The Evolution of the IR Luminosity Function and Dust-obscured Star Formation over the Past 13 Billion Years

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • J. A. Zavala
  • C. M. Casey
  • S. M. Manning
  • M. Aravena
  • M. Bethermin
  • K. I. Caputi
  • D. L. Clements
  • E. da Cunha
  • P. Drew
  • S. L. Finkelstein
  • S. Fujimoto
  • C. Hayward
  • J. Hodge
  • J. S. Kartaltepe
  • K. Knudsen
  • A. M. Koekemoer
  • A. S. Long
  • A. W. S. Man
  • G. Popping
  • D. Sanders
  • N. Scoville
  • K. Sheth
  • J. Staguhn
  • E. Treister
  • J. D. Vieira
  • M. S. Yun

We present the first results from the Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA) survey, the largest Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) blank-field contiguous survey to date (184 arcmin(2)) and the only at 2 mm to search for dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). We use the 13 sources detected above 5 sigma to estimate the first ALMA galaxy number counts at this wavelength. These number counts are then combined with the state-of-the-art galaxy number counts at 1.2 and 3 mm and with a backward evolution model to place constraints on the evolution of the IR luminosity function and dust-obscured star formation in the past 13 billion years. Our results suggest a steep redshift evolution on the space density of DSFGs and confirm the flattening of the IR luminosity function at faint luminosities, with a slope of alpha(LF) = -0.42(-0.04)(+0.02). We conclude that the dust-obscured component, which peaks at z approximate to 2-2.5, has dominated the cosmic history of star formation for the past similar to 12 billion years, back to z similar to 4. At z = 5, the dust-obscured star formation is estimated to be similar to 35% of the total star formation rate density and decreases to 25%-20% at z = 6-7, implying a minor contribution of dusten-shrouded star formation in the first billion years of the universe. With the dust-obscured star formation history constrained up to the end of the epoch of reionization, our results provide a benchmark to test galaxy formation models, to study the galaxy mass assembly history, and to understand the dust and metal enrichment of the universe at early times.

Original languageEnglish
Article number165
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume909
Issue number2
Number of pages15
ISSN0004-637X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2021

    Research areas

  • Galaxy evolution, Galaxies, Dust continuum emission, Millimeter astronomy, Submillimeter astronomy, Star formation, High-redshift galaxies, Surveys, Galaxy counts, Luminosity function, COSMOLOGY LEGACY SURVEY, SUBMILLIMETER NUMBER COUNTS, FORMATION RATE DENSITY, DEEP FIELD SOUTH, ALMA SURVEY, REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION, PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES, GALAXY FORMATION, MU-M, UNIVERSE

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