellar populations, and infrared emission by star forming galaxies to decompose the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these AGNs and their host galaxies, and estimate their star formation rates (SFRs), AGN luminosities, and host galaxy stellar masses. The set of templates is relatively simple: a standard Type-1 quasar template; another for the photospheric output of the stellar population; and a far infrared star-forming template. For the Type-2 AGN SEDs, we substitute templates including internal obscuration, and some Type-1 objects require a warm component (T > 50 K). The individually Herschel- detected Type-1 AGNs and a subset of 17 Type-2 ones typically have luminosities > 10^{45} ergs/s, and supermassive black holes of ~ 3 X 10^8 Msun emitting at ~ 10% of the Eddington rate. We find them in about twice the numbers of AGN identified in SDSS data in the same fields, i.e., they represent typical high luminosity AGN, not an infrared-selected minority. These AGNs and their host galaxies are studied further in an accompanying paper.