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An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South : high-resolution 870 μm source counts

Karim, A.; Swinbank, A.M.; Hodge, J.A.; Smail, I.R.; Walter, F.; Biggs, A.D.; Simpson, J.M.; Danielson, A.L.R.; Alexander, D.M.; Bertoldi, F.; de Breuck, C.; Chapman, S.C.; Coppin, K.E.K.; Dannerbauer, H.; Edge, A.C.; Greve, T.R.; Ivison, R.J.; Knudsen, K.K.; Menten, K.M.; Schinnerer, E.; Wardlow, J.L.; Weiß, A.; van der Werf, P.

An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South : high-resolution 870 μm source counts Thumbnail


Authors

A. Karim

J.A. Hodge

F. Walter

A.D. Biggs

J.M. Simpson

A.L.R. Danielson

F. Bertoldi

C. de Breuck

S.C. Chapman

K.E.K. Coppin

H. Dannerbauer

T.R. Greve

R.J. Ivison

K.K. Knudsen

K.M. Menten

E. Schinnerer

J.L. Wardlow

A. Weiß

P. van der Werf



Abstract

We report the first counts of faint submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) in the 870-μm band derived from arcsecond-resolution observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). We have used ALMA to map a sample of 122 870-μm-selected submillimetre sources drawn from the 0.5°×0.5° the Large Apex BOlometer CAmera (LABOCA) Extended Chandra Deep Field South submillimetre survey (LESS). These ALMA maps have an average depth of σ870 μm ˜ 0.4 mJy, some approximately three times deeper than the original LABOCA survey and critically the angular resolution is more than an order of magnitude higher, FWHM of ˜1.5 arcsec compared to ˜19 arcsec for the LABOCA discovery map. This combination of sensitivity and resolution allows us to precisely pinpoint the SMGs contributing to the submillimetre sources from the LABOCA map, free from the effects of confusion. We show that our ALMA-derived SMG counts broadly agree with the submillimetre source counts from previous, lower resolution single-dish surveys, demonstrating that the bulk of the submillimetre sources are not caused by blending of unresolved SMGs. The difficulty which well-constrained theoretical models have in reproducing the high surface densities of SMGs, thus remains. However, our observations do show that all of the very brightest sources in the LESS sample, S870 μm ≳ 12 mJy, comprise emission from multiple, fainter SMGs, each with 870-μm fluxes of ≲9 mJy. This implies a natural limit to the star formation rate in SMGs of ≲103 M⊙ yr-1, which in turn suggests that the space densities of z > 1 galaxies with gas masses in excess of ˜5 × 1010 M⊙ is <10-5 Mpc-3. We also discuss the influence of this blending on the identification and characterization of the SMG counterparts to these bright submillimetre sources and suggest that it may be responsible for previous claims that they lie at higher redshifts than fainter SMGs.

Citation

Karim, A., Swinbank, A., Hodge, J., Smail, I., Walter, F., Biggs, A., …van der Werf, P. (2013). An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South : high-resolution 870 μm source counts. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 432(1), 2-9. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt196

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2013
Deposit Date Aug 23, 2013
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 432
Issue 1
Pages 2-9
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt196
Keywords Galaxies, Abundances, Evolution, Formation, Starburst, Star formation, Submillimetre.

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
© 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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