Abstract
The Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) is a cycle-7 ALMA Large Program (LP) that is identifying and performing a first characterization of many of the most luminous ...star-forming galaxies known in the
z
> 6.5 universe. REBELS is providing this probe by systematically scanning 40 of the brightest UV-selected galaxies identified over a 7 deg
2
area for bright C
ii
158
μ
m
and O
iii
88
μ
m
lines and dust-continuum emission. Selection of the 40 REBELS targets was done by combining our own and other photometric selections, each of which is subject to extensive vetting using three completely independent sets of photometry and template-fitting codes. Building on the observational strategy deployed in two pilot programs, we are increasing the number of massive interstellar medium (ISM) reservoirs known at
z
> 6.5 by ∼4–5× to >30. In this manuscript, we motivate the observational strategy deployed in the REBELS program and present initial results. Based on the first-year observations, 18 highly significant ≥ 7
σ
C
ii
158
μ
m
lines have already been discovered, the bulk of which (13/18) also show ≥3.3
σ
dust-continuum emission. These newly discovered lines more than triple the number of bright ISM-cooling lines known in the
z
> 6.5 universe, such that the number of ALMA-derived redshifts at
z
> 6.5 rival Ly
α
discoveries. An analysis of the completeness of our search results versus star formation rate (SFR) suggests an ∼79% efficiency in scanning for C
ii
158
μ
m
when the SFR
UV+IR
is >28
M
⊙
yr
−1
. These new LP results further demonstrate ALMA’s efficiency as a “redshift machine,” particularly in the Epoch of Reionization.
Context.
Molecular gas is a necessary fuel for star formation. The CO (1−0) transition is often used to deduce the total molecular hydrogen but is challenging to detect in low-metallicity galaxies in ...spite of the star formation taking place. In contrast, the C
II
λ
158
μ
m is relatively bright, highlighting a potentially important reservoir of H
2
that is not traced by CO (1−0) but is residing in the C
+
-emitting regions.
Aims.
Here we aim to explore a method to quantify the total H
2
mass (
M
H
2
) in galaxies and to decipher what parameters control the CO-dark reservoir.
Methods.
We present Cloudy grids of density, radiation field, and metallicity in terms of observed quantities, such as O
I
, C
I
, CO (1−0), C
II
,
L
TIR
, and the total
M
H
2
. We provide recipes based on these models to derive total
M
H
2
mass estimates from observations. We apply the models to the
Herschel
Dwarf Galaxy Survey, extracting the total
M
H
2
for each galaxy, and compare this to the H
2
determined from the observed CO (1−0) line. This allows us to quantify the reservoir of H
2
that is CO-dark and traced by the C
II
λ
158
μ
m.
Results.
We demonstrate that while the H
2
traced by CO (1−0) can be negligible, the C
II
λ
158
μ
m can trace the total H
2
. We find 70 to 100% of the total H
2
mass is not traced by CO (1−0) in the dwarf galaxies, but is well-traced by C
II
λ
158
μ
m. The CO-dark gas mass fraction correlates with the observed
L
C
II
/
L
CO(1−0)
ratio. A conversion factor for C
II
λ
158
μ
m to total H
2
and a new CO-to-total-
M
H
2
conversion factor as a function of metallicity are presented.
Conclusions.
While low-metallicity galaxies may have a feeble molecular reservoir as surmised from CO observations, the presence of an important reservoir of molecular gas that is not detected by CO can exist. We suggest a general recipe to quantify the total mass of H
2
in galaxies, taking into account the CO and C
II
observations. Accounting for this CO-dark H
2
gas, we find that the star-forming dwarf galaxies now fall on the Schmidt–Kennicutt relation. Their star-forming efficiency is rather normal because the reservoir from which they form stars is now more massive when introducing the C
II
measures of the total H
2
compared to the small amount of H
2
in the CO-emitting region.
We study the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the radio continuum (RC) emission from the Key Insight in Nearby Galaxies Emitting in Radio (KINGFISHER) sample of nearby galaxies to understand the ...energetics and origin of this emission. Effelsberg multi-wavelength observations at 1.4, 4.8, 8.4, and 10.5 GHz combined with archive data allow us, for the first time, to determine the mid-RC (1-10 GHz, MRC) bolometric luminosities and further present calibration relations versus the monochromatic radio luminosities. The 1-10 GHz radio SED is fitted using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique leading to measurements for the nonthermal spectral index ( ) and the thermal fraction ( ) with mean values of for the total spectral index) and = (10 9)% at 1.4 GHz. The MRC luminosity changes over ∼3 orders of magnitude in the sample, MRC . The thermal emission is responsible for ∼23% of the MRC on average. We also compare the extinction-corrected diagnostics of the star-formation rate (SFR) with the thermal and nonthermal radio tracers and derive the first star-formation calibration relations using the MRC radio luminosity. The nonthermal spectral index flattens with increasing SFR surface density, indicating the effect of the star-formation feedback on the cosmic-ray electron population in galaxies. Comparing the radio and IR SEDs, we find that the FIR-to-MRC ratio could decrease with SFR, due to the amplification of the magnetic fields in star-forming regions. This particularly implies a decrease in the ratio at high redshifts, where mostly luminous/star-forming galaxies are detected.
