arXiv subjects

A. W. Blain

Publications and source records attributed to A. W. Blain.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

The UK Submillimetre and Millimetre Astronomy Roadmap 2024

In this Roadmap, we present a vision for the future of submillimetre and millimetre astronomy in the United Kingdom over the next decade and beyond. This Roadmap has been developed in response to the recommendation of the Astronomy Advisory Panel (AAP) of the STFC in the AAP Astronomy Roadmap 2022. In order to develop our stragetic priorities and recommendations, we surveyed the UK submillimetre and millimetre community to determine their key priorities for both the near-term and long-term future of the field. We further performed detailed reviews of UK leadership in submillimetre/millimetre science and instrumentation. Our key strategic priorities are as follows: 1. The UK must be a key partner in the forthcoming AtLAST telescope, for which it is essential that the UK remains a key partner in the JCMT in the intermediate term. 2. The UK must maintain, and if possible enhance, access to ALMA and aim to lead parts of instrument development for ALMA2040. Our strategic priorities complement one another: AtLAST (a 50m single-dish telescope) and an upgraded ALMA (a large configurable interferometric array) would be in synergy, not competition, with one another. Both have identified and are working towards the same overarching science goals, and both are required in order to fully address these goals.

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arXiv2021

Synergies of THESEUS with the large facilities of the 2030s and guest observer opportunities

The proposed THESEUS mission will vastly expand the capabilities to monitor the high-energy sky, and will exploit large samples of gamma-ray bursts to probe the early Universe back to the first generation of stars, and to advance multi-messenger astrophysics by detecting and localizing the counterparts of gravitational waves and cosmic neutrino sources. The combination and coordination of these activities with multi-wavelength, multi-messenger facilities expected to be operating in the thirties will open new avenues of exploration in many areas of astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics, thus adding considerable strength to the overall scientific impact of THESEUS and these facilities. We discuss here a number of these powerful synergies.

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arXiv2021

The black hole masses of extremely luminous radio-WISE selected galaxies

We present near-IR photometry and spectroscopy of 30 extremely luminous radio and mid-IR selected galaxies. With bolometric luminosities exceeding $\sim10^{13}$ $\rm{L_{\odot}}$ and redshifts ranging from $z = 0.880-2.853$, we use VLT instruments X-shooter and ISAAC to investigate this unique population of galaxies. Broad multi-component emission lines are detected in 18 galaxies and we measure the near-IR lines $\rm{H\rmβ}$, $\text{[OIII]}\rmλ\rmλ4959,5007$ and $\rm{H\rmα}$ in six, 15 and 13 galaxies respectively, with 10 $\rm{Lyα}$ and five CIV lines additionally detected in the UVB arm. We use the broad $\text{[OIII]}\rmλ5007$ emission lines as a proxy for the bolometric AGN luminosity, and derive lower limits to supermassive black hole masses of $10^{7.9}$-$10^{9.4}$ $\text{M}_{\odot}$ with expectations of corresponding host masses of $10^{10.4}$-$10^{12.0}$ $\text{M}_{\odot}$. We measure $\rmλ_{Edd}$ > 1 for eight of these sources at a $2σ$ significance. Near-IR photometry and SED fitting are used to compare stellar masses directly. We detect both Balmer lines in five galaxies and use these to infer a mean visual extinction of $A_{V}$ = 2.68 mag. Due to non-detections and uncertainties in our $\rm{H\rmβ}$ emission line measurements, we simulate a broad $\rm{H\rmβ}$ line of FWHM = 1480 $\rm{kms^{-1}}$ to estimate extinction for all sources with measured $\rm{H\rmα}$ emission. We then use this to infer a mean $A_{V}=3.62$ mag, demonstrating the highly-obscured nature of these galaxies, with the consequence of increasing our estimates of black-hole masses by an 0.5 orders of magnitude in the most extreme and obscured cases.

