No Arabic abstract
A primary goal of the SCUBA-2 Web survey is to perform tomography of the early inter-galactic medium by studying systems containing some of the brightest quasi-stellar objects (QSOs; 2.5<z<3.0) and nearby submillimetre galaxies. As a first step, this paper aims to characterize the galaxies that host the QSOs. To achieve this, a sample of 13 hyper-luminous (L_AGN>10^14 L_odot) QSOs with previous submillimetre continuum detections were followed up with CO(3-2) observations using the NOEMA interferometer. All but two of the QSOs are detected in CO(3-2); for one non-detection, our observations show a tentative 2sigma line at the expected position and redshift, and for the other non-detection we find only continuum flux density an order of magnitude brighter than the other sources. In three of the fields, a companion potentially suitable for tomography is detected in CO line emission within 25 arcsec of the QSO. We derive gas masses, dynamical masses and far-infrared luminosities, and show that the QSOs in our sample have similar properties as compared to less luminous QSOs and SMGs in the literature, despite the fact that their black-hole masses (which are proportional to L_AGN) are 1-2 orders of magnitude larger. We discuss two interpretations of these observations: this is due to selection effects, such as preferential face-on viewing angles and picking out objects in the tail ends of the scatter in host-galaxy mass and black-hole mass relationships; or the black hole masses have been overestimated because the accretion rates are super-Eddington.
Understanding the relationship between the formation and evolution of galaxies and their central super massive black holes (SMBH) is one of the main topics in extragalactic astrophysics. Links and feedback may reciprocally affect both black hole and galaxy growth. Observations of the CO line at redshifts of 2-4 are crucial to investigate the gas mass, star formation activity and accretion onto SMBHs, as well as the effect of AGN feedback. Potential correlations between AGN and host galaxy properties can be highlighted by observing extreme objects. Despite their luminosity, hyper-luminous QSOs at z=2-4 are still little studied at mm wavelengths. We targeted CO(3-2) in ULAS J1539+0557, an hyper-luminos QSO (Lbol> 10^48 erg/s) at z=2.658, selected through its unusual red colors in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey (ULAS). We find a molecular gas mass of 4.1+-0.8 10^10 Msun, and a gas fraction of 0.4-0.1, depending mostly on the assumed source inclination. We also find a robust lower limit to the star-formation rate (SFR=250-1600 Msun/yr) and star-formation efficiency (SFE=25-350 Lsun/(K km s-1 pc2) by comparing the observed optical-near-infrared spectral energy distribution with AGN and galaxy templates. The black hole gas consumption timescale, M(H_2)/dM(accretion)/dt, is ~160 Myr, similar or higher than the gas consumption timescale. The gas content and the star formation efficiency are similar to those of other high-luminosity, highly obscured QSOs, and at the lower end of the star-formation efficiency of unobscured QSOs, in line with predictions from AGN-galaxy co-evolutionary scenarios. Further measurements of the (sub)-mm continuum in this and similar sources are mandatory to obtain a robust observational picture of the AGN evolutionary sequence.
We present statistically significant detections at 850um of the Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) population at z=3, 4, and 5 using data from the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2) Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) in the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey Ultra Deep Survey (UKIDSS-UDS) field. We employ a stacking technique to probe beneath the survey limit to measure the average 850um flux density of LBGs at z=3, 4, and 5 with typical ultraviolet luminosities of L(1700A)~10^29 erg/s/Hz. We measure 850um flux densities of (0.25 +/- 0.03, (0.41 +/- 0.06), and (0.88 +/- 0.23) mJy respectively, and find that they contribute at most 20 per cent to the cosmic far-infrared background at 850um. Fitting an appropriate range of spectral energy distributions to the z=3, 4, and 5 LBG stacked 24-850um fluxes, we derive infrared (IR) luminosities of L(8-1000um)~3.2, 5.5, and 11.0x10^11 Lsun (corresponding to star formation rates of ~50-200 Msun/yr) respectively. We find that the evolution in the IR luminosity density of LBGs is broadly consistent with model predictions for the expected contribution of luminous IR galaxy (LIRG) to ultraluminous IR galaxy (ULIRG) type systems at these epochs. We also see a strong positive correlation between stellar mass and IR luminosity. Our data are consistent with the main sequence of star formation showing little or no evolution from z=3 to 5. We have also confirmed that, for a fixed mass, the reddest LBGs (UV slope Beta -> 0) are indeed redder due to dust extinction, with SFR(IR)/SFR(UV) increasing by approximately an order of magnitude over -2<Beta<0 such that SFR(IR)/SFR(UV)~20 for the reddest LBGs. Furthermore, the most massive LBGs also tend to have higher obscured-to-unobscured ratio, hinting at a variation in the obscuration properties across the mass range.
