A new look at the infrared properties of z 5 galaxies

December 2022 • 2022MNRAS.517.5930S

Authors • Sommovigo, L. • Ferrara, A. • Carniani, S. • Pallottini, A. • Dayal, P. • Pizzati, E. • Ginolfi, M. • Markov, V. • Faisst, A.

Abstract • Recent Atacama Large Millimeter Array large surveys unveiled the presence of significant dust continuum emission in star-forming galaxies at z > 4. Unfortunately, such large programs - i.e. ALPINE (z ~ 5) and REBELS (z ~ 7) - only provide us with a single far-infrared (FIR) continuum data point for their individual targets. Therefore, high-z galaxies FIR spectral energy densities (SEDs) remain mostly unconstrained, hinging on an assumption for their dust temperature (T_d) in the SED fitting procedure. This introduces uncertainties in the inferred dust masses (M_d), infrared luminosities (L_IR), and obscured star formation rate (SFR) fraction at z > 4. In this work, we use a method that allows us to constrain T_d with a single-band measurement by combining the 158 $\mu$m continuum information with the overlying [C II emission line. We analyse the 21 [C II and FIR continuum-detected z ~ 5 galaxies in ALPINE, finding a range of T_d = 25-60 K and M_d = 0.6-25.1 × 10⁷ M_⊙. Given the measured stellar masses of ALPINE galaxies, the inferred dust yields are around M_d/M_⋆ = (0.2-8) × 10^-3, consistent with theoretical dust-production constraints. We find that eight out of the 21 ALPINE galaxies have L_IR ≥ 10¹² L_⊙, comparable to ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs). Relying on ultraviolet-to-optical SED fitting, the SFR was underestimated by up to two orders of magnitude in four of these eight ULIRGs-like galaxies. We conclude that these four peculiar sources should be characterized by a two-phase interstellar medium structure with 'spatially segregated' FIR and ultraviolet emitting regions.

Links

• PDF https://academic.oup.com/mnras/pdf-lookup/doi/10.1093/mnras/stac2997
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.09312
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmnras%2Fstac2997