Massive galaxy-scale outflows of gas are one of the most commonly invoked mechanisms to regulate the growth and evolution of galaxies throughout the universe. While the gas in outflows spans a large ...range of temperatures and densities, the cold molecular phase is of particular interest because molecular outflows may be capable of suppressing star formation in galaxies by removing the star-forming gas. We have conducted the first survey of molecular outflows at z > 4, targeting 11 strongly lensed dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) with high-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of OH 119 m absorption as an outflow tracer. In this first paper, we give an overview of the survey, focusing on the detection rate and structure of molecular outflows. We find unambiguous evidence for outflows in 8/11 galaxies (73%), more than tripling the number known at z > 4. This implies that molecular winds in z > 4 DSFGs must have both a near-unity occurrence rate and large opening angles to be detectable in absorption. Lensing reconstructions reveal that 500 pc scale clumpy structures in the outflows are common. The individual clumps are not directly resolved, but from optical depth arguments we expect that future observations will require 50-200 pc spatial resolution to resolve them. We do not detect high-velocity C ii wings in any of the sources with clear OH outflows, indicating that C ii is not a reliable tracer of molecular outflows. Our results represent a first step toward characterizing molecular outflows at z > 4 at the population level, demonstrating that large-scale outflows are ubiquitous among early massive, dusty galaxies.
We present a study of six far-infrared fine structure lines in the z = 4.225 lensed dusty star-forming galaxy SPT 0418−47 to probe the physical conditions of its interstellar medium (ISM). In ...particular, we report Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) detections of the OI 145 μm and OIII 88 μm lines and Atacama Compact Array (ACA) detections of the NII 122 and 205 μm lines. The OI 145 μm/CII 158 μm line ratio is ∼5× higher compared to the average of local galaxies. We interpret this as evidence that the ISM is dominated by photo-dissociation regions with high gas densities. The line ratios, and in particular those of OIII 88 μm and NII 122 μm imply that the ISM in SPT 0418−47 is already chemically enriched to nearly solar metallicity. While the strong gravitational amplification was required to detect these lines with APEX, larger samples can be observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), and should allow observers to determine if the dense, solar metallicity ISM is common among these highly star-forming galaxies.
Aims. We present and study spatially resolved imaging obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of multiple 12CO(J = 6 − 5, 8−7, and 9−8) and two H2O(202−111 and 211−202) ...emission lines and cold dust continuum toward the gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxy SPT 0346-52 at z = 5.656. Methods. Using a visibility-domain source-plane reconstruction we probe the structure and dynamics of the different components of the interstellar medium (ISM) in this galaxy down to scales of 1 kpc in the source plane. Results. Measurements of the intrinsic sizes of the different CO emission lines indicate that the higher J transitions trace more compact regions in the galaxy. Similarly, we find smaller dust continuum intrinsic sizes with decreasing wavelength, based on observations at rest frame 130, 300, and 450 μm. The source shows significant velocity structure, and clear asymmetry where an elongated structure is observed in the source plane with significant variations in their reconstructed sizes. This could be attributed to a compact merger or turbulent disk rotation. The differences in velocity structure through the different line tracers, however, hint at the former scenario in agreement with previous CII line imaging results. Measurements of the CO line ratios and magnifications yield significant variations as a function of velocity, suggesting that modeling of the ISM using integrated values could be misinterpreted. Modeling of the ISM in SPT 0346-52 based on delensed fluxes indicates a highly dense and warm medium, qualitatively similar to that observed in high-redshift quasar hosts.
SPT0346-52 is one of the most most luminous and intensely star-forming galaxies in the universe, with and . In this paper, we present ALMA observations of the 158 m emission line in this z = 5.7 ...dusty star-forming galaxy. We use a pixellated lensing reconstruction code to spatially and kinematically resolve the source-plane and rest-frame 158 m dust continuum structure at ∼700 pc (∼0 12) resolution. We discuss the deficit with a pixellated study of the LC ii/LFIR ratio in the source plane. We find that individual pixels within the galaxy follow the same trend found using unresolved observations of other galaxies, indicating that the deficit arises on scales 700 pc. The lensing reconstruction reveals two spatially and kinematically separated components (∼1 kpc and ∼500 km s−1 apart) connected by a bridge of gas. Both components are found to be globally unstable, with Toomre Q instability parameters everywhere. We argue that SPT0346-52 is undergoing a major merger, which is likely driving the intense and compact star formation.
