A near/mid infrared search for ultra-bright submillimetre galaxies: Searching for Cosmic Eyelash Analogues
Abstract
We present results from a near-/mid-IR search for submillimetre galaxies over a region of 6230 deg2 of the southern sky. We used a cross-correlation of the VISTA Hemispheric Survey (VHS) and the WISE data base to identify bright galaxies (Ks ≤ 18.2) with near-/mid-IR colours similar to those of the high-redshift lensed submm galaxy SMM J2135-0102. We find seven galaxies that fulfil all five adopted near-/mid-IR colour (NMIRQC) criteria and resemble the SED of the reference galaxy at these wavelengths. For these galaxies, which are broadly distributed in the sky, we determined photometric redshifts in the range z = 1.6-3.2. We searched the VHS for clusters of galaxies, which may be acting as gravitational lenses, and found that six out of the seven galaxies are located within 3.5 arcmin of a cluster/group of galaxies. Using the J-Ks versus J sequences, we determine photometric redshifts for these clusters/groups in the range z = 0.2-0.9. We propose the newly identified sources are ultrabright high-redshift lensed SMG candidates. Follow-up observations in the submm and mm are key to determine the ultimate nature of these objects.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- May 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stx041
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1702.03206
- Bibcode:
- 2017MNRAS.467..330I
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies;
- submillimetre: galaxies;
- galaxies: general;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- galaxies: starburst;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages, 9 figures and 6 Tables