ALMACAL II: Extreme star-formation-rate densities in a pair of dusty starbursts at $z = 3.442$ revealed by ALMA 20-milliarcsec resolution imaging

TL;DR

This study uses ultra-high-resolution ALMA imaging to reveal that dusty starbursts at high redshift contain extremely compact, intensely star-forming regions, providing new insights into the structure and intensity of early Universe star formation.

Contribution

First ultra-high-resolution ALMA observations of high-redshift dusty starbursts showing that most star formation occurs in compact, dense clumps with unprecedented surface densities.

Findings

Star formation is dominated by compact clumps of ~350 pc size.

Star-formation rate surface densities reach up to 3000 M_sun yr^-1 kpc^-2.

Potential gravitational lensing could imply even higher densities (~10000 M_sun yr^-1 kpc^-2).

Abstract

We present ALMA ultra-high-spatial resolution ($\sim 20 \, {\rm mas}$) observations of dust continuum at $920 \, {\rm \mu m}$ and $1.2 \, {\rm mm}$ in a pair of submm galaxies (SMGs) at $z = 3.442$, ALMACAL-1 (A-1: $S_{\rm 870 \mu m} = 6.5 \pm 0.2 \, {\rm mJy}$) and ALMACAL-2 (A-2: $S_{\rm 870 \mu m} = 4.4 \pm 0.2 \, {\rm mJy}$). The spectroscopic redshifts of A-1 and A-2 have been confirmed via serendipitous detection of up to nine emission lines. Our ultra-high-spatial resolution data reveal that about half of the star formation in each of these starbursts is dominated by a single compact clump (FWHM size of $\sim 350 \, {\rm pc}$). This structure is confirmed by independent datasets at $920 \, {\rm \mu m}$ and $1.2 \, {\rm mm}$. The star-formation rate (SFR) surface densities of all these clumps are extremely high, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR} \sim 1200$ to $\sim 3000 \, {M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1} \, {\rm kpc}^{-2}}$, the highest found in high-redshift galaxies. There is a small probability that A-1 and A-2 are the lensed components of a background source gravitationally amplified by the blazar host. If this was the case, the effective radius of the source would be $R_{\rm eff} \sim 40 \, {\rm pc}$, and the de-magnified SFR surface density would be $\Sigma_{\rm SFR} \sim 10000 \, {M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1} \, {\rm kpc}^{-2}}$, comparable with the eastern nucleus of Arp 220. Despite being unable to rule out an AGN contribution, our results suggest that a significant percentage of the enormous far-IR luminosity in some dusty starbursts is concentrated in very small star-forming regions. The high $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$ in our pair of SMGs could only be measured thanks to the ultra-high-resolution ALMA observations used in this work, demonstrating that long-baseline observations are essential to study and interpret the properties of dusty starbursts in the early Universe.