ASW$^2$DF: Census of the obscured star formation in a galaxy cluster in formation at $z=2.2$

TL;DR

This study uses deep ALMA observations to map dusty star-forming galaxies in a galaxy protocluster at z=2.2, revealing significant overdensities and insights into their distribution, gas content, and star formation activity.

Contribution

First detailed ALMA 1.2 mm survey of the Spiderweb protocluster, quantifying overdensities and spatial distributions of DSFGs at high redshift.

Findings

ALMA sources are twice as abundant as in general fields.

Overdensities of DSFGs are more than three times higher in some regions.

Molecular gas mass estimates from dust are inconsistent with CO-based measurements.

Abstract

We report the results of the deep and wide Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm mapping of the Spiderweb protocluster at $z=2.16$. The observations were divided into six contiguous fields covering a survey area of 19.3\,arcmin$^2$. With $\sim$13h on-source time, the final maps in the six fields reach the 1$\sigma$ rms noise in a range of $40.3-57.1 \mu$Jy at a spatial resolution of $0.5-0.9$ arcsec. By using different source extraction codes and careful visual inspection, we detect 47 ALMA sources at a significance higher than 4$\sigma$. We construct the differential and cumulative number counts down to $\sim0.2$ mJy after the correction for purity and completeness obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The ALMA 1.2 mm number counts of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) in the Spiderweb protocluster are overall two times that of general fields, some fields/regions showing even higher overdensities (more than a factor of 3). This is consistent with the results from previous studies over a larger scale using single-dish instruments. Comparison of the spatial distributions between different populations indicates that our ALMA sources are likely drawn from the same distribution as CO(1-0) emitters from the COALAS large program, but distinct from that of H$\alpha$ emitters. The cosmic SFR density of the ALMA sources is consistent with previous results (e.g. LABOCA 870 $\mu$m observations) after accounting for the difference in volume. We show that molecular gas masses estimates from dust measurements are not consistent with the ones derived from CO(1-0) and thus have to be taken with caution. The multiplicity fraction of single-dish DSFGs is higher than that of the field. Moreover, two extreme concentrations of ALMA sources are found on the outskirts of the Spiderweb protocluster, with an excess of more than 12 times that of general fields.