We investigate the relation between star formation rates ($dot{M}_{s}$) and AGN properties in optically selected type 1 quasars at $2<z<3$ using data from Herschel and the SDSS. We find that $dot{rm{M}}_s$ remains approximately constant with redshift, at $300pm100~rm{M}_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$. Conversely, $dot{rm{M}}_s$ increases with AGN luminosity, up to a maximum of $sim600~rm{M}_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$, and with CIV FWHM. In context with previous results, this is consistent with a relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and black hole accretion rate ($dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$) existing in only parts of the $z-dot{rm{M}}_{s}-dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$ plane, dependent on the free gas fraction, the trigger for activity, and the processes that may quench star formation. The relations between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and both AGN luminosity and CIV FWHM are consistent with star formation rates in quasars scaling with black hole mass, though we cannot rule out a separate relation with black hole accretion rate. Star formation rates are observed to decline with increasing CIV equivalent width. This decline can be partially explained via the Baldwin effect, but may have an additional contribution from one or more of three factors; $M_i$ is not a linear tracer of L$_{2500}$, the Baldwin effect changes form at high AGN luminosities, and high CIV EW values signpost a change in the relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and $dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$. Finally, there is no strong relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and Eddington ratio, or the asymmetry of the CIV line. The former suggests that star formation rates do not scale with how efficiently the black hole is accreting, while the latter is consistent with CIV asymmetries arising from orientation effects.
We present multiwavelength identifications for the counterparts of 1088 submillimeter sources detected at 850$mu$m in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey study of the UKIDSS-UDS field. By utilising an ALMA pilot study on a subset of our bright SCUBA-2 sample as a training set, along with the deep optical-near-infrared data available in this field, we develop a novel technique, Optical-IR Triple Color (OIRTC), using $z-K$, $K-[3.6]$, $[3.6]-[4.5]$ colors to select the candidate submillimeter galaxy (SMG) counterparts. By combining radio identification and the OIRTC technique, we find counterpart candidates for 80% of the Class = 1 $geq4,sigma$ SCUBA-2 sample, defined as those that are covered by both radio and OIR imaging and the base sample for our scientific analyses. Based on the ALMA training set, we expect the accuracy of these identifications to be $82pm20$%, with a completeness of $69pm16$%, essentially as accurate as the traditional $p$-value technique but with higher completeness. We find that the fraction of SCUBA-2 sources having candidate counterparts is lower for fainter 850$mu$m sources, and we argue that for follow-up observations sensitive to SMGs with $S_{850}gtrsim 1$ mJy across the whole ALMA beam, the fraction with multiple counterparts is likely to be $>40$% for SCUBA-2 sources at $S_{850} gtrsim 4$ mJy. We find that the photometric redshift distribution for the SMGs is well fit by a lognormal distribution, with a median redshift of $z=2.3pm0.1$. After accounting for the sources without any radio and/or OIRTC counterpart, we estimate the median redshift to be $z=2.6pm0.1$ for SMGs with $S_{850} >1$ mJy. We also use this new large sample to study the clustering of SMGs and the the far-infrared properties of the unidentified submillimeter sources by stacking their Herschel SPIRE far-infrared emission.
We present a catalogue of nearly 3,000 submillimetre sources detected at 850um over ~5 square degrees surveyed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS). This is the largest survey of its kind at 850um, probing a meaningful cosmic volume at the peak of star formation activity and increasing the sample size of submillimetre galaxies selected at 850um by an order of magnitude. We describe the wide 850um survey component of S2CLS, which covers the key extragalactic survey fields: UKIDSS-UDS, COSMOS, Akari-NEP, Extended Groth Strip, Lockman Hole North, SSA22 and GOODS-North. The average 1-sigma depth of S2CLS is 1.2 mJy/beam, approaching the SCUBA-2 850um confusion limit, which we determine to be ~0.8 mJy/beam. We measure the single dish 850um number counts to unprecedented accuracy, reducing the Poisson errors on the differential counts to approximately 4% at S_850~3mJy. With several independent fields, we investigate field-to-field variance, finding that the number counts on 0.5-1 degree scales are generally within 50% of the S2CLS mean for S_850>3mJy, with scatter consistent with the Poisson and estimated cosmic variance uncertainties, although there is a marginal (2-sigma) density enhancement in the GOODS-North field. The observed number counts are in reasonable agreement with recent phenomenological and semi-analytic models. Finally, the large solid angle of S2CLS allows us to measure the bright-end counts: at S_850>10mJy there are approximately ten sources per square degree, and we detect the distinctive up-turn in the number counts indicative of the detection of local sources of 850um emission and strongly lensed high-redshift galaxies. Here we describe the data collection and reduction procedures and present calibrated maps and a catalogue of sources; these are made publicly available.