Starforming Galaxies at High Redshift as seen by SCUBA and Spitzer

August 2005 • 2005JRASC..99..131P

Authors • Pope, Alexandra • Scott, Douglas • Sajina, Anna • Dickinson, Mark • Borys, Colin • Chary, Ranga-Ram • Morrison, Glenn

Abstract • Both SCUBA and Spitzer are able to select high-redshift starforming galaxies that contribute significantly to the cosmic infrared background. Our understanding of galaxy evolution is dependent on making the connection between these two high-redshift galaxy populations and determining how they are related to galaxies in the local Universe. While infrared luminous galaxies selected by Spitzer are much more numerous than the SCUBA population, there is significant overlap. This overlap can be explored using the multiwavelength dataset from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) Northern field, as it contains both the deepest Spitzer observations and a large SCUBA imaging campaign. We find that 90% of the SCUBA galaxies in GOODS North are detected in all 5 of the available Spitzer bands. This additional photometry along with optical and radio detections allow us to obtain accurate photometric redshifts and fully characterize the spectral energy distribution of an unbiased sample of SCUBA galaxies. Given that we have the first sample of sub-mm sources, which is almost completely identified, our results have important implications for future extragalactic sub-mm surveys with SCUBA- 2. Based on our results, which make use of the deepest follow-up data, we can make predictions for the optimal depth at optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths for follow-up observations and stress that the deep infrared imaging should be a top priority.

Links

• GIF http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2005JRASC..99..131P
• ARTICLE http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2005JRASC..99..131P?defaultprint=YES