Abstract
SPT0311-58 is the most massive infrared luminous system discovered so far during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the molecular interstellar ...medium at
z
= 6.9, through high resolution observations of the CO(6–5), CO(7–6), CO(10–9), C
i
(2–1), and p‐H
2
O(2
1,1
−2
0,2
) lines and dust continuum emissions with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The system consists of a pair of intensely star-forming, gravitationally lensed galaxies (labeled West and East). The intrinsic far-infrared luminosity is (16 ± 4) × 10
12
L
⊙
in West and (27 ± 4) × 10
11
L
⊙
in East. We model the dust, CO, and C
i
using non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer models and estimate the intrinsic gas mass to be (5.4 ± 3.4) × 10
11
M
⊙
in West and (3.1 ± 2.7) × 10
10
M
⊙
in East. We find that the CO spectral line energy distribution in West and East are typical of high-redshift submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The CO-to-H
2
conversion factor (
α
CO
) and the gas depletion timescales estimated from the model are consistent with the high-redshift SMGs in the literature within the uncertainties. We find no evidence of evolution of depletion time with redshift in SMGs at
z
> 3. This is the most detailed study of molecular gas content of a galaxy in the EoR to date, with the most distant detection of H
2
O in a galaxy without any evidence for active galactic nuclei in the literature.
Water (H2O), one of the most ubiquitous molecules in the universe, has bright millimeter-wave emission lines that are easily observed at high redshift with the current generation of instruments. The ...low-excitation transition of H2O, ( rest = 987.927 GHz), is known to trace the far-infrared (FIR) radiation field independent of the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over many orders of magnitude in FIR luminosity ( ). This indicates that this transition arises mainly due to star formation. In this paper, we present spatially (∼0 5 corresponding to ∼1 kiloparsec) and spectrally resolved (∼100 kms−1) observations of in a sample of four strong gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxies with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. In addition to increasing the sample of luminous (>1012 L ) galaxies observed with H2O, this paper examines the relation on resolved scales for the first time at high redshift. We find that is correlated with on both global and resolved kiloparsec scales within the galaxy in starbursts and AGN with average . We find that the scatter in the observed relation does not obviously correlate with the effective temperature of the dust spectral energy distribution or the molecular gas surface density. This is a first step in developing as a resolved star formation rate calibrator.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of high-J CO lines (Jup = 6, 7, 8) and associated dust continuum toward five strongly lensed, dusty, star-forming galaxies ...at redshift z = 2.7-5.7. These galaxies, discovered in the South Pole Telescope survey, are observed at 0 2-0 4 resolution with ALMA. Our high-resolution imaging coupled with the lensing magnification provides a measurement of the structure and kinematics of molecular gas in the background galaxies with spatial resolutions down to kiloparsec scales. We derive visibility-based lens models for each galaxy, accurately reproducing observations of four of the galaxies. Of these four targets, three show clear velocity gradients, of which two are likely rotating disks. We find that the reconstructed region of CO emission is less concentrated than the region emitting dust continuum even for the moderate-excitation CO lines, similar to what has been seen in the literature for lower-excitation transitions. We find that the lensing magnification of a given source can vary by 20%-50% across the line profile, between the continuum and line, and between different CO transitions. We apply Large Velocity Gradient modeling using apparent and intrinsic line ratios between lower-J and high-J CO lines. Ignoring these magnification variations can bias the estimate of physical properties of interstellar medium of the galaxies. The magnitude of the bias varies from galaxy to galaxy and is not necessarily predictable without high-resolution observations.
