ALMA Deep Field in SSA22: A near-infrared-dark submillimeter galaxy at z=4.0

TL;DR

This study reports the spectroscopic identification and detailed characterization of a near-infrared-dark submillimeter galaxy at z=4.0, revealing its properties and implications for early galaxy formation using ALMA observations.

Contribution

First spectroscopic redshift and physical characterization of a near-infrared-dark galaxy at high redshift using ALMA line scans.

Findings

Galaxy at z=3.9913 with high star formation rate

Molecular gas mass of approximately 6 x 10^{10} Msun

Gas fraction around 35%, consistent with other submillimeter galaxies

Abstract

Deep surveys with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered a population of dusty star-forming galaxies which are faint or even undetected at optical to near-infrared wavelengths. Their faintness at short wavelengths makes detailed characterization of the population challenging. Here we present a spectroscopic redshift identification and characterization of one of such near-infrared-dark galaxy discovered by an ALMA deep survey. Detection of [CI](1-0) and CO(4-3) emission lines determines the precise redshift of the galaxy, ADF22.A2, to be z=3.9913+/-0.0008. On the basis of multi-wavelength analysis, ADF22.A2 is found to be a massive, star-forming galaxy with stellar mass Mstar = $1.1_{-0.6}^{+1.3}$ x 10^{11} Msun and SFR = $430_{-150}^{+230}$ Msun/yr. The molecular gas mass is derived to be M ($H_2$) = 5.9 +/- 1.5x10^{10} Msun, indicating a gas fraction of ~35%, and the ratios of $L_{\rm [CI](1-0)}/L_{\rm IR}$ and $L_{\rm [CI](1-0)}/L_{\rm CO(4-3)}$ suggests that the nature of the interstellar medium in ADF22.A2 is in accordance with those of other bright submillimeter galaxies. The properties of ADF22.A2, including redshift, star-formation rate, stellar mass, and depletion time scale (tau~0.1-0.2 Gyr), also suggest that ADF22.A2 has the characteristics expected for the progenitors of quiescent galaxies at z>3. Our results demonstrate the power of ALMA contiguous mapping and line scan to obtain an unbiased view of galaxy formation in the early Universe.