Dust-obscured star-forming galaxies in the early universe
Abstract
Motivated by recent observational constraints on dust reprocessed emission in star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 6 and above, we use the very large cosmological hydrodynamical simulation BLUETIDES to explore predictions for the amount of dust-obscured star formation in the early Universe (z > 8). BLUETIDES matches current observational constraints on both the UV luminosity function and galaxy stellar mass function and predicts that approximately 90 per cent of the star formation in high-mass (M* > 1010 M⊙) galaxies at z = 8 is already obscured by dust. The relationship between dust attenuation and stellar mass predicted by BLUETIDES is consistent with that observed at lower redshift. However, observations of several individual objects at z > 6 are discrepant with the predictions, though it is possible that their uncertainties may have been underestimated. We find that the predicted surface density of z ≥ 8 submm sources is below that accessible to current Herschel, SCUBA-2 and Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) submm surveys. However, as ALMA continues to accrue an additional surface area the population of z > 8 dust-obscured galaxies may become accessible in the near future.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stx2588
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1710.01976
- Bibcode:
- 2018MNRAS.473.5363W
- Keywords:
-
- methods: numerical;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- galaxies: luminosity function;
- mass function;
- galaxies: photometry;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS