Bibcode
Hodge, J. A.; Swinbank, A. M.; Simpson, J. M.; Smail, I.; Walter, F.; Alexander, D. M.; Bertoldi, F.; Biggs, A. D.; Brandt, W. N.; Chapman, S. C.; Chen, C. C.; Coppin, K. E. K.; Cox, P.; Dannerbauer, H.; Edge, A. C.; Greve, T. R.; Ivison, R. J.; Karim, A.; Knudsen, K. K.; Menten, K. M.; Rix, H.-W.; Schinnerer, E.; Wardlow, J. L.; Weiss, A.; van der Werf, P.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 833, Issue 1, article id. 103, 15 pp. (2016).
Advertised on:
12
2016
Journal
Citations
246
Refereed citations
217
Description
We present high-resolution (0.″16) 870 μm Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) imaging of 16 luminous
({L}{IR}∼ 4× {10}12 {L}ȯ
) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) from the ALESS survey of the
Extended Chandra Deep Field South. This dust imaging traces the
dust-obscured star formation in these z∼ 2.5 galaxies on ∼1.3
kpc scales. The emission has a median effective radius of R e
= 0.″24 ± 0.″02, corresponding to a typical
physical size of {R}e= 1.8 ± 0.2 kpc. We derive a
median Sérsic index of n = 0.9 ± 0.2, implying that the
dust emission is remarkably disk-like at the current resolution and
sensitivity. We use different weighting schemes with the visibilities to
search for clumps on 0.″12 (∼1.0 kpc) scales, but we find no
significant evidence for clumping in the majority of cases. Indeed, we
demonstrate using simulations that the observed morphologies are
generally consistent with smooth exponential disks, suggesting that
caution should be exercised when identifying candidate clumps in even
moderate signal-to-noise ratio interferometric data. We compare our maps
to comparable-resolution Hubble Space Telescope {H}160-band
images, finding that the stellar morphologies appear significantly more
extended and disturbed, and suggesting that major mergers may be
responsible for driving the formation of the compact dust disks we
observe. The stark contrast between the obscured and unobscured
morphologies may also have implications for SED fitting routines that
assume the dust is co-located with the optical/near-IR continuum
emission. Finally, we discuss the potential of the current bursts of
star formation to transform the observed galaxy sizes and light
profiles, showing that the z∼ 0 descendants of these SMGs are
expected to have stellar masses, effective radii, and gas surface
densities consistent with the most compact massive ({M}*
∼ 1–2 × 1011 {M}ȯ )
early-type galaxies observed locally.