The formation of high-redshift submillimetre galaxies

By D. Narayanan, C. Hayward, Thomas J. Cox, L. Hernquist, P. Jonsson, J. Younger, B. Groves. 2009

148 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We describe a model for the formation of z ∼ 2 Submillimeter Galaxies (SMGs) which simultaneously accounts for both average and bright SMGs while providing a reasonable match to their mean observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs). By coupling hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy mergers with the high resolution 3D polychromatic radiative transfer code SUNRISE, we find that a mass sequence of merger models which use observ ational constraints as physical input naturally yield objec ts which exhibit black hole, bulge, and H2 gas masses similar to those observed in SMGs. The dominant drivers behind the 850 µm flux are the masses of the merging galaxies and the stellar bir thcloud covering fraction. The most luminous (S850&15 mJy) sources are recovered by ∼10 13 M⊙ 1:1 major mergers with a birthcloud covering fraction close to unity, whereas more average SMGs (S850∼5‐7 mJy) may be formed in lower mass halos (∼5×10 12 M⊙ ). These models demonstrate the need for high spatial resolution hydrodynamic and radiative transfer simulations in matching both the most luminous sources as well as the full SEDs of SMGs. While these models suggest a natural formation mechanism for SMGs, they do not attempt to match cosmological statistics of galaxy populations; future efforts along this line will hel p ascertain the robustness of these models.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4bf100dda33ff86564b7494086b3efef5a42be29

