A Comparison of the Stellar, CO and Dust-Continuum Emission from Three, Star-Forming HUDF Galaxies at $z\sim 2$

TL;DR

This study compares the spatial distribution of dust, molecular gas, and stars in three high-redshift star-forming galaxies, revealing that gas and dust are generally more compact than stars, with implications for galaxy structure and evolution.

Contribution

It provides high-resolution observations of dust, gas, and stars in three $z extasciitilde 2$ galaxies, highlighting differences in their spatial extents and kinematics, which was less explored before.

Findings

CO emission is at least 30% more compact than stellar emission.

Dust emission is more compact than stars in two of the three galaxies.

All galaxies show rotation-dominated disk kinematics.

Abstract

We compare the extent of the dust, molecular gas and stars in three star-forming galaxies, at $z= 1.4, 1.6$ and $2.7$, selected from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field based on their bright CO and dust-continuum emission as well as their large rest-frame optical sizes. The galaxies have high stellar masses, $\mathrm{M}_*>10^{11}\mathrm{M}_\odot$, and reside on, or slightly below, the main sequence of star-forming galaxies at their respective redshifts. We probe the dust and molecular gas using subarcsecond Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the 1.3 mm continuum and CO line emission, respectively, and probe the stellar distribution using \emph{Hubble Space Telescope} observations at 1.6 \textmu m. We find that for all three galaxies the CO emission appears $\gtrsim 30\%$ more compact than the stellar emission. For the $z= 1.4$ and $2.7$ galaxies, the dust emission is also more compact, by $\gtrsim 50\%$, than the stellar emission, whereas for the $z=1.6$ galaxy, the dust and stellar emission have similar spatial extents. This similar spatial extent is consistent with observations of local disk galaxies. However, most high redshift observations show more compact dust emission, likely due to the ubiquity of central starbursts at high redshift and the limited sensitivity of many of these observations. Using the CO emission line, we also investigate the kinematics of the cold interstellar medium in the galaxies, and find that all three have kinematics consistent with a rotation-dominated disk.