ALMA follow-up of $\sim$ 3,000 red-Herschel galaxies: the nature of extreme submillimeter galaxies

TL;DR

This study analyzes over 3,000 red-Herschel galaxies using ALMA data, revealing that most are isolated or post-merger systems with extreme star formation rates, and identifies a simple criterion for gravitational lensing detection.

Contribution

It provides the largest interferometric follow-up sample of red-Herschel sources, classifies their nature, and offers insights into their star formation and lensing properties.

Findings

73% are single, isolated or post-merger galaxies

Median star formation rate of ~1500 solar masses per year

Galaxies with 1.3mm flux ≥13 mJy are likely gravitationally lensed

Abstract

We present the analysis of over 3,000 red-$Herschel$ sources ($S_{\mathrm{250\mu m}}<S_{\mathrm{350\mu m}}<S_{\mathrm{500\mu m} }$) using public data from the ALMA archive and the $Herschel$-ATLAS survey. This represents the largest sample of red-$Herschel$ sources with interferometric follow-up observations to date. The high ALMA angular resolution and sensitivity ($\theta_{\rm FWHM}\sim$1 arcsecond; $\sigma_{1.3\mathrm{mm}}\sim0.17$ mJy beam$^{-1}$) allow us to classify the sample into individual sources, multiple systems, and potential lenses and/or close mergers. Interestingly, even at this high angular resolution, 73 per cent of our detections are single systems, suggesting that most of these galaxies are isolated and/or post-merger galaxies. For the remaining detections, 20 per cent are classified as multiple systems, 5 per cent as lenses and/or mergers, and 2 per cent as low-$z$ galaxies or Active Galactic Nuclei. Combining the $Herschel$/SPIRE and ALMA photometry, these galaxies are found to be extreme and massive systems with a median star formation rate of $\sim$ 1,500 $\mathrm{M_{\odot} yr^{-1}}$ and molecular gas mass of $M_{\mathrm{gas}}\sim10^{11}$ $\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. The median redshift of individual sources is $z\approx2.8$, while the likely lensed systems are at $z\approx3.3$, with redshift distributions extending to $z\sim6$. Our results suggest a common star-formation mode for extreme galaxies across cosmic time, likely triggered by close interactions or disk-instabilities, and with short depletion times consistent with the starburst-type population. Moreover, all galaxies with $S_{\mathrm{1.3mm}}\geq13$ mJy are gravitationally amplified which, similar to the established $S_{500\mathrm{ \mu m}}>100$ mJy threshold, can be used as a simple criterion to identify gravitationally lensed galaxies.