Bibcode
Ivison, R. J.; Lewis, A. J. R.; Weiss, A.; Arumugam, V.; Simpson, J. M.; Holland, W. S.; Maddox, S.; Dunne, L.; Valiante, E.; van der Werf, P.; Omont, A.; Dannerbauer, H.; Smail, Ian; Bertoldi, F.; Bremer, M.; Bussmann, R. S.; Cai, Z.-Y.; Clements, D. L.; Cooray, A.; De Zotti, G.; Eales, S. A.; Fuller, C.; Gonzalez-Nuevo, J.; Ibar, E.; Negrello, M.; Oteo, I.; Pérez-Fournon, I.; Riechers, D.; Stevens, J. A.; Swinbank, A. M.; Wardlow, J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 832, Issue 1, article id. 78, 24 pp. (2016).
Advertised on:
11
2016
Journal
Citations
100
Refereed citations
94
Description
Until recently, only a handful of dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs)
were known at z > 4, most of them significantly amplified by
gravitational lensing. Here, we have increased the number of such DSFGs
substantially, selecting galaxies from the uniquely wide 250, 350, and
500 μm Herschel-ATLAS imaging survey on the basis of their extremely
red far-infrared colors and faint 350 and 500 μm flux densities,
based on which, they are expected to be largely unlensed, luminous,
rare, and very distant. The addition of ground-based continuum
photometry at longer wavelengths from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment allows us to identify the dust
peak in their spectral energy distributions (SEDs), with which we can
better constrain their redshifts. We select the SED templates that are
best able to determine photometric redshifts using a sample of 69
high-redshift, lensed DSFGs, then perform checks to assess the impact of
the CMB on our technique, and to quantify the systematic uncertainty
associated with our photometric redshifts, σ = 0.14 (1 + z), using
a sample of 25 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts, each consistent
with our color selection. For Herschel-selected ultrared galaxies with
typical colors of S 500/S 250 ˜ 2.2 and S
500/S 350 ˜ 1.3 and flux densities, S
500 ˜ 50 mJy, we determine a median redshift,
{\hat{z}}{phot}=3.66, an interquartile redshift range,
3.30-4.27, with a median rest-frame 8-1000 μm luminosity,
{\hat{L}}{IR}, of 1.3 × 1013 L
⊙. A third of the galaxies lie at z > 4, suggesting a
space density, ρ z > 4, of ≈6 ×
10-7 Mpc-3. Our sample contains the
most luminous known star-forming galaxies, and the most overdense
cluster of starbursting proto-ellipticals found to date.