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arXiv2020

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field: Physical properties of 707 Sub-millimetre Galaxies

We analyse the physical properties of a large, homogeneously selected sample of ALMA-located sub-mm galaxies (SMGs). This survey, AS2UDS, identified 707 SMGs across the ~1 sq.deg. field, including ~17 per cent, which are undetected at $K$>~25.7 mag. We interpret their ultraviolet-to-radio data using MAGPHYS and determine a median redshift of z=2.61+-0.08 (1$σ$ range of z=1.8-3.4) with just ~6 per cent at z>4. Our survey provides a sample of massive dusty galaxies at z>~1, with median dust and stellar masses of $M_d$=(6.8+-0.3)x10$^{8}$M$_\odot$ (thus, gas masses of ~10$^{11}$M$_\odot$) and $M_\ast=$(1.26+-0.05)x10$^{11}$M$_\odot$. We find no evolution in dust temperature at a constant far-infrared luminosity across z~1.5-4. The gas mass function of our sample increases to z~2-3 and then declines at z>3. The space density and masses of SMGs suggest that almost all galaxies with $M_\ast$>~3x10$^{11}$M$_\odot$ have passed through an SMG-like phase. The redshift distribution is well fit by a model combining evolution of the gas fraction in halos with the growth of halo mass past a threshold of $M_h$~6x10$^{12}$M$_\odot$, thus SMGs may represent the highly efficient collapse of gas-rich massive halos. We show that SMGs are broadly consistent with simple homologous systems in the far-infrared, consistent with a centrally illuminated starburst. Our study provides strong support for an evolutionary link between the active, gas-rich SMG population at z>1 and the formation of massive, bulge-dominated galaxies across the history of the Universe.

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arXiv2020

An ALMA Survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS Field: The Far-infrared/Radio correlation for High-redshift Dusty Star-forming Galaxies

We study the radio properties of 706 sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs) selected at 870$μ$m with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey map of the Ultra Deep Survey field. We detect 273 SMGs at $>4σ$ in deep Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array 1.4 GHz observations, of which a subset of 45 SMGs are additionally detected in 610 MHz Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope imaging. We quantify the far-infrared/radio correlation through parameter $q_\text{IR}$, defined as the logarithmic ratio of the far-infrared and radio luminosity, and include the radio-undetected SMGs through a stacking analysis. We determine a median $q_\text{IR} = 2.20\pm0.03$ for the full sample, independent of redshift, which places these $z\sim2.5$ dusty star-forming galaxies $0.44\pm0.04$ dex below the local correlation for both normal star-forming galaxies and local ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). Both the lack of redshift-evolution and the offset from the local correlation are likely the result of the different physical conditions in high-redshift starburst galaxies, compared to local star-forming sources. We explain the offset through a combination of strong magnetic fields ($B\gtrsim0.2$mG), high interstellar medium (ISM) densities and additional radio emission generated by secondary cosmic rays. While local ULIRGs are likely to have similar magnetic field strengths, we find that their compactness, in combination with a higher ISM density compared to SMGs, naturally explains why local and high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies follow a different far-infrared/radio correlation. Overall, our findings paint SMGs as a homogeneous population of galaxies, as illustrated by their tight and non-evolving far-infrared/radio correlation.

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arXiv2020

Cold Molecular Gas and Free-Free Emission from Hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies at $z$~3

