Significant Dust-Obscured Star Formation in Luminous Lyman-break Galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$


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We make use of ALMA continuum observations of $15$ luminous Lyman-break galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ to probe their dust-obscured star-formation. These observations are sensitive enough to probe to obscured SFRs of $20$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$ ($3sigma$). Six of the targeted galaxies show significant ($geq$$3$$sigma$) dust continuum detections, more than doubling the number of known dust-detected galaxies at $z$$>$$6.5$. Their IR luminosities range from $2.7$$times$$10^{11}$ $L_{odot}$ to $1.1$$times$$10^{12}$ $L_{odot}$, equivalent to obscured SFRs of $20$ to $105$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$. We use our results to quantify the correlation of the infrared excess IRX on the UV-continuum slope $beta_{UV}$ and stellar mass. Our results are most consistent with an SMC attenuation curve for intrinsic $UV$-slopes $beta_{UV,intr}$ of $-2.63$ and most consistent with an attenuation curve in-between SMC and Calzetti for $beta_{UV,intr}$ slopes of $-2.23$, assuming a dust temperature $T_d$ of $50$ K. Our fiducial IRX-stellar mass results at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ are consistent with marginal evolution from $z$$sim$$0$. We then show how both results depend on $T_d$. For our six dust-detected sources, we estimate their dust masses and find that they are consistent with dust production from SNe if the dust destruction is low ($<$$90$%). Finally we determine the contribution of dust-obscured star formation to the star formation rate density for $UV$ luminous ($<$$-$$21.5$ mag: $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$) $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ galaxies, finding that the total SFR density at $z$$sim$$7$ and $z$$sim$$8$ from bright galaxies is $0.18_{-0.10}^{+0.08}$ dex and $0.20_{-0.09}^{+0.05}$ dex higher, respectively, i.e. $sim$$frac{1}{3}$ of the star formation in $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$ galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ is obscured by dust.

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