Spatially resolved dust properties and quasar-galaxy decomposition of a HyLIRG at z = 4.4

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations to spatially resolve dust properties in a high-redshift quasar host galaxy, revealing the impact of an active galactic nucleus on dust heating and star formation estimates.

Contribution

It provides the first spatially resolved analysis of dust temperature and star formation in a z=4.4 HyLIRG, highlighting the importance of AGN-host decomposition for accurate galaxy property measurements.

Findings

Detection of a warm dust component heated by the AGN.

Revised star formation rate is three times lower after AGN subtraction.

Surface density measurements align with the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation.

Abstract

We report spatially resolved dust properties of the quasar host galaxy BRI 1335-0417 at redshift $z = 4.4$ constrained by the ALMA observations. The dust temperature map, derived from a greybody fit to rest-frame 90 and 161~$\mu$m continuum images, shows a steep increase towards the centre, reaching $57.1 \pm 0.3$ K and a flat median profile at the outer regions of $\sim$38 K. Image decomposition analysis reveals the presence of a point source in both dust continuum images spatially coincident with the highest temperature peak and the optical quasar position, which we attribute to warm dust heated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We show that a model including this warm component along with cooler dust heated by star formation describes the global SED better than a single component model, with dust temperatures of 87.1$^{+34.1}_{-18.3}$ K (warm component) and 52.6$^{+10.3}_{-11.0}$ K (cold component). The star formation rate (SFR) estimated from the cold dust component is $1700_{-400}^{+500} M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, a factor of three smaller than previous estimates due to a large AGN contribution ($53^{+14}_{-15}$\%). The unresolved warm dust component also explains the steep temperature gradient, as the temperature profile derived after the point source subtraction is flat. The point source subtraction also reduces the estimated central SFR surface density $\Sigma_{\mathrm{SFR}}$ by over a factor of three. With this correction, spatially resolved measurements of $\Sigma_{\mathrm{SFR}}$ and the surface gas mass density $\Sigma_{\mathrm{gas}}$ form a roughly linear sequence in the Kennicutt-Schmidt diagram with a constant gas depletion time of 50-200 Myr. The demonstrated AGN-host galaxy decomposition reveals the importance of spatially resolved data for accurate measurements of quasar host galaxy properties, including dust temperature, star-formation rates, and size.