We report on observations of redshifted CO(1-0) line emission and observed-frame $\rm\sim$ 30GHz radio continuum emission from five ultra-luminous, mid-IR selected hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies (Hot DOGs) at $z\rm\gtrsim$ 3 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. We detect CO(1-0) line emission in all five Hot DOGs, with one of them at high signal to noise. We analyse FIR-radio spectral energy distributions, including dust, free-free and synchrotron emission for the galaxies. We find that most of the 115 GHz rest-frame continuum is mostly due to synchrotron or free-free emission, with only a potentially small contribution from thermal emission. We see a deficit in the rest-frame 115 GHz continuum emission compared to dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) at high redshift, suggesting that Hot DOGs do not have similar cold gas reserves compared with star-forming galaxies. One target, W2305-0039, is detected in the FIRST 1.4 GHz survey, and is likely to possess compact radio jets. We compare to the FIR-radio correlation, and find that at least half of the Hot DOGs in our sample are radio-quiet with respect to normal galaxies. These findings suggest that Hot DOGs have comparably less cold molecular gas than star-forming galaxies at lower, $z\rm\sim$ 2 redshifts, and are dominated by powerful, yet radio-quiet AGN.

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arXiv2020

Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies with Excess Blue Light

Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies (Hot DOGs) are among the most luminous galaxies in the Universe. Powered by highly obscured, possibly Compton-thick, active galactic nuclei (AGNs), Hot DOGs are characterized by SEDs that are very red in the mid-IR yet dominated by the host galaxy stellar emission in the UV and optical. An earlier study identified a sub-sample of Hot DOGs with significantly enhanced UV emission. One target, W0204-0506, was studied in detail and, based on Chandra observations, it was concluded that the enhanced emission was most likely due to either extreme unobscured star-formation (${\rm SFR}>1000~M_{\odot}~\rm yr^{-1}$) or to light from the highly obscured AGN scattered by gas or dust into our line of sight. Here, we present a follow-up study of W0204-0506 as well as two more Hot DOGs with excess UV emission. For the two new objects we obtained Chandra/ACIS-S observations, and for all three targets we obtained HST/WFC3 F555W and F160W imaging. We conclude that the excess UV emission is primarily dominated by light from the central highly obscured, hyper-luminous AGN that has been scattered into our line of sight. We cannot rule out, however, that star-formation may significantly contribute to the UV excess of W0204-0506.

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arXiv2020

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Dust attenuation in high-redshift Lyman break Galaxies

We analyse 870um Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) dust continuum detections of 41 canonically-selected z~3 Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs), as well as 209 ALMA-undetected LBGs, in follow-up of SCUBA-2 mapping of the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field. We find that our ALMA-bright LBGs lie significantly off the locally calibrated IRX-beta relation and tend to have relatively bluer rest-frame UV slopes (as parametrised by beta), given their high values of the 'infrared excess' (IRX=L_IR/L_UV), relative to the average 'local' IRX-beta relation. We attribute this finding in part to the young ages of the underlying stellar populations but we find that the main reason behind the unusually blue UV slopes are the relatively shallow slopes of the corresponding dust attenuation curves. We show that, when stellar masses are being established via SED fitting, it is absolutely crucial to allow the attenuation curves to vary (rather than fixing it on Calzetti-like law), where we find that the inappropriate curves may underestimate the resulting stellar masses by a factor of ~2-3x on average. In addition, we find these LBGs to have relatively high specific star-formation rates (sSFRs), dominated by the dust component, as quantified via the fraction of obscured star formation ( f_obs = SFR_IR/SFR_(UV+IR)). We conclude that the ALMA-bright LBGs are, by selection, massive galaxies undergoing a burst of a star formation (large sSFRs, driven, for example, by secular or merger processes), with a likely geometrical disconnection of the dust and stars, responsible for producing shallow dust attenuation curves.

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arXiv2019

Radio spectra and sizes of ALMA-identified submillimetre galaxies: evidence of age-related spectral curvature and cosmic ray diffusion?

