The ALPINE ALMA [C II] Survey: on the nature of an extremely obscured serendipitous galaxy

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  • M. Romano
  • P. Cassata
  • L. Morselli
  • B. C. Lemaux
  • M. Bethermin
  • P. Capak
  • A. Faisst
  • O. Le Fevre
  • D. Schaerer
  • J. Silverman
  • L. Yan
  • S. Bardelli
  • M. Boquien
  • A. Cimatti
  • M. Dessauges-Zavadsky
  • A. Enia
  • Y. Fudamoto
  • S. Fujimoto
  • M. Ginolfi
  • C. Gruppioni
  • And 14 others
  • N. P. Hathi
  • E. Ibar
  • G. C. Jones
  • A. M. Koekemoer
  • F. Loiacono
  • C. Mancini
  • D. A. Riechers
  • G. Rodighiero
  • L. Rodriguez-Munoz
  • M. Talia
  • L. Vallini
  • D. Vergani
  • G. Zamorani
  • E. Zucca

We report the serendipitous discovery of a dust-obscured galaxy observed as part of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Large Program to INvestigate [C II] at Early times (ALPINE). While this galaxy is detected both in line and continuum emissions in ALMA Band 7, it is completely dark in the observed optical/near-infrared bands and only shows a significant detection in the UltraVISTA K-s band. We discuss the nature of the observed ALMA line, that is [C II] at z similar to 4.6 or high-J CO transitions at z similar to 2.2. In the first case, we find a [C II]/FIR luminosity ratio of log(L-[C II]/L-FIR) similar to -2.5, consistent with the average value for local star-forming galaxies (SFGs). In the second case instead, the source would lie at larger CO luminosities than those expected for local SFGs and high-z submillimetre galaxies. At both redshifts, we derive the star formation rate (SFR) from the ALMA continuum and the physical parameters of the galaxy, such as the stellar mass (M-*), by fitting its spectral energy distribution. Exploiting the results of this work, we believe that our source is a 'main-sequence', dusty SFG at z = 4.6 (i.e. [C II] emitter) with log(SFR/M-circle dot yr(-1)) similar to 1.4 and log(M-*/M-circle dot) similar to 9.9. As a support to this scenario our galaxy, if at this redshift, lies in a massive protocluster recently discovered at z similar to 4.57, at only similar to 1 proper Mpc from its centre. This work underlines the crucial role of the ALPINE survey in making a census of this class of objects, in order to unveil their contribution to the global SFR density at the end of the Reionization epoch.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume496
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)875-887
Number of pages13
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Jun 2020

    Research areas

  • galaxies: evolution, galaxies: high-redshift, FAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY, STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFTS, SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES, INTERSTELLAR-MEDIUM, DUST CONTENT, EMISSION, STELLAR, COSMOS, MASS

ID: 271542323