The [C II]/[N II] ratio in 3 < z < 6 sub-millimetre galaxies from the South Pole Telescope survey

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  • D. J. M. Cunningham
  • S. C. Chapman
  • M. Aravena
  • C. De Breuck
  • M. Bethermin
  • Chian-Chou Chen
  • Chenxing Dong
  • A. H. Gonzalez
  • T. R. Greve
  • K. C. Litke
  • J. Ma
  • M. Malkan
  • D. P. Marrone
  • T. Miller
  • K. A. Phadke
  • C. Reuter
  • K. Rotermund
  • J. S. Spilker
  • A. A. Stark
  • M. Strandet
  • And 2 others
  • J. D. Vieira
  • A. Weiss

We present Atacama Compact Array and Atacama Pathfinder Experiment observations of the [N II] 205 mu m fine-structure line in 40 sub-millimetre galaxies lying at redshifts z = 3-6, drawn from the 2500 deg(2) South Pole Thlescope survey. This represents the largest uniformly selected sample of high-redshift [N II] 205 mu m measurements to date. 29 sources also have [C II] 158 mu m line observations allowing a characterization of the distribution of the [C II] to [N II] luminosity ratio for the first time at high redshift. The sample exhibits a median L[C II] /L [N II]) approximate to 11.0 and interquartile range of 5.0 -24.7. These ratios are similar to those observed in local (Ultra)luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), possibly indicating similarities in their interstellar medium. At the extremes, we find individual sub-millimetre galaxies with L[C II]/L [N II] low enough to suggest a smaller contribution from neutral gas than ionized gas to the [C II] flux and high enough to suggest strongly photon or X-ray region dominated flux. These results highlight a large range in this line luminosity ratio for sub-millimetre galaxies, which may be caused by variations in gas density, the relative abundances of carbon and nitrogen, ionization parameter, metallicity, and a variation in the fractional abundance of ionized and neutral interstellar medium.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume494
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)4090-4097
Number of pages8
ISSN0035-8711
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2020

    Research areas

  • galaxies: evolution, galaxies: high-redshift, galaxies: statistics, submillimetre: galaxies, submillimetre: ISM, STAR-FORMING GALAXIES, DEEP FIELD-SOUTH, REDSHIFT SURVEY, NUMBER COUNTS, BRIGHT

ID: 319599339