Context. Deep spectroscopic surveys with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed that some of the brightest infrared sources in the sky correspond to concentrations of ...submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift. Among these, the SPT2349-56 protocluster system is amongst the most extreme examples given its high source density and integrated star formation rate. Aims. We conducted a deep Lyman- α line emission survey around SPT2349-56 using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in order to characterize this uniquely dense environment. Methods. Taking advantage of the deep three-dimensional nature of this survey, we performed a sensitive search for Lyman- α emitters (LAEs) toward the core and northern extension of the protocluster, which correspond to the brightest infrared regions in this field. Using a smoothed narrowband image extracted from the MUSE datacube around the protocluster redshift, we searched for possible extended structures. Results. We identify only three LAEs at z = 4.3 in this field. This number is lower than expectations for blank fields, and is significantly lower than the number of previously identified SMGs in this system. We find an extended Lyman- α structure of about 60 × 60 kpc 2 in size located 56 kpc east of the protocluster core. Three SMGs coincide spatially with the location of this structure. All the other SMGs are undetected in Lyman- α emission, which is consistent with the conspicuous dust obscuration in these systems. We conclude that either the three co-spatial SMGs or the protocluster core itself are feeding ionizing photons to the Lyman- α structure.
ABSTRACT
We present APEX-LABOCA 870-μm observations of the fields surrounding the nine brightest high-redshift unlensed objects discovered in the South Pole Telescope’s (SPT) 2500 deg2 survey. ...Initially seen as point sources by SPT’s 1-arcmin beam, the 19-arcsec resolution of our new data enables us to deblend these objects and search for submillimetre (submm) sources in the surrounding fields. We find a total of 98 sources above a threshold of 3.7σ in the observed area of 1300 arcmin2, where the bright central cores resolve into multiple components. After applying a radial cut to our LABOCA sources to achieve uniform sensitivity and angular size across each of the nine fields, we compute the cumulative and differential number counts and compare them to estimates of the background, finding a significant overdensity of $\delta \, {\approx }\,$10 at $S_{870}= 14$ mJy. The large overdensities of bright submm sources surrounding these fields suggest that they could be candidate protoclusters undergoing massive star formation events. Photometric and spectroscopic redshifts of the unlensed central objects range from $z= $3 to 7, implying a volume density of star-forming protoclusters of approximately 0.1 Gpc−3. If the surrounding submm sources in these fields are at the same redshifts as the central objects, then the total star formation rates of these candidate protoclusters reach 10 000 M⊙ yr−1, making them much more active at these redshifts than seen so far in either simulations or observations.
Abstract
With Σ
SFR
∼ 4200
M
⊙
yr
−1
kpc
−2
, SPT 0346–52 (
z
= 5.7) is the most intensely star-forming galaxy discovered by the South Pole Telescope. In this paper, we expand on previous spatially ...resolved studies, using ALMA observations of dust continuum, N
ii
205
μ
m, C
ii
158
μ
m, O
i
146
μ
m, and undetected N
ii
122
μ
m and O
i
63
μ
m emission to study the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) in SPT 0346–52. We use pixelated, visibility-based lens modeling to reconstruct the source-plane emission. We also model the source-plane emission using the photoionization code
cloudy
and find a supersolar metallicity system. We calculate
T
dust
= 48.3 K and
λ
peak
= 80
μ
m and see line deficits in all five lines. The ionized gas is less dense than comparable galaxies, with
n
e
< 32 cm
−3
, while ∼20% of the C
ii
158
μ
m emission originates from the ionized phase of the ISM. We also calculate the masses of several phases of the ISM. We find that molecular gas dominates the mass of the ISM in SPT 0346–52, with the molecular gas mass ∼4× higher than the neutral atomic gas mass and ∼100× higher than the ionized gas mass.
PDF
![Spatially Resolved [C ii] E...](http://api.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/image/issn/XR4PS5YY4K/0004-637X_2041-8205_1538-4357/small "Spatially Resolved [C ii] Emission in SPT0346-52: A Hyper-starburst Galaxy Merger at z ∼ 5.7")
