Searching Far and Long I: Pilot ALMA 2mm Follow-up of Bright Dusty Galaxies as a Redshift Filter

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that 2mm ALMA follow-up observations of bright dusty galaxies can effectively identify high-redshift ($z>4$) candidates, improving redshift estimates and characterizing their IR properties to better understand early universe star formation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a pilot method using 2mm ALMA imaging combined with archival data to efficiently select and analyze high-redshift dusty galaxies, enhancing redshift accuracy and IR SED characterization.

Findings

Six high-$z$ candidates identified with >50% likelihood

Adding 2mm data improves redshift accuracy from Δz/(1+z)=0.3 to 0.2

Bright DSFGs contribute ~10% to cosmic star formation from z=2 to 5

Abstract

A complete census of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at early epochs is necessary to constrain the obscured contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD), however DSFGs beyond $z \sim 4$ are both rare and hard to identify from photometric data alone due to degeneracies in submillimeter photometry with redshift. Here, we present a pilot study obtaining follow-up Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) $2\,$mm observations of a complete sample of 39 $850\,\rm\mu m$-bright dusty galaxies in the SSA22 field. Empirical modeling suggests $2\,$mm imaging of existing samples of DSFGs selected at $850\,\rm\mu m - 1\,$mm can quickly and easily isolate the "needle in a haystack" DSFGs that sit at $z>4$ or beyond. Combining archival submillimeter imaging with our measured ALMA $2\,$mm photometry ($1\sigma \sim 0.08\,$mJy$\,$beam$^{-1}$ rms), we characterize the galaxies' IR SEDs and use them to constrain redshifts. With available redshift constraints fit via the combination of six submillimeter bands, we identify 6/39 high-$z$ candidates each with $>50\%$ likelihood to sit at $z > 4$, and find a positive correlation between redshift and $2\,$mm flux density. Specifically, our models suggest the addition of $2\,$mm to a moderately constrained IR SED will improve the accuracy of a millimeter-derived redshift from $\Delta z/(1+z) = 0.3$ to $\Delta z/(1+z) = 0.2$. Our IR SED characterizations provide evidence for relatively high emissivity spectral indices ($\langle \beta \rangle = 2.4\pm0.3$) in the sample. We measure that especially bright ($S_{850\rm\mu m}>5.55\,$mJy) DSFGs contribute $\sim10$% to the cosmic-averaged CSFRD from $2<z<5$, confirming findings from previous work with similar samples.