Detailed modelling of a large sample of Herschel sources in the Lockman Hole: identification of cold dust and of lensing candidates through their anomalous SEDs

TL;DR

This study analyzes Herschel SPIRE sources in the Lockman Hole, identifying cold dust, lensing candidates, and complex galaxy populations through detailed SED modeling and infrared template fitting.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive SED fitting approach with new templates, identifies lensing candidates via anomalous SEDs, and characterizes diverse galaxy populations in the submillimetre range.

Findings

109 lensing candidates identified from anomalous SEDs

70% of unlensed sources are ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Most sources contain surprisingly cold dust (10-13K)

Abstract

We have studied in detail a sample of 967 SPIRE sources with 5-sigma detections at 350 and 500 micron and associations with Spitzer-SWIRE 24 micron galaxies in the HerMES-Lockman survey area, fitting their mid- and far-infrared, and submillimetre, SEDs in an automatic search with a set of six infrared templates. For almost 300 galaxies we have modelled their SEDs individually to ensure the physicality of the fits. We confirm the need for the new cool and cold cirrus templates, and also of the young starburst template, introduced in earlier work. We also identify 109 lensing candidates via their anomalous SEDs and provide a set of colour-redshift constraints which allow lensing candidates to be identified from combined Herschel and Spitzer data. The picture that emerges of the submillimetre galaxy population is complex, comprising ultraluminous and hyperluminous starbursts, lower luminosity galaxies dominated by interstellar dust emission, lensed galaxies and galaxies with surprisingly cold (10-13K) dust. 11 % of 500$\mu$m selected sources are lensing candidates. 70 % of the unlensed sources are ultraluminous infrared galaxies and 26 % are hyperluminous. 34 % are dominated by optically thin interstellar dust ('cirrus') emission, but most of these are due to cooler dust than is characteristic of our Galaxy. At the highest infrared luminosities we see SEDs dominated by M82, Arp220 and young starburst types, in roughly equal proportions.