The Link between Submillimetre Galaxies and Luminous Ellipticals: Near-Infrared IFU Spectroscopy of Submillimetre Galaxies

By Mark Chapman, I. Smail, Christopher C. Lindner, C. Borys, A. Blain, R. Ivison, G. Durham, Caltech Astronomy, U. Toronto, U. Edinburgh and 1 more. 2006

174 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present two-dimensional spectroscopy covering the rest-frame wavelengths of strong optical emission lines in six luminous submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) at z= 1.3–2.5. Using this near-infrared integral field spectroscopy together with Hubble Space Telescope ACS and NICMOS imaging, we map the dynamics and morphologies of these systems on scales from 4–11 kpc. Four of the systems show multiple components in their spatially resolved spectra with average velocity offsets of ~180 km s^(−1) across 8 kpc in projection. From the ensemble properties of eight galaxies, from our survey and the literature, we estimate the typical dynamical masses of bright SMGs as 5 ± 3 × 10^(11) M_⊙. This is similar to recent estimates of their stellar masses – suggesting that the dynamics of the central regions of these galaxies are baryon dominated, with a substantial fraction of those baryons in stars by the epoch of observation. Combining our dynamical mass estimates with stellar luminosities for this population, we investigate whether SMGs can evolve on to the Faber–Jackson (FJ) relation for local ellipticals. Adopting a typical lifetime of τ_(burst) ~300 Myr for the submillimetre-luminous phase – using the latest estimates of gas masses, star formation rates and active galactic nucleus contribution to the bolometric luminosities – we find that the stellar populations of SMGs should fade to place them on the FJ relation, at M_K ~ −25.1. Furthermore, using the same starburst lifetime we correct the observed space density of SMGs for the duty cycle to derive a volume density of the progenitors of ~1 × 10^(−4) Mpc^(−3). This is consistent with the space density of local luminous early-type galaxies with M_K ~ −25.1, indicating that SMGs can evolve on to the scaling relations observed for local early-type galaxies, and the observed population at z ~ 2 is then sufficient to account for the formation of the whole population of ≳3 L^*_K ellipticals seen at z ~ 0.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Citations in the corpus

