ISM Properties of a Massive Dusty Star-forming Galaxy Discovered at z ∼ 7

Strandet, M.L.; Weiss, A.; Breuck, C. De; Marrone, D.P.; Vieira, J.D.; Aravena, M.; Ashby, M.L.N.; Béthermin, M.; Bothwell, M.S.; Bradford, C.M.; Carlstrom, J.E.; Chapman, S.C.; Cunningham, D.J.M.; Chen, Chian-Chou; Fassnacht, C.D.; Gonzalez, A.H.; Greve, T.R.; Gullberg, B.; Hayward, C.C.; Hezaveh, Y.; Litke, K.; Ma, J.; Malkan, M.; Menten, K.M.; Miller, T.; Murphy, E.J.; Narayanan, D.; Phadke, K.A.; Rotermund, K.M.; Spilker, J.S.; Sreevani, J.

Abstract

We report the discovery and constrain the physical conditions of the interstellar medium of the highest-redshift millimeter-selected dusty star-forming galaxy to date, SPT-S J031132−5823.4 (hereafter SPT0311−58), at $z=6.900\pm 0.002$. SPT0311−58 was discovered via its 1.4 mm thermal dust continuum emission in the South Pole Telescope (SPT)-SZ survey. The spectroscopic redshift was determined through an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 3 mm frequency scan that detected CO(6–5), CO(7–6), and $[{\rm{C}}\,{\rm{I}}]$(2–1), and subsequently was confirmed by detections of CO(3–2) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and $[{\rm{C}}\,{\rm{II}}]$ with APEX. We constrain the properties of the ISM in SPT0311−58 with a radiative transfer analysis of the dust continuum photometry and the CO and $[{\rm{C}}\,{\rm{I}}]$ line emission. This allows us to determine the gas content without ad hoc assumptions about gas mass scaling factors. SPT0311−58 is extremely massive, with an intrinsic gas mass of ${M}_{\mathrm{gas}}=3.3\pm 1.9\times {10}^{11}\,{M}_{\odot }$. Its large mass and intense star formation is very rare for a source well into the epoch of reionization.

Citation

Strandet, M., Weiss, A., Breuck, C. D., Marrone, D., Vieira, J., Aravena, M., …Sreevani, J. (2017). ISM Properties of a Massive Dusty Star-forming Galaxy Discovered at z ∼ 7. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 842(2), Article L15. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa74b0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 19, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 15, 2017
• Publication Date: Jun 15, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 1, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2018
• Journal: Astrophysical Journal Letters
• Print ISSN: 2041-8205
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 842
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: L15
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aa74b0
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1365743