A Redshift Survey of the Submillimeter Galaxy Population

By S. Chapman, A. Blain, I. Smail, R. Ivison. 2004

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We have obtained spectroscopic redshifts using the Keck I telescope for a sample of 73 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), with a median 850 μm flux density of 5.7 mJy, for which precise positions are available through their faint radio emission. The galaxies lie at redshifts out to z = 3.6, with a median redshift of 2.2 and an interquartile range z = 1.7-2.8. Modeling a purely submillimeter flux-limited sample, based on the expected selection function for our radio-identified sample, suggests a median redshift of 2.3, with a redshift distribution remarkably similar to the optically and radio-selected quasars. The observed redshift distributions are similar for the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and starburst subsamples. The median RAB is 24.6 for the sample. However, the dust-corrected ultraviolet (UV) luminosities of the galaxies rarely hint at the huge bolometric luminosities indicated by their radio/submillimeter emission, with the effect that the true luminosity can be underestimated by a median factor of ~120 for SMGs with pure starburst spectra. Radio and submillimeter observations are thus essential to select the most luminous high-redshift galaxies. The 850 μm, radio, and redshift data are used to estimate the dust temperatures and characterize photometric redshifts. Using 450 μm measurements for a subset of our sample, we confirm that a median dust temperature of Td = 36 ± 7 K, derived on the assumption that the local far-infrared (FIR)-radio correlation applies at high redshift, is reasonable. Individual 450 μm detections are consistent with the local radio-FIR relation holding at z ~ 2. This median Td is lower than that estimated for similarly luminous IRAS 60 μm galaxies locally. We demonstrate that dust temperature variations make it impossible to estimate redshifts for individual SGMs to better than Δz ≃ 1 using simple long-wavelength photometric methods. We calculate total infrared and bolometric luminosities (the median infrared luminosity estimated from the radio is 8.5 × 1012 L☉), construct a luminosity function, and quantify the strong evolution of the submillimeter population across z = 0.5-3.5 relative to local IRAS galaxies. We use the bolometric luminosities and UV-spectral classifications to determine a lower limit to the AGN content of the population and measure directly the varying the contribution of highly obscured, luminous galaxies to the luminosity density history of the universe for the first time. We conclude that bright submillimeter galaxies contribute a comparable star formation density to Lyman break galaxies at z = 2-3, and including galaxies below our submillimeter flux limit, this population may be the dominant site of massive star formation at this epoch. The rapid evolution of SMGs and QSO populations contrasts with that seen in bolometrically lower luminosity galaxy samples selected in the rest-frame UV and suggests a close link between SMGs and the formation and evolution of the galactic halos that host QSOs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

