The LABOCA survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: A photometric redshift survey of submillimetre galaxies

By J. Wardlow, I. Smail, K. Coppin, D. M. Alexander, W. N. Brandt, A. Danielson, B. Luo, A. M. Swinbank, F. Walter, A. Weiss and 31 more. 2010

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We derive photometric redshifts from 17-band optical to mid-infrared photometry of 78 robust radio, 24-mu m and Spitzer IRAC counterparts to 72 of the 126 submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) selected at 870 mu m by LABOCA observations in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (ECDF-S). We test the photometric redshifts of the SMGs against the extensive archival spectroscopy in the ECDF-S. The median photometric redshift of identified SMGs is z = 2.2 +/- 0.1, the standard deviation is sigma(z) = 0.9 and we identify 11 (similar to 15 per cent) high-redshift (z >= 3) SMGs. A statistical analysis of sources in the error circles of unidentified SMGs identifies a population of possible counterparts with a redshift distribution peaking at z = 2.5 +/- 0.2, which likely comprises similar to 60 per cent of the unidentified SMGs. This confirms that the bulk of the undetected SMGs are coeval with those detected in the radio/mid-infrared. We conclude that at most similar to 15 per cent of all the SMGs are below the flux limits of our IRAC observations and thus may lie at z greater than or similar to 3 and hence at most similar to 30 per cent of all SMGs have z greater than or similar to 3. We estimate that the full S(870 mu m) > 4mJy SMG population has a median redshift of 2.5 +/- 0.5. In contrast to previous suggestions, we find no significant correlation between submillimetre flux and redshift. The median stellar mass of the SMGs derived from spectral energy distribution fitting is (9.1 +/- 0.5) x 10(10)M(circle dot) although we caution that the uncertainty in the star formation histories results in a factor of similar to 5 uncertainty in these stellarmasses. Using a single temperature modified blackbody fit with beta = 1.5, the median characteristic dust temperature of SMGs is 37.4 +/- 1.4K. The infrared luminosity function shows that SMGs at z = 2-3 typically have higher far-infrared luminosities and luminosity density than those at z = 1-2. This is mirrored in the evolution of the star formation rate density (SFRD) for SMGs which peaks at z similar to 2. The maximum contribution of bright SMGs to the global SFRD (similar to 5 per cent for SMGs with S(870 mu m) greater than or similar to 4mJy or similar to 50 per cent extrapolated to SMGs with S(870 mu m) > 1mJy) also occurs at z similar to 2.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e94e310883ebfa6db121635cc261747e6b17f982

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Citations in the corpus

AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: THE REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTION OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “Taken with their space densities (∼ 10−5 Mpc−3; Chapman et al. 2005; Wardlow et al. 2011), large black hole masses (∼ 108 M⊙; Alexander et al. 2005, 2008) and clustering (e.g. Hickox et al. 2012) it appears likely that, like local ULIRGs, the luminous starbursts in SMGs are frequently triggered by…”
AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: SOURCE CATALOG AND MULTIPLICITY (2013, methodology): “Here, we have assumed the median SFR of the LESS SMGs (1100 M⊙ yr −1; Wardlow et al. 2011).”
An ALMA survey of sub-millimetre Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: the far-infrared properties of SMGs (2013, methodology): “As noted by Weiß et al. (2009) (see also Wardlow et al. 2011), the ECDFS appears to be under-dense in z ∼ 2 SMGs by a factor ∼ 2× compared to other sub-millimetre surveys at flux densities S870 >∼ 3mJy.”
A POPULATION OF MASSIVE, LUMINOUS GALAXIES HOSTING HEAVILY DUST-OBSCURED GAMMA-RAY BURSTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE USE OF GRBs AS TRACERS OF COSMIC STAR FORMATION (2013, background): “…the Swift -triggered events (11 out of 22) are in a narrow redshift range of 1.5–2.5, an epoch centered on the peak of cosmic star-formation intensity and of the abundance of submillimeter galaxies (e.g., Chapman et al. 2005; Hopkins & Beacom 2006; Wardlow et al. 2011; Micha lowski et al. 2012b).”
SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES AS PROGENITORS OF COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXIES (2014, background): “This sample shows a tail of z & 3 SMGs, corresponding to a significantly larger number density at these high redshifts than found in previous surveys (e.g. Chapman et al. 2005; Wardlow et al. 2011; Yun et al. 2012; Micha lowski et al. 2012b).”
The LABOCA survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South: clustering of submillimetre galaxies (2011, methodology): “Wardlow et al. 2011).”
Characterization of Scuba-2 450 μm and 850 μm selected galaxies in the COSMOS field (2013, methodology): “The SCUBA2 population is likely similar to the 870µm galaxies from Wardlow et al. (2011), although only spectroscopic confirmation will unequivocally reveal their true nature.”
GOODS-ALMA: 1.1 mm galaxy survey (2018, background): “These "submillimetre galaxies" or SMGs are highly obscured by dust, typically located around z ∼2–2.5 (e.g. Chapman et al. 2003; Wardlow et al. 2011; Yun et al. 2012), massive (M?”
Energetic galaxy-wide outflows in high-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies hosting AGN activity (2012, background): “They have a peak space density atz ≈2–2.5 (Chapman et al. 2004, 2005; Wardlow et al. 2011) which roughly coincides with the peak epoch of BH growth (e.g., Cattaneo & Bernardi 2003; Hopkins et al. 2007; Silverman et al. 2008).”
THE SCUBA-2 COSMOLOGY LEGACY SURVEY: ALMA RESOLVES THE REST-FRAME FAR-INFRARED EMISSION OF SUB-MILLIMETER GALAXIES (2014, background): “…that the 850µm–detected sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs) lie at a median redshift z = 2.5±0.2 ( Simpson et al. 2014, see also Chapman et al. 2005; Wardlow et al. 2011; Yun et al. 2012; Smolčić et al. 2012; Weiß et al. 2013) and are powered by bursts of star formation in relatively massive,…”