The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: The EGS deep field - II. Morphological transformation and multi-wavelength properties of faint submillimetre galaxies

TL;DR

This study analyzes faint submillimetre galaxies in the EGS field, revealing their redshift distribution, physical properties, and morphological evolution, supporting their role as progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-wavelength and morphological analysis of faint SMGs in the EGS, linking their properties to galaxy evolution models.

Findings

Most sources are high-mass star-forming galaxies on the main sequence.

Morphological transition from irregular disks to spheroid-dominated structures at z~1.4.

Most galaxies are disk-like with sizes around 4.8 kpc.

Abstract

We present a multi-wavelength analysis of galaxies selected at 450 and 850um from the deepest SCUBA-2 observations in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) field, which have an average depth of sigma_450=1.9 and sigma_850=0.46 mJy/beam over ~70 sq. arcmin. The final sample comprises 95 sources: 56 (59%) are detected at both wavelengths, 31 (33%) are detected only at 850um, and 8 (8%) are detected only at 450um. We identify counterparts for 75% of the whole sample. The redshift distributions of the 450 and 850um samples peak at different redshifts with median values of z=1.66 +/- 0.18 and z=2.30 +/- 0.20, respectively. However, the two populations have similar IR luminosities, SFRs, and stellar masses, with mean values of (1.5 +/- 0.2) x 10^12 L_sun, (150 +/- 20) M_sun/yr, and (9.0 +/- 0.6) x 10^10 M_sun, respectively. This places most of our sources (>85%) on the high-mass end of the `main-sequence' of star-forming galaxies. Exploring the IR excess vs UV-slope (IRX-beta) relation we find that the most luminous galaxies are consistent with the Meurer law, while the less luminous galaxies lie below this relation. Using the results of a two-dimensional modelling of the HST H_160-band imaging, we derive a median Sersic index of n=1.4 +0.3 -0.1 and a median half-light radius of R_1/2 = 4.8 +/ 0.4 kpc. Based on a visual-like classification in the same band, we find that the dominant component for most of the galaxies at all redshifts is a disk-like structure, although there is a transition from irregular disks to disks with a spheroidal component at z~1.4, which morphologically supports the scenario of SMGs as progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies.