ALMA Deep Field in SSA22: Survey Design and Source Catalog of a 20 arcmin^2 Survey at 1.1mm

TL;DR

This study presents a deep 1.1mm ALMA survey of the SSA22 proto-cluster, revealing an excess of dusty star-forming galaxies and providing insights into accelerated galaxy evolution in dense environments.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new high-resolution 1.1mm ALMA map of SSA22, detecting 35 sources and revealing enhanced star formation activity in the proto-cluster region.

Findings

Detected 35 sources with flux densities 0.43--5.6 mJy.

Found a 3-5x excess in number counts compared to blank fields.

Indicated accelerated galaxy evolution in the proto-cluster environment.

Abstract

To search for dust-obscured star-formation activity in the early Universe, it is essential to obtain a deep and wide submillimeter/millimeter map. The advent of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has enabled us to obtain such maps at sufficiently high spatial resolution to be free from source confusion. We present a new 1.1mm map obtained by ALMA in the SSA22 field. SSA22 contains a remarkable proto-cluster at z=3.09 and is therefore an ideal region to investigate the role of large-scale cosmic web on dust-obscured star formation. The typical 1sigma depth of our map is 73 uJy/beam at a 0.5 resolution; combined with earlier, archived observations, we map an area of 20 arcmin^2 (71 comoving Mpc^2 at z=3.09). Within the combined survey area we have detected 35 sources at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) >5, with flux densities, S1.1mm=0.43--5.6 mJy, equivalent to star-formation rates of >=100--1000 Msun/yr at z=3.09, for a Chabrier initial mass function; of these, 17 are new detections. The cumulative number counts show a factor 3--5x excess compared to blank fields. The excess suggests enhanced dust-enshrouded star-formation activity in the proto-cluster on a 10 comoving Mpc scale, indicating accelerated galaxy evolution in this overdense region.