ABSTRACT
The large quantities of dust that have been found in a number of high-redshift galaxies have led to suggestions that core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the main sources of their dust and ...have motivated the measurement of the dust masses formed by local CCSNe. For Cassiopeia A (Cas A), an oxygen-rich remnant of a Type IIb CCSN, a dust mass of 0.6–1.1 M⊙ has already been determined by two different methods, namely (a) from its far-infrared spectral energy distribution and (b) from analysis of the red–blue emission line asymmetries in its integrated optical spectrum. We present a third, independent, method for determining the mass of dust contained within Cas A. This compares the relative fluxes measured in similar apertures from O iii far-infrared and visual-region emission lines, taking into account foreground dust extinction, in order to determine internal dust optical depths, from which corresponding dust masses can be obtained. Using this method, we determine a dust mass within Cas A of at least 0.99$^{+0.10}_{-0.09}$ M⊙.
ABSTRACT
We calculate dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a range of grain sizes and compositions, using physical properties appropriate for five pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) from which dust ...emission associated with the ejecta has been detected. By fitting the observed dust SED with our models, with the number of grains of different sizes as the free parameters, we are able to determine the grain size distribution and total dust mass in each PWN. We find that all five PWNe require large ($\ge 0.1 \, {\rm \mu m}$) grains to make up the majority of the dust mass, with strong evidence for the presence of micron-sized or larger grains. Only two PWNe contain non-negligible quantities of small ($\lt 0.01 \, {\rm \mu m}$) grains. The size distributions are generally well-represented by broken power laws, although our uncertainties are too large to rule out alternative shapes. We find a total dust mass of $0.02\rm {-}0.28 \, {\rm M}_\odot$ for the Crab Nebula, depending on the composition and distance from the synchrotron source, in agreement with recent estimates. For three objects in our sample, the PWN synchrotron luminosity is insufficient to power the observed dust emission, and additional collisional heating is required, either from warm, dense gas as found in the Crab Nebula, or higher temperature shocked material. For G54.1+0.3, the dust is heated by nearby OB stars rather than the PWN. Inferred dust masses vary significantly depending on the details of the assumed heating mechanism, but in all cases large mass fractions of micron-sized grains are required.
ABSTRACT
We include a fully coupled treatment of metal and dust enrichment into the Delphi semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to explain the dust content of 13 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) ...detected by the Atacama Large millimetre Array (ALMA) REBELS Large Program at z ≃ 7. We find that the galaxy dust mass, Md, is regulated by the combination of Type II supernova dust production, astration, shock destruction, and ejection in outflows; grain growth (with a standard time-scale τ0 = 30 Myr) plays a negligible role. The model predicts a dust-to-stellar mass ratio of $\sim 0.07\!-\!0.1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and a UV-to-total star formation rate relation such that log(ψUV) = −0.05 log(ψ)2 + 0.86 log(ψ) − 0.05 (implying that 55–80 per cent of the star formation is obscured) for REBELS galaxies with stellar mass $M_* = 10^{9}\!-\!10^{10} \rm M_\odot$. This relation reconciles the intrinsic UV luminosity of LBGs with their observed luminosity function at z = 7. However, 2 out of the 13 systems show dust-to-stellar mass ratios ($\sim 0.94\!-\!1.1{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$) that are up to 18 times larger than expected from the fiducial relation. Due to the physical coupling between dust and metal enrichment, even decreasing τ0 to very low values (0.3 Myr) only increases the dust-to-stellar mass ratio by a factor of ∼2. Given that grain growth is not a viable explanation for such high observed ratios of the dust-to-stellar mass, we propose alternative solutions.
Aims.
The purpose of this work is the characterization of the main scaling relations between all of the interstellar medium (ISM) components, namely dust, atomic, molecular, and total gas, and ...gas-phase metallicity, as well as other galaxy properties, such as stellar mass (
M
star
) and galaxy morphology, for late-type galaxies in the Local Universe.
Methods.
This study was performed by extracting late-type galaxies from the entire DustPedia sample and by exploiting the large and homogeneous dataset available thanks to the DustPedia project. The sample consists of 436 galaxies with morphological stage spanning from
T
= 1−10,
M
star
from 6 × 10
7
to 3 × 10
11
M
⊙
, star formation rate from 6 × 10
−4
to 60
M
⊙
yr
−1
, and oxygen abundance from 12 + log(O/H) = 8−9.5. Molecular and atomic gas data were collected from the literature and properly homogenized. All the masses involved in our analysis refer to the values within the optical disks of galaxies. The scaling relations involving the molecular gas are studied by assuming both a constant and a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H
2
conversion factor (
X
CO
). The analysis was performed by means of the survival analysis technique, in order to properly take into account the presence of both detection and nondetection in the data.