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

Cosmic evolution of submillimeter galaxies and their contribution to stellar mass assembly (2009, background): “…Chapman et al., 2004; Swinbank et al., 2004; Greve et al., 2005; Tacconi et al., 2006, 2008; Younger et al., 2007, 2008; Berciano Alba et al., 2010; Narayanan et al., 2009, 2010) and cannot be sustained for a long period (after a few hundred Myr at most the gas reservoir should be depleted; see…”
ON SIZES, KINEMATICS, M/L GRADIENTS, AND LIGHT PROFILES OF MASSIVE COMPACT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 (2010, background): “Narayanan et al. (2010) describe how during a relatively short (< 50 Myr) period at final coalescence (orange) a peak in emission at sub-millimeter wavelengths is reached.”
EVIDENCE FOR A CLUMPY, ROTATING GAS DISK IN A SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY AT z = 4 (2012, background): “Many SMGs are believed to be starburst–dominated major mergers (e.g., Chapman et al. 2003b; Engel et al. 2010; Narayanan et al. 2010; Hayward et al. 2011, 2012).”
The CO-H2 Conversion Factor in Disc Galaxies and Mergers (2011, methodology): “This value is motivated in part by simulations by Jonsson et al. (2010) which showed covering fractions comparable to these result in synthetic SEDs of disc galaxies comparable to the SINGS sample (Kennicutt et al. 2003).”
Submillimetre galaxies in a hierarchical universe: number counts, redshift distribution, and implications for the IMF (2012, background): “(1) the AGN typically do not dominate (but can still contribute significantly to) the luminosity of our model SMGs because the SEDs during the phase of strong AGN activity tend to be hotter than during the starburst phase (e.g. Younger et al. 2009, Snyder et al. 2012), so the mergers are typically n”
HYDRODYNAMICS OF HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXY COLLISIONS: FROM GAS-RICH DISKS TO DISPERSION-DOMINATED MERGERS AND COMPACT SPHEROIDS (2010, background): “The gas kinematics appears consistent with the observed properties of some “dispersion-dominated galaxies” as well as the spectral properties of SubMillimeter Galaxies (SMGs).”
AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: SOURCE CATALOG AND MULTIPLICITY (2013, background): “The predominant theory for SMG formation is that the majority of such sources are starbursting major mergers (e.g., Chapman et al. 2003; Engel et al. 2010; Narayanan et al. 2010; Hayward et al. 2011, 2012).”
The stellar masses and specific star-formation rates of submillimetre galaxies (2011, methodology): “This argument is supported by hydrodynamical simulations of SMGs (Narayanan et al. 2009, 2010b; Hayward et al. 2011a,b), where only ≃ 30% of the stellar mass is distributed over the inner radius of 2.5 kpc, roughly the size over which Engel et al. (2010) calculated dynamical masses.”
Star formation in galaxy mergers with realistic models of stellar feedback and the interstellar medium (2012, background): “Reproducing their abundance and luminosities remains a challenge for current models of galaxy formation (Baugh et al. 2005; Swinbank et al. 2008; Younger et al. 2009a; Hayward et al. 2010, 2011; Narayanan et al. 2010).”
A physical model for z∼ 2 dust-obscured galaxies (2009, methodology): “…some SMGs have bump mid-IR SEDs makes sense as the 850 μm flux which SMGs are selected on is powered by absorption of stellar light by cold clouds (Narayanan et al. 2010), and are generally thought to have their bolometric luminosity powered by star formation (Chapman et al. 2004; Alexander et…”
The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor (2013, background): “…they likely provide the best local templates for the most luminous high-redshift submillimeter galaxies, which have very high star formation rates compared to other galaxies of similar stellar mass at their redshift (i.e., are off the main sequence, Tacconi et al. 2006; Narayanan et al. 2010).”
WHAT DOES A SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY SELECTION ACTUALLY SELECT? THE DEPENDENCE OF SUBMILLIMETER FLUX DENSITY ON STAR FORMATION RATE AND DUST MASS (2010, methodology): “…et al. 2010); local ULIRGs (Younger et al. 2009a); massive, quiescent, compact z ∼ 2 galaxies (Wuyts et al. 2009, 2010); 24 μm selected galaxies (Narayanan et al. 2010b); K+A/post-starburst galaxies (Snyder et al. 2011); and extended ultraviolet (XUV) disks (Bush et al. 2010), among other…”
A Herschel view of the far-infrared properties of submillimetre galaxies (2012, background): “While simulations of major mergers are able to reproduce the extreme SFRs of bright SMGs (Chakrabarti et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2010; Hayward et al. 2011), there might be issues (depending on the exact merger condition needed to create these properties) to match the comoving volume density of…”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, methodology): “Narayanan et al. (2010c) examined the properties of a series of galaxy mergers over a range of galaxy masses andmerger mass ratios, as well as idealized isolated disk galaxies utilizing gadget as the N-body/hydrodynamics solver.”
GOODS-ALMA: 1.1 mm galaxy survey (2018, background): “…et al. 2014) - making them significant contributors to the cosmic star formation (e.g. Casey et al. 2013), often driven by mergers (e.g. Tacconi et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2010) and often host an active galactic nucleus (AGN; e.g. Alexander et al. 2008; Pope et al. 2008; Wang et al. 2013.”
The LABOCA survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South: clustering of submillimetre galaxies (2011, background): “…with lifetimes estimated from gas consumption times and star formation time-scales (e.g. Greve et al. 2005; Tacconi et al. 2006; Hainline et al. 2011) and theoretical models of SMG fuelling through mergers (e.g. Mihos & Hernquist 1994; Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist 2005; Narayanan et al. 2010).”
A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies (2012, result): “This is in line with theoretical models of ULIRGs and SMGs (i.e. Narayanan et al. 2010): major mergers efficiently transport gas into the dense central regions, which – as well as fuelling a nuclear starburst – can efficiently ‘feed’ a BH.”
GOODS-HERSCHEL AND CANDELS: THE MORPHOLOGIES OF ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 (2011, result): “However, other simulations do lend support to the idea that mergers play a crucial role in high-redshift ULIRGs (e.g., Chakrabarti et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2009, 2010; Hopkins et al. 2010).”
A general model for the CO–H2 conversion factor in galaxies with applications to the star formation law (2011, methodology): “While the mean gas surface densities in e.g. z ∼ 2 SMGs are larger than low-redshift mergers (e.g. Tacconi et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2010a), both the dust temperatures and gas velocity dispersions also rise commensurately.”
EXTRAGALACTIC MILLIMETER-WAVE SOURCES IN SOUTH POLE TELESCOPE SURVEY DATA: SOURCE COUNTS, CATALOG, AND STATISTICS FOR AN 87 SQUARE-DEGREE FIELD (2009, background): “Observations of these objects (see Blain et al. (2002) for a review) indicate that: (1) they have dynamical masses of ∼1011 M and total far-infrared luminosities of ∼1013 L (Swinbank et al. 2004; Greve et al. 2005; Chapman et al. 2005; Kovács et al. 2006; Pope et al. 2006); (2) they are forming sta”