A First Glimpse into the far-IR properties of high-z UV-selected Galaxies: Herschel/PACS observations of z~3 LBGs

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel/PACS observations and stacking techniques to analyze the far-IR properties of z~3 UV-selected Lyman Break Galaxies, revealing their ULIRG nature and dust temperature characteristics.

Contribution

First to construct an average IR spectral energy distribution of high-z LBGs using stacking, providing insights into their dust temperature and IR luminosity.

Findings

Median IR luminosity indicates ULIRG classification.

LBGs are warmer than submm-luminous galaxies at similar IR luminosities.

Current sub-mm surveys may miss warmer high-z ULIRGs.

Abstract

We present first insights into the far-IR properties for a sample of IRAC and MIPS-24um detected Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 3, as derived from observations in the northern field of the Great Observatories Origins Survey (GOODS-N) carried out with the PACS instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory. Although none of our galaxies are detected by Herschel, we employ a stacking technique to construct, for the first time, the average spectral energy distribution of infrared luminous LBGs from UV to radio wavelengths. We derive a median IR luminosity of L_{IR} = 1.6 x 10^12 Lo, placing the population in the class of ultra luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). Complementing our study with existing multi-wavelength data, we put constraints on the dust temperature of the population and find that for their L_{IR}, MIPS-LBGs are warmer than submm-luminous galaxies while they fall in the locus of the L_{IR}-T_{d} relation of the local ULIRGs. This, along with estimates based on the average SED, explains the marginal detection of LBGs in current sub-mm surveys and suggests that these latter studies introduce a bias towards the detection of colder ULIRGs in the high-z universe, while missing high-z ULIRGS with warmer dust.