THE KILOPARSEC-SCALE KINEMATICS OF HIGH-REDSHIFT STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2009, methodology): “The Bouché et al. (2007) sample in turn is roughly a superset of the Förster Schreiber et al. (2006) rest-UV selected galaxies, K-bright rest-optically selected galaxies, and submillimeter galaxies (e.g. Chapman et al. 2005).”
The first appearance of the red sequence of galaxies in proto-clusters at 2 <~ z <~ 3 (2007, background): “It is also interesting to note that the peak of the submm phase and the peak of the cosmic star formation rate just coincide with this era (e.g., Chapman et al. 2005; Bouwens et al. 2005).”
An ALMA survey of sub-millimetre Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: the far-infrared properties of SMGs (2013, methodology): “This is a factor ∼ 1.8× lower than that derived for 78 spectroscopically confirmed SMGs from Chapman et al. (2005) (also derived using SPIRE photometry to constrain the dust SEDs; SFR=500± 66M⊙ yr −1 and for the same stellar IMF; Magnelli et al. 2012a).”
THE SINS SURVEY: MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF z ∼ 2 GALAXIES AND THE HIGH-z TULLY–FISHER RELATION (2009, neutral): “A variety of selection techniques have been developed to create well-defined samples of z=1-6 galaxies, from UV to submillimeter wavelengths (e.g. Giavalisco et al. 2002, Steidel et al. 2004, Adelberger et al. 2004, Franx et al. 2003, Chapman et al. 2005, Daddi et al. 2004b).”
Mid- and far-infrared luminosity functions and galaxy evolution from multiwavelength Spitzer observations up to z ~ 2.5 (2009, result): “At higher redshifts, we still observe a general agreement with the results published by Caputi et al. (2007) atz ∼ 2 and some consistency also with the 2< z < 2.5 bolometric LF at the extremely high luminosity values derived by Chapman et al. (2005) from radio-detect d submillimeter galaxies.”
The n ature of submillimetre galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations (2009, background): “At z ∼ 2, the observed observed num- ber density is 1 − 2 × 10−5 Mpc−3 (Chapman et al. 2005; Tacconi et al. 2008).”
A study of the gas–star formation relation over cosmic time (2010, background): “Magnelli et al. (2010) find that the SEDs of luminous z ≥ 1 SMGs are very similar to the standard interpretations (Chapman et al. 2005; Pope et al. 2006), with 30 to 40 K dust temperatures. z ≥ 1 SMGs are indeed very luminous systems.”
Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity (2008, background): “The PSB galaxies are considerably more common than submillimetre selected galaxies with FIR luminosities 6 × 1011L at z ∼ 0.9, which have number densities of 3 × 10−6 Mpc−3 per decade (Chapman et al. 2005).”
DUST OBSCURATION AND METALLICITY AT HIGH REDSHIFT: NEW INFERENCES FROM UV, Hα, AND 8 μm OBSERVATIONS OF z ∼ 2 STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, background): “…error in the IRX ratio and is generally attributed to the fact that significant amounts of star formation are completely obscured in the UV (e.g., Reddy et al. 2006b; Papovich et al. 2006; Chapman et al. 2005; 14 Note that Meurer et al. (1999) use a different definition of IRX than used here.”
The far-infrared/radio correlation as probed by Herschel (2010, methodology): “…strongest and likely reflects the influence of low-radio-power AGN, of which more later; that of qIR on LIR is more puzzling, perhaps reflecting the dependence of LIR on redshift and/or Td (e.g. Chapman et al. 2005), or selection effects (since this trend is not seen for sample 2 – see Table 1).”
MOLECULAR GAS IN z ∼ 6 QUASAR HOST GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “For the high-z samples, LFIR is re-calculated using (sub)mm measurements from the literature (Smail et al. 2002; Kovács et al. 2006b; Chapman et al. 2005; Omont et al. 2003; Benford et al. 1999; Beelen et al. 2006), using the β value mentioned above.”
The Population of BzK-selected ULIRGs at z ~ 2 (2005, background): “These are relatively extreme objects, with space densities nearly 2 orders of magnitude smaller than local massive galaxies (Scott et al. 2002; Chapman et al. 2005).”
SHARC-2 350 μm Observations of Distant Submillimeter-selected Galaxies (2006, methodology): “Obtaining accurate redshifts for distant SMGs has relied on optical measurements, guided by radio or optical associations (Chapman et al. 2003, 2005).”
A Universal Stellar Initial Mass Function? A critical look at variations in extreme environments (2010, background): “4.1.4 Galaxy number counts Sub-millimeter galaxies, detected in large numbers by the SCUBA detector on the JCMT, are thought to be massive starbursting galaxies, somewhat akin to local Ultra-Luminous Galaxies (e.g. Chapman et al. 2005).”
Cosmic evolution of submillimeter galaxies and their contribution to stellar mass assembly (2009, methodology): “…dust content and/or hot dust, influence mostly the low-z portion of the sample); ii) faint radio emitters (high-z and cold dust, see Figure 3 of Chapman et al., 2005); iii) faint optical emitters (difficult to obtain spectra); iv) z ∼ 1.2–1.8 (“redshift desert” where no emission lines enter…”
Energetic galaxy-wide outflows in high-redshift ultraluminous infrared galaxies hosting AGN activity (2012, background): “Optical and near-IR spectra show a high [NII ]/Hα =1.38±0.07 line ratio, and Spitzer mid-infrared spectroscopic observations show an excess in the mid-infrared continuum suggesting AGN activity (Swinbank et al. 2004; Chapman et al. 2005; Menéndez-Delmestre et al. 2009).”
GOODS-ALMA: 1.1 mm galaxy survey (2018, background): “> 7× 1010M ; e.g. Chapman et al. 2005; Hainline et al. 2011; Simpson et al. 2014), gas-rich (fgas > 50%; e.g. Daddi et al. 2010), with huge star formation rates (SFR) - often greater than 100 M year−1 (e.g. Magnelli et al. 2012; Swinbank et al. 2014) - making them significant contributors to the…”
A deep ALMA image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (2016, background): “…which have a median redshift of z ' 2.2, with ' 75% of sources lying in the redshift range 1.5 < z < 3.5 (Micha lowski et al. 2012a; see also, e.g., Chapman et al. 2005; Aretxaga et al. 2007; Chapin et al. 2009), although there is some evidence that the most extreme sources are confined to…”
Chandra and Spitzer Unveil Heavily Obscured Quasars in the Chandra/SWIRE Survey (2006, background): “The optical spectra of all sources are also dominated by a starburst component (Chapman et al. 2005).”
EVIDENCE FOR A CLUMPY, ROTATING GAS DISK IN A SUBMILLIMETER GALAXY AT z = 4 (2012, background): “Such large offsets between dust/molecular gas emission and (rest–frame) UV/optical imaging have been seen in a number of SMGs (Chapman et al. 2005; Capak et al. 2008; Riechers et al. 2010).”