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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: an unbiased study of SMG environments measured with narrowband imaging
AU - Cornish, Thomas M
AU - Wardlow, Julie
AU - Wade, Heather
AU - Sobral, David
AU - Brandt, W N
AU - Cox, Pierre
AU - Dannerbauer, Helmut
AU - Decarli, Roberto
AU - Gullberg, Bitten
AU - Knudsen, Kirsten
AU - Stott, John
AU - Swinbank, Mark
AU - Walter, Fabian
AU - van der Werf, Paul
PY - 2024/9/30
Y1 - 2024/9/30
N2 - Submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) are some of the most extreme star-forming systems in the Universe, whose place in the framework of galaxy evolution is as yet uncertain. It has been hypothesised that SMGs are progenitors of local early-type galaxies, requiring that SMGs generally reside in galaxy cluster progenitors at high redshift. We test this hypothesis and explore SMG environments using a narrowband VLT/HAWK-I+GRAAL study of Hα and [O iii] emitters around an unbiased sample of three ALMA-identified and spectroscopically-confirmed SMGs at z ∼ 2.3 and z ∼ 3.3, where these SMGs were selected solely on spectroscopic redshift. Comparing with blank-field observations at similar epochs, we find that one of the three SMGs lies in an overdensity of emission-line sources on the ∼4 Mpc scale of the HAWK-I field of view, with overdensity parameter $\delta _{g} = 2.6^{+1.4}_{-1.2}$. A second SMG is significantly overdense only on ≲ 1.6 Mpc scales and the final SMG is consistent with residing in a blank field environment. The total masses of the two overdensities are estimated to be log (Mh/M⊙) = 12.1–14.4, leading to present-day masses of log (Mh, z = 0/M⊙) = 12.9–15.9. These results imply that SMGs occupy a range of environments, from overdense protoclusters or protogroups to the blank field, suggesting that while some SMGs are strong candidates for the progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies in clusters, this may not be their only possible evolutionary pathway.
AB - Submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) are some of the most extreme star-forming systems in the Universe, whose place in the framework of galaxy evolution is as yet uncertain. It has been hypothesised that SMGs are progenitors of local early-type galaxies, requiring that SMGs generally reside in galaxy cluster progenitors at high redshift. We test this hypothesis and explore SMG environments using a narrowband VLT/HAWK-I+GRAAL study of Hα and [O iii] emitters around an unbiased sample of three ALMA-identified and spectroscopically-confirmed SMGs at z ∼ 2.3 and z ∼ 3.3, where these SMGs were selected solely on spectroscopic redshift. Comparing with blank-field observations at similar epochs, we find that one of the three SMGs lies in an overdensity of emission-line sources on the ∼4 Mpc scale of the HAWK-I field of view, with overdensity parameter $\delta _{g} = 2.6^{+1.4}_{-1.2}$. A second SMG is significantly overdense only on ≲ 1.6 Mpc scales and the final SMG is consistent with residing in a blank field environment. The total masses of the two overdensities are estimated to be log (Mh/M⊙) = 12.1–14.4, leading to present-day masses of log (Mh, z = 0/M⊙) = 12.9–15.9. These results imply that SMGs occupy a range of environments, from overdense protoclusters or protogroups to the blank field, suggesting that while some SMGs are strong candidates for the progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies in clusters, this may not be their only possible evolutionary pathway.
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stae1868
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stae1868
M3 - Journal article
VL - 533
SP - 2399
EP - 2419
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0035-8711
IS - 2
ER -