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arXiv · 1512.00167

Identification of z~>2 Herschel 500 micron sources using color-deconfusion

Abstract

We present a new method to search for candidate z~>2 Herschel 500μm sources in the GOODS-North field, using a S500μm/S24μm "color deconfusion" technique. Potential high-z sources are selected against low-redshift ones from their large 500μm to 24μm flux density ratios. By effectively reducing the contribution from low-redshift populations to the observed 500μm emission, we are able to identify counterparts to high-z 500μm sources whose 24μm fluxes are relatively faint. The recovery of known z~4 starbursts confirms the efficiency of this approach in selecting high-z Herschel sources. The resulting sample consists of 34 dusty star-forming galaxies at z~>2. The inferred infrared luminosities are in the range 1.5x10^12-1.8x10^13 Lsun, corresponding to dust-obscured star formation rates (SFRs) of ~260-3100 Msun/yr for a Salpeter IMF. Comparison with previous SCUBA 850μm-selected galaxy samples shows that our method is more efficient at selecting high-z dusty galaxies with a median redshift of z=3.07+/-0.83 and 10 of the sources at z~>4. We find that at a fixed luminosity, the dust temperature is ~5K cooler than that expected from the Td-LIR relation at z<1, though different temperature selection effects should be taken into account. The radio-detected subsample (excluding three strong AGN) follows the far-infrared/radio correlation at lower redshifts, and no evolution with redshift is observed out to z~5, suggesting that the far-infrared emission is star formation dominated. The contribution of the high-z Herschel 500μm sources to the cosmic SFR density is comparable to that of SMG populations at z~2.5 and at least 40% of the extinction-corrected UV samples at z~4 (abridged).

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BibTeXRIS

X. W. Shu, D. Elbaz, N. Bourne, C. Schreiber, T. Wang, J. S. Dunlop, A. Fontana, R. Leiton, M. Pannella, K. Okumura, M. J. Michalowski, P. Santini, E. Merlin, F. Buitrago, V. A. Bruce, R. Amorin, M. Castellano, S. Derriere, A. Comastri, N. Cappelluti, J. X. Wang, H. C. Ferguson. 2015-12-01. Identification of z~>2 Herschel 500 micron sources using color-deconfusion. https://doi.org/10.3847/0067-0049%2F222%2F1%2F4

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