MID-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES: EXTENDED STAR FORMATION IN MASSIVE HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES (2009, unknown): “Swinbank et al. (2006) mapped Hα emission from eight SMGs with Integral Field spectroscopy and found Hα structures extending to 1–2′′ or ∼ 8–16kpc in size.”
HerMES: CANDIDATE GRAVITATIONALLY LENSED GALAXIES AND LENSING STATISTICS AT SUBMILLIMETER WAVELENGTHS (2012, background): “13; the final source not shown here – HBoötes03 – has been discussed extensively in the literature (Borys et al. 2006; Desai et al. 2006; Iono et al. 2006b,a; Swinbank et al. 2006; Sturm et al. 2010; Hailey-Dunsheath et al. 2010), with multi-wavelength imaging available in several of these papers.”
AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: THE REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTION OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES (2013, background): “It has been suggested that SMGs may be the progenitors of local elliptical galaxies (e.g. Lilly et al. 1999; Genzel et al. 2003; Blain et al. 2004; Swinbank et al. 2006; Tacconi et al. 2008; Swinbank et al. 2010a).”
Testing the evolutionary link between submillimetre galaxies and quasars: CO observations of QSOs at z∼ 2 (2008, methodology): “…are 1000× less abundant in the local Universe than they were at the era of their peak activity at z ∼ 2 and so we have to be cautious about extrapolating from local examples to the high-redshift progenitors of the bulk of today’s massive spheroids (Genzel et al. 2003; Swinbank et al. 2006).”
High-Resolution Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (2007, background): “…make them strong candidates for being the rapid growth phases of massive elliptical galaxies (Scott et al. 2002; Rocca-Volmerange et al. 2004; Swinbank et al. 2006), and they may serve as efficient ‘‘lighthouses’’ of the seeds of massive clusters at zk 1:5 (Blain et al. 2004; Farrah et al.…”
MOST SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES ARE MAJOR MERGERS (2010, background): “Swinbank et al. (2006) obtained integral field near-infrared spectroscopy data of 6 SMGs, which showed a significant fraction to consist of kinematically distinct sub-components, interpreted as an indication of merging.”
A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies (2012, methodology): “It is worth noting that a comparison to values derived from other studies (e.g. Swinbank et al. 2004, 2006) favours the upper end of our estimates, suggesting that systems which are both compact and disc-like perhaps do not comprise a significant proportion of the bright SMG population, and that…”
Resolved Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Star Formation in Disks at High Redshift (2007, background): “Submillimeter galaxies at z 2Y3 could also be disks with active star formation (Almaini et al. 2005; Tacconi et al. 2006; Swinbank et al. 2006).”
Multiwavelength Study of Massive Galaxies at z~2. I. Star Formation and Galaxy Growth (2007, background): “This implies that these ULIRG phases will last for at least some 400 Myr, 1 order of magnitude longer than what is currently estimated for SMGs at similar redshifts, or for local ULIRGs (see, e.g., Greve et al. 2005; Tacconi et al. 2006; although see also Swinbank et al. 2006).”
From Rings to Bulges: Evidence for Rapid Secular Galaxy Evolution at z ~ 2 from Integral Field Spectroscopy in the SINS Survey (2008, result): “In contrast to these UV/ optically selected galaxies, the very luminous submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z 1Y3 appear to mostly be major mergers in various stages of evolution (Tacconi et al. 2006, 2008; Swinbank et al. 2006).”
The LABOCA survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: A photometric redshift survey of submillimetre galaxies (2010, background): “Finally, we relate our new estimate of the redshift distribution of SMGs to constraints on the evolution of their likely descendants: massive early-type galaxies (Swinbank et al. 2006).”
An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: high-resolution 870 μm source counts (2012, background): “…that they host up to half of the star formation occurring at z >∼ 2 (e.g., Hughes et al. 1998; Blain et al. 1999; Chapman et al. 2005) and may be linked to QSO activity and the formation of massive galaxies at high redshift (e.g., Swinbank et al. 2006; Alexander et al. 2008; Hickox et al. 2012).”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “Key works on Hα kinematics in SMGs is summarized by Swinbank et al. (2006), Alaghband-Zadeh et al. (2012) andMenéndez-Delmestre et al. (2013).”
An ALMA survey of sub-millimetre Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: the far-infrared properties of SMGs (2013, background): “These 870-µm-selected samples remain the best-studied SMGs, and links have been proposed between SMGs, QSOs and the formation phase of massive galaxies at high redshift (e.g. Genzel et al. 2003; Swinbank et al. 2006; Coppin et al. 2008b; Daddi et al. 2009; Hickox et al. 2012).”
A semi-empirical simulation of the extragalactic radio continuum sky for next generation radio telescopes (2008, result): “For the starbursts, we take Mhalo = 5 × 1013h−1 M⊙, consistent with the claim of Swinbank et al. (2006) that submillimetre galaxies are progenitors of L > 3L⋆K E-type galaxies at z=0, and with the clustering measurements of Farrah et al. (2006) for mid-IR selected samples at z = 1.5 − 3.”
Evidence for powerful AGN winds at high redshift: dynamics of galactic outflows in radio galaxies during the “Quasar Era” (2008, background): “…has been published for a few dozen galaxies at z∼ 2 of different types and masses (e.g. Förster Schreiber et al. 2006; Nesvadba et al. 2007b, 2006a; Swinbank et al. 2006; Law et al. 2007; Nesvadba et al. 2008; Genzel et al. 2006; Wright et al. 2007; Bournaud et al. 2008), including galaxies…”
A Herschel view of the far-infrared properties of submillimetre galaxies (2012, background): “SMGs with S850 > 5 mJy are thought to exhibit very intense short-lived star-formation bursts, triggered by mergers, and to be the high-redshift progenitors of local massive early-type galaxies (Lilly et al. 1999; Swinbank et al. 2006; Daddi et al. 2007a,b; Tacconi et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008).”
Multiwavelength Study of Massive Galaxies at z ~ 2. II. Widespread Compton-thick Active Galactic Nuclei and the Concurrent Growth of Black Holes and Bulges (2007, background): “The long duty cycle of their SFR activity (Daddi et al 2005b; Paper I) also supports this idea, while SMGs are thought to be comparably much shorted lived (e.g., Greve et al 2005 but see also Swinbank et al. 2006).”
An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field: physical properties of 707 sub-millimetre galaxies (2019, background): “There have also been suggestions of an evolutionary link with quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) (e.g. Swinbank et al. 2006; Wall, Pope & Scott 2008; Hickox et al. 2012; Simpson et al. 2012) due to the similarities in their redshift distributions.”
Energetic galaxy-wide outflows in high-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies hosting AGN activity (2012, methodology): “HST imaging and Hα IFU data show this source contains two components separated by≈11 kpc (Swinbank et al. 2006; Menéndez-Delmestre et al. 2012).”