Faint End of 1.3 mm Number Counts Revealed by ALMA

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations to reveal the faint end of 1.3 mm galaxy counts, showing that most of the background light at this wavelength is from normal star-forming galaxies rather than extreme starbursts.

Contribution

First detection of faint 1.3 mm sources at sub-mJy flux levels, providing new insights into the population of typical star-forming galaxies at z~1.4.

Findings

80% of the 1.3 mm background light is resolved into sources.

Number counts align with models predicting normal star-forming galaxies.

Detected 15 sources serendipitously in targeted ALMA observations.

Abstract

We present the faint end of number counts at 1.3 mm (238 GHz) obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Band 6 observations were carried out targeting 20 star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1.4 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey field. In the observations, we serendipitously detect 15 sources (>=3.8 sigma, S(1.3 mm) = 0.15-0.61 mJy) other than the targeted sources. We create number counts by using these `sub-mJy sources', which probe the faintest flux range among surveys at millimeter wavelengths. The number counts are consistent with (flux-scaled) number counts at 850 um and 870 um obtained with gravitational lensing clusters. The ALMA number counts agree well with model predictions, which suggest that these sub-mJy populations are more like `normal' star-forming galaxies than `classical' SMGs with intense star-forming activity. In this flux range, ~80% of the extragalactic background light at 1.3 mm is resolved into individual sources.