Blind millimeter line emitter search using ALMA data toward gravitational lensing clusters

TL;DR

This study used ALMA data to search for millimeter line emitters in gravitational lensing clusters, setting new constraints on the luminosity functions of CO and [CII] at various redshifts, despite no significant detections.

Contribution

First constraints on CO and [CII] luminosity functions at low luminosities using gravitational lensing, demonstrating the effectiveness of wide single-frequency ALMA observations.

Findings

No line emitters with S/N > 5 detected.

Established upper limits on luminosity functions at z ~ 0.3 to 6.

Results broadly consistent with semi-analytical models.

Abstract

We present the results of a blind millimeter line emitter search using ALMA Band 6 data with a single frequency tuning toward four gravitational lensing clusters (RXJ1347.5-1145, Abell S0592, MACS J0416.1-2403, and Abell 2744). We construct three-dimensional signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) cubes with 60 MHz and 100 MHz binning, and search for millimeter line emitters. We do not detect any line emitters with a peak S/N > 5, although we do find a line emitter candidate with a peak S/N ~ 4.5. These results provide upper limits to the CO(3-2), CO(4-3), CO(5-4), and [CII] luminosity functions at z ~ 0.3, 0.7, 1.2, and 6, respectively. Because of the magnification effect of gravitational lensing clusters, the new data provide the first constraints on the CO and [CII] luminosity functions at unprecedentedly low luminosity levels, i.e., down to $<~ 10^{-3}-10^{-1} $Mpc$^{-3}$ dex$^{-1}$ at $L'_{CO} ~ 10^8-10^{10}$ K km $s^{-1}$ pc$^2$ and $<~ 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ dex$^{-1}$ at $L_[CII] ~ 10^8-10^{10} L_\odot$, respectively. Although the constraints to date are not stringent yet, we find that the evolution of the CO and [CII] luminosity functions are broadly consistent with the predictions of semi-analytical models. This study demonstrates that the wide observations with a single frequency tuning toward gravitational lensing clusters are promising for constraining the CO and [CII] luminosity functions.