SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging Eao Survey (Studies) III: Multi-wavelength properties, luminosity functions and preliminary source catalog of 450-$\mu$m-selected galaxies

TL;DR

This study presents a deep 450-micron survey in the COSMOS field, analyzing the properties, redshift distribution, and luminosity functions of selected galaxies, revealing insights into star formation and dust characteristics across cosmic time.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed multi-wavelength analysis and luminosity functions of 450-micron-selected galaxies, highlighting their role in cosmic star formation history.

Findings

Most sources are at redshift z<3 with median z=1.79.

About 35% are classified as starburst galaxies.

The IR luminosity density from these sources rises sharply from z=0 to 2.

Abstract

We construct a SCUBA-2 450-$\mu$m map in the COSMOS field that covers an area of 300 arcmin$^{2}$ and reaches a 1$\sigma$ noise level of 0.65 mJy in the deepest region. We extract 256 sources detected at 450 $\mu$m with signal-to-noise ratio $>$ 4.0 and analyze the physical properties of their multi-wavelength counterparts. We find that most of the sources are at $z\lesssim3$, with a median of $z = 1.79^{+0.03}_{-0.15}$. About $35^{+32}_{-25}$% of our sources are classified as starburst galaxies based on their total star-formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses ($M_{\ast}$). By fitting the far-infrared spectral energy distributions, we find that our 450-$\mu$m-selected sample has a wide range of dust temperatures (20 K $ \lesssim T_{\rm d} \lesssim$ 60 K), with a median of ${T}_{\rm d} = 38.3^{+0.4}_{-0.9}$ K. We do not find a redshift evolution in dust temperature for sources with $L_{\rm IR}$ > $10^{12}$ $\rm L_\odot$ at $z<3$. However, we find a moderate correlation where dust temperature increases with the deviation from the SFR-$M_{\ast}$ relation. The increase in dust temperature also correlates with optical morphology, which is consistent with merger-triggered starbursts in sub-millimeter galaxies. Our galaxies do not show the tight IRX-$\beta_{\rm UV}$ correlation that has been observed in the local Universe. We construct the infrared luminosity functions of our 450-$\mu$m sources and measure their comoving SFR densities. The contribution of the $L_{\rm IR}$ > $10^{12}$ $\rm L_\odot$ population to the SFR density rises dramatically from $z$ = 0 to 2 ($\propto$ ($1+z$)$^{3.9\pm1.1}$) and dominates the total SFR density at $z \gtrsim 2$.