We analyse the multi-frequency radio spectral properties of $41$ 6GHz-detected ALMA-identified, submillimetre galaxies (SMGs), observed at 610MHz, 1.4GHz, 6GHz with GMRT and the VLA. Combining high-resolution ($\sim0.5''$) 6GHz radio and ALMA $870\,μ$m imaging (tracing rest-frame $\sim20$GHz, and $\sim250\,μ$m dust continuum), we study the far-infrared/radio correlation via the logarithmic flux ratio $q_{\rm IR}$, measuring $\langle q_{\rm IR}\rangle=2.20\pm 0.06$ for our sample. We show that the high-frequency radio sizes of SMGs are $\sim1.9\pm 0.4\times$ ($\sim2$-$3$kpc) larger than those of the cool dust emission, and find evidence for a subset of our sources being extended on $\sim 10$kpc scales at 1.4GHz. By combining radio flux densities measured at three frequencies, we can move beyond simple linear fits to the radio spectra of high-redshift star-forming galaxies, and search for spectral curvature, which has been observed in local starburst galaxies. At least a quarter (10/41) of our sample show evidence of a spectral break, with a median $\langleα^{1.4\,{\rm GHz}}_{610\,{\rm GHz}}\rangle=-0.60\pm 0.06$, but $\langleα^{6\,{\rm GHz}}_{1.4\,{\rm GHz}}\rangle=-1.06\pm 0.04$ -- a high-frequency flux deficit relative to simple extrapolations from the low-frequency data. We explore this result within this subset of sources in the context of age-related synchrotron losses, showing that a combination of weak magnetic fields ($B\sim35\,μ$G) and young ages ($t_{\rm SB}\sim40$--$80\,$Myr) for the central starburst can reproduce the observed spectral break. Assuming these represent evolved (but ongoing) starbursts and we are observing these systems roughly half-way through their current episode of star formation, this implies starburst durations of $\lesssim100$Myr, in reasonable agreement with estimates derived via gas depletion timescales.

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arXiv2019

Revealing the Stellar Mass and Dust Distributions of Submillimeter Galaxies at Redshift 2

We combine high-resolution ALMA and HST/CANDELS observations of 20 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) predominantly from the AS2UDS survey at z~2 with bright rest-frame optical counterparts (Ks < 22.9) to investigate the resolved structural properties of their dust and stellar components. We derive two-dimensional stellar-mass distributions that are inferred from spatial mass-to-light ratio (M/L) corrections based on rest-frame optical colors. Due to the high central column densities of dust in our SMGs, our mass distributions likely represent a lower limit to the true central mass density. The centroid positions between the inferred stellar-mass and the dust distributions agree within 1.1 kpc, indicating an overall good spatial agreement between the two components. The majority of our sources exhibit compact dust configurations relative to the stellar component (with a median ratio of effective radii Re,dust/Re,Mstar = 0.6). This ratio does not change with specific star-formation rate (sSFR) over the factor of 30 spanned by our targets, sampling the locus of "normal" main sequence galaxies up to the starburst regime, log(sSFR/sSFRMS) > 0.5. Our results imply that massive SMGs are experiencing centrally enhanced star formation unlike typical spiral galaxies in the local Universe. The sizes and stellar densities of our SMGs are in agreement with those of the passive population at z=1.5, consistent with these systems being the descendants of z~2 SMGs.

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arXiv2019

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Source catalogue and properties

We present the catalogue and properties of sources in AS2UDS, an 870-$μ$m continuum survey with the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) of 716 single-dish sub-millimetre sources detected in the UKIDSS/UDS field by the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey. In our sensitive ALMA follow-up observations we detect 708 sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) at $>$\,4.3$σ$ significance across the $\sim$\,1-degree diameter field. We combine our precise ALMA positions with the extensive multi-wavelength coverage in the UDS field to fit the spectral energy distributions of our SMGs to derive a median redshift of $z_{\rm phot}=$\,2.61$\pm$0.09. This large sample reveals a statistically significant trend of increasing sub-millimetre flux with redshift suggestive of galaxy downsizing. 101 ALMA maps do not show a $>$\,4.3$σ$ SMG, but we demonstrate from stacking {\it Herschel} SPIRE observations at these positions, that the vast majority of these blank maps correspond to real single-dish sub-millimetre sources. We further show that these blank maps contain an excess of galaxies at $z_{\rm phot}=$\,1.5--4 compared to random fields, similar to the redshift range of the ALMA-detected SMGs. In addition, we combine X-ray and mid-infrared active galaxy nuclei activity (AGN) indicators to yield a likely range for the AGN fraction of 8--28\,\% in our sample. Finally, we compare the redshifts of this population of high-redshift, strongly star-forming galaxies with the inferred formation redshifts of massive, passive galaxies being found out to $z\sim$\,2, finding reasonable agreement -- in support of an evolutionary connection between these two classes of massive galaxy.