Results.
We confirm that the dust mass correlates very well with the total gas mass, and find –for the first time– that the dust mass correlates better with the atomic gas mass than with the molecular one. We characterize important mass ratios such as the gas fraction, the molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratio, the dust-to-total gas mass ratio (DGR), and the dust-to-stellar mass ratio, and study how they relate to each other, to galaxy morphology, and to gas-phase metallicity. Only the assumption of a metallicity-dependent
X
CO
reproduces the expected decrease of the DGR with increasing morphological stage and decreasing gas-phase metallicity, with a slope of about 1. The DGR, the gas-phase metallicity, and the dust-to-stellar mass ratio are, for our galaxy sample, directly linked to galaxy morphology. The molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratio and the DGR show a positive correlation for low molecular gas fractions, but for galaxies rich in molecular gas this trend breaks down. To our knowledge, this trend has never been found before, and provides new constraints for theoretical models of galaxy evolution and a reference for high-redshift studies. We discuss several scenarios related to this finding.
Conclusions.
The DustPedia database of late-type galaxies is an extraordinary tool for the study of the ISM scaling relations, thanks to its homogeneous collection of data for the different ISM components. The database is made publicly available to the whole community.
We present SOFIA/FIFI-LS observations of the C ii 158 m cooling line across the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6946. We combine these with UV, IR, CO, and H i data to compare C ii emission to dust ...properties, star formation rate (SFR), H2, and H i at 560 pc scales via stacking by environment (spiral arms, interarm, and center), radial profiles, and individual, beam-sized measurements. We attribute 73% of the C ii luminosity to arms, and 19% and 8% to the center and interarm region, respectively. C ii/TIR, C ii/CO, and C ii/PAH radial profiles are largely constant, but rise at large radii ( 8 kpc) and drop in the center ("C ii deficit"). This increase at large radii and the observed decline with the 70 m/100 m dust color are likely driven by radiation field hardness. We find a near proportional C ii-SFR scaling relation for beam-sized regions, though the exact scaling depends on methodology. C ii also becomes increasingly luminous relative to CO at low SFR (interarm or large radii), likely indicating more efficient photodissociation of CO and emphasizing the importance of C ii as an H2 and SFR tracer in such regimes. Finally, based on the observed C ii and CO radial profiles and different models, we find CO to increase with radius, in line with the observed metallicity gradient. The low CO (galaxy average 2 M pc−2 (K km s−1)−1) and low C ii/CO ratios (∼400 on average) imply little CO-dark gas across NGC 6946, in contrast to estimates in the Milky Way.
Interstellar dust and starlight are modeled for the galaxies of the project "Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel." The galaxies were observed by the Infrared Array ...Camera and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer on Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver on Herschel Space Observatory. With data from 3.6 to 500 m, dust models are strongly constrained. Using a physical dust model, for each pixel in each galaxy we estimate (1) dust surface density, (2) dust mass fraction in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), (3) distribution of starlight intensities heating the dust, (4) total infrared (IR) luminosity emitted by the dust, and (5) IR luminosity originating in subregions with high starlight intensity. The dust models successfully reproduce the observed global and resolved spectral energy distributions. With the angular resolution of Herschel, we obtain well-resolved maps (available online) for the dust properties. As in previous studies, we find the PAH fraction to be an increasing function of metallicity, with a threshold oxygen abundance Z/Z 0.1, but we find the data to be fitted best with increasing linearly with above a threshold value of 0.15(O/H) . We obtain total dust masses for each galaxy by summing the dust mass over the individual map pixels; these "resolved" dust masses are consistent with the masses inferred from a model fit to the global photometry. The global dust-to-gas ratios obtained from this study are found to correlate with galaxy metallicities. Systems with Z/Z 0.5 have most of their refractory elements locked up in dust, whereas in systems with Z/Z 0.3 most of these elements tend to remain in the gas phase. Within galaxies, we find that is suppressed in regions with unusually warm dust with . With knowledge of one long-wavelength flux density ratio (e.g., f160/f500), the minimum starlight intensity heating the dust ( ) can be estimated to within ∼50%, despite a variation in of more than two orders of magnitude. For the adopted dust model, dust masses can be estimated to within ∼0.2 dex accuracy using the f160/f500 flux ratio and the integrated dust luminosity, and to ∼0.07 dex accuracy using the 500 m luminosity alone. There are additional systematic errors arising from the choice of dust model, but these are hard to estimate. These calibrated prescriptions for estimating starlight heating intensity and dust mass may be useful for studies of high-redshift galaxies.
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