Galaxy formation & evolution: the far-ir/sub-mm view

TL;DR

This paper reviews high-redshift sub-mm/mm galaxies, highlighting recent survey results and discussing challenges for theoretical models to explain their abundance and properties.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies and discusses the discrepancies between observations and galaxy formation theories.

Findings

High-redshift sub-mm/mm galaxies are the high-luminosity, high-mass end of dusty star-forming populations.

Current models struggle to reproduce the observed number of these extreme galaxies.

Recent surveys like SHADES have significantly advanced our understanding of these objects.

Abstract

We review our current knowledge of the population of high-redshift sub-mm/mm galaxies, with particular emphasis on recent results from the SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES). All available evidence indicates that these objects form the high-redshift, high-luminosity, high-mass tail of the dusty starforming galaxy population revealed at lower redshifts and luminosities by Spitzer. Current theoretical models of galaxy formation struggle to reproduce these extreme objects in the numbers indicated by current surveys.