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arXiv2018

The Environments of Luminous Radio - WISE Selected Infrared Galaxies

We have observed the environments of a population of 33 heavily dust obscured, ultra-luminous, high-redshift galaxies, selected using WISE and NVSS at $z>$1.3 with the Infra-Red Array Camera on the $Spitzer$ Space Telescope over $\rm5.12\,'\times5.12\,'$ fields. Colour selections are used to quantify any potential overdensities of companion galaxies in these fields. We find no significant excess of galaxies with the standard colour selection for IRAC colours of $\rm[3.6]-[4.5]>-0.1$ consistent with galaxies at $z>$1.3 across the whole fields with respect to wide-area $Spitzer$ comparison fields, but there is a $\rm>2σ$ statistical excess within $\rm0.25\,'$ of the central radio-WISE galaxy. Using a colour selection of $\rm[3.6]-[4.5]>0.4$, 0.5 magnitudes redder than the standard method of selecting galaxies at $z>$1.3, we find a significant overdensity, in which $\rm76\%$ ($\rm33\%$) of the 33 fields have a surface density greater than the $\rm3σ$ ($\rm5σ$) level. There is a statistical excess of these redder galaxies within $\rm0.5\,'$, rising to a central peak $\rm\sim2$--4 times the average density. This implies that these galaxies are statistically linked to the radio-WISE selected galaxy, indicating similar structures to those traced by red galaxies around radio-loud AGN.

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arXiv2018

The Multiple Merger Assembly of a Hyper-luminous Obscured Quasar at redshift 4.6

Galaxy mergers and gas accretion from the cosmic web drove the growth of galaxies and their central black holes at early epochs. We report spectroscopic imaging of a multiple merger event in the most luminous known galaxy, WISE J224607.56-052634.9 (W2246-0526), a dust-obscured quasar at redshift 4.6, 1.3 Gyr after the Big Bang. Far-infrared dust continuum observations show three galaxy companions around W2246-0526 with disturbed morphologies, connected by streams of dust likely produced by the dynamical interaction. The detection of tidal dusty bridges shows that W2246-0526 is accreting its neighbors, suggesting merger activity may be a dominant mechanism through which the most luminous galaxies simultaneously obscure and feed their central supermassive black holes.

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arXiv2018

Probing the High-Redshift Universe with SPICA: Toward the Epoch of Reionization and Beyond

With the recent discovery of a dozen dusty star-forming galaxies and around 30 quasars at z>5 that are hyper-luminous in the infrared ($μ$$L_{\rm IR}>10^{13}$ L$_{\odot}$, where $μ$ is a lensing magnification factor), the possibility has opened up for SPICA, the proposed ESA M5 mid-/far-infrared mission, to extend its spectroscopic studies toward the epoch of reionization and beyond. In this paper, we examine the feasibility and scientific potential of such observations with SPICA's far-infrared spectrometer SAFARI, which will probe a spectral range (35-230 $μ$m) that will be unexplored by ALMA and JWST. Our simulations show that SAFARI is capable of delivering good-quality spectra for hyper-luminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRGs) at z=5-10, allowing us to sample spectral features in the rest-frame mid-infrared and to investigate a host of key scientific issues, such as the relative importance of star formation versus AGN, the hardness of the radiation field, the level of chemical enrichment, and the properties of the molecular gas. From a broader perspective, SAFARI offers the potential to open up a new frontier in the study of the early Universe, providing access to uniquely powerful spectral features for probing first-generation objects, such as the key cooling lines of low-metallicity or metal-free forming galaxies (fine-structure and H2 lines) and emission features of solid compounds freshly synthesized by Population III supernovae. Ultimately, SAFARI's ability to explore the high-redshift Universe will be determined by the availability of sufficiently bright targets (whether intrinsically luminous or gravitationally lensed). With its launch expected around 2030, SPICA is ideally positioned to take full advantage of upcoming wide-field surveys such as LSST, SKA, Euclid, and WFIRST, which are likely to provide extraordinary targets for SAFARI.

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arXiv2018

A machine-learning method for identifying multi-wavelength counterparts of submillimeter galaxies: training and testing using AS2UDS and ALESS

We describe the application of the supervised machine-learning algorithms to identify the likely multi-wavelength counterparts to submillimeter sources detected in panoramic, single-dish submillimeter surveys. As a training set, we employ a sample of 695 ($S_{\rm 870μm}$ >1 mJy) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) with precise identifications from the ALMA follow-up of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey's UKIDSS-UDS field (AS2UDS). We show that radio emission, near-/mid-infrared colors, photometric redshift, and absolute $H$-band magnitude are effective predictors that can distinguish SMGs from submillimeter-faint field galaxies. Our combined radio+machine-learning method is able to successfully recover $\sim$85 percent of ALMA-identified SMGs which are detected in at least three bands from the ultraviolet to radio. We confirm the robustness of our method by dividing our training set into independent subsets and using these for training and testing respectively, as well as applying our method to an independent sample of $\sim$100 ALMA-identified SMGs from the ALMA/LABOCA ECDF-South Survey (ALESS). To further test our methodology, we stack the 870$μ$m ALMA maps at the positions of those $K$-band galaxies that are classified as SMG counterparts by the machine-learning but do not have a $>$4.3$ σ$ ALMA detection. The median peak flux density of these galaxies is $S_{\rm 870μm}=(0.61\pm0.03)$ mJy, demonstrating that our method can recover faint and/or diffuse SMGs even when they are below the detection threshold of our ALMA observations. In future, we will apply this method to samples drawn from panoramic single-dish submillimeter surveys which currently lack interferometric follow-up observations, to address science questions which can only be tackled with large, statistical samples of SMGs.

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arXiv2018

An ALMA survey of CO in submillimetre galaxies: companions, triggering, and the environment in blended sources

We present ALMA observations of the mid-J 12CO emission from six single-dish selected 870-micron sources in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (ECDFS) and UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) fields. These six single-dish submillimetre sources were selected based on previous ALMA continuum observations, which showed that each comprised a blend of emission from two or more individual submillimetre galaxies (SMGs), separated on 5--10 arcsec scales. The six single-dish submillimetre sources targeted correspond to a total of 14 individual SMGs, of which seven have previously-measured robust optical/near-infrared spectroscopic redshifts, which were used to tune our ALMA observations. We detect CO(3-2) or CO(4-3) at z=2.3--3.7 in seven of the 14 SMGs, and in addition serendipitously detect line emission from three gas-rich companion galaxies, as well as identify four new 3.3-mm selected continuum sources in the six fields. Joint analysis of our CO spectroscopy and existing data suggests that 64 \pm 18% of the SMGs in blended submillimetre sources are unlikely to be physically associated. However, three of the SMG fields (50%) contain new, serendipitously-detected CO-emitting (but submillimetre-faint) sources at similar redshifts to the 870-micron selected SMGs we targeted. These data suggest that the SMGs inhabit overdense regions, but that these are not sufficiently overdense on ~100 kpc scales to influence the source blending given the short lifetimes of SMGs. We find that 21 \pm 12% of SMGs have spatially-distinct and kinematically-close companion galaxies (~8--150 kpc and <~300 km/s), which may have enhanced their star-formation via gravitational interactions.

