Are the Most Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies Eddington Limited Starbursts?
Abstract
We present high resolution submillimeter interferometric imaging of two of the brightest high--redshift submillimeter galaxies known: GN20 and AzTEC1 at 0.3 and 0.8 arcsec resolution respectively. Our data -- the highest resolution submillimeter imaging of high redshift sources accomplished to date -- was collected in three different array configurations: compact, extended, and very extended.We derive angular sizes of 0.6 and 1.0 arcsec for GN20 and 0.3 and 0.4 arcsec for AzTEC1 from modeling their visibility functions as a Gaussian and elliptical disk respectively. We find preliminary evidence that these hyperluminous starbursts -- with star formation rates >1000 M_⊙ yr-1 -- are radiating at or close to their Eddington limit. Should future high resolution observations indicate that these two objects are typical of a population of high redshift Eddington--limited starbursts, this could have important consequences for models of star formation and feedback in extreme environments.
- Publication:
-
The Starburst-AGN Connection
- Pub Date:
- October 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009ASPC..408..405Y