Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA): 2 mm Efficiently Selects the Highest-redshift Obscured Galaxies
Abstract
We present the characteristics of 2 mm selected sources from the largest Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) blank-field contiguous survey conducted to date, the Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA) survey covering 184 arcmin2 at 2 mm. Twelve of 13 detections above 5σ are attributed to emission from galaxies, 11 of which are dominated by cold dust emission. These sources have a median redshift of $\langle {z}_{2\,\mathrm{mm}}\rangle ={3.6}_{-0.3}^{+0.4}$ primarily based on optical/near-infrared photometric redshifts with some spectroscopic redshifts, with 77% ± 11% of sources at z > 3 and 38% ± 12% of sources at z > 4. This implies that 2 mm selection is an efficient method for identifying the highest-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Lower-redshift DSFGs (z < 3) are far more numerous than those at z > 3 yet are likely to drop out at 2 mm. MORA shows that DSFGs with star formation rates in excess of 300 M ⊙ yr-1 and a relative rarity of ~10-5 Mpc-3 contribute ~30% to the integrated star formation rate density at 3 < z < 6. The volume density of 2 mm selected DSFGs is consistent with predictions from some cosmological simulations and is similar to the volume density of their hypothesized descendants: massive, quiescent galaxies at z > 2. Analysis of MORA sources' spectral energy distributions hint at steeper empirically measured dust emissivity indices than reported in typical literature studies, with $\langle \beta \rangle ={2.2}_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$ . The MORA survey represents an important step in taking census of obscured star formation in the universe's first few billion years, but larger area 2 mm surveys are needed to more fully characterize this rare population and push to the detection of the universe's first dusty galaxies.
- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- DOI:
- 10.3847/1538-4357/ac2eb4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2110.06930
- Bibcode:
- 2021ApJ...923..215C
- Keywords:
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- Millimeter astronomy;
- Submillimeter astronomy;
- Dust continuum emission;
- High-redshift galaxies;
- Active galaxies;
- Infrared galaxies;
- Starburst galaxies;
- 1061;
- 1647;
- 412;
- 734;
- 17;
- 790;
- 1570;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 42 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