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arXiv2018

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: number counts of submillimeter galaxies

We report the first results of AS2UDS: an 870 $μ$m continuum survey with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) of a total area of $\sim$ 50 arcmin$^2$ comprising a complete sample of 716 submillimeter sources drawn from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) map of the UKIDSS/UDS field. The S2CLS parent sample covers a 0.96 degree$^2$ field at $σ_{850}=0.90\pm0.05$ mJy beam$^{-1}$. Our deep, high-resolution ALMA observations with $σ_{\rm 870}\sim$ 0.25 mJy and a 0.15"--0.30" FWHM synthesized beam, provide precise locations for 695 submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) responsible for the submillimeter emission corresponding to 606 sources in the low resolution, single-dish map. We measure the number counts of SMGs brighter than $S_{\rm 870}\geq$ 4 mJy, free from the effects of blending and show that the normalisation of the counts falls by 28 $\pm$ 2% in comparison to the SCUBA-2 parent sample, but that the shape remains unchanged. We determine that 44$^{+16}_{-14}$% of the brighter single-dish sources with $S_{850}\geq$ 9 mJy consist of a blend of two or more ALMA-detectable SMGs brighter than $S_{870}\sim$ 1 mJy (corresponding to a galaxy with a total-infrared luminosity of $L_{IR}\geq$ 10$^{12}$ L$_\odot$), in comparison to 28 $\pm$ 2% for the single-dish sources at $S_{\rm 850}\geq$ 5 mJy. Using the 46 single-dish submillimeter sources that contain two or more ALMA-detected SMGs with photometric redshifts, we show that there is a significant statistical excess of pairs of SMGs with similar redshifts ($<$1% probability of occurring by chance), suggesting that at least 30% of these blends arise from physically associated pairs of SMGs.

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arXiv2018

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Identifying candidate z~4.5 [CII] emitters

We report the results of a search for serendipitous [CII] 157.74$μ$m emitters at $z\sim4.4$-$4.7$ using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The search exploits the AS2UDS continuum survey, which covers ~50 arcmin$^2$ of the sky towards 695 luminous ($S_{870}\gtrsim1$mJy) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), selected from the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) 0.96deg$^2$ Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field. We detect ten candidate line emitters, with an expected false detection rate of ten percent. All of these line emitters correspond to 870$μ$m continuum-detected sources in AS2UDS. The emission lines in two emitters appear to be high-J CO, but the remainder have multi-wavelength properties consistent with [CII] from $z\simeq4.5$ galaxies. Using our sample, we place a lower limit of $>5\times10^{-6}$Mpc$^{-3}$ on the space density of luminous ($L_{\rm IR} \simeq 10^{13}$Lsun) SMGs at $z=4.40$-$4.66$, suggesting $\ge7$percent of SMGs with $S_{870μ{\rm m}}\gtrsim1$mJy lie at $4<z<5$. From stacking the high-resolution ($\sim0.15"$ full-width half maximum) ALMA $870μ$m imaging, we show that the [CII] line emission is more extended than the continuum dust emission, with an average effective radius for the [CII] of $r_{\rm e} = 1.7^{+0.1}_{-0.2}$kpc compared to $r_{\rm e} = 1.0\pm0.1$kpc for the continuum (rest-frame $160μ$m). By fitting the far-infrared photometry for these galaxies from $100$-$870μ$m, we show that SMGs at $z\sim4.5$ have a median dust temperature of $T_{\rm d}=55\pm4$K. This is systematically warmer than $870μ$m-selected SMGs at $z\simeq2$, which typically have temperatures around $35$K. These $z\simeq4.5$ SMGs display a steeper trend in the luminosity-temperature plane than $z\le2$ SMGs. We discuss the implications of this result in terms of the selection biases of high redshift starbursts in far-infrared/submillimeter surveys.

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