A Possible Protocluster of Galaxies Serendipitously Discovered in the Field of an Intermediate-Redshift Post-starburst Galaxy

TL;DR

This paper reports the serendipitous discovery of a potential galaxy protocluster with six submillimeter galaxies near a massive post-starburst galaxy, suggesting a rare overdensity in the early universe.

Contribution

The discovery of a possible galaxy protocluster with multiple submillimeter galaxies in the vicinity of a post-starburst galaxy using ALMA observations.

Findings

Six submillimeter galaxies detected within a 35'' region.

Sources have flux ratios consistent with dust emission.

None of the sources are at the same redshift as the post-starburst galaxy.

Abstract

We present the serendipitous discovery of an overdensity of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) in the field of SDSSJ0909-0108, a massive z~0.7 post-starburst galaxy from the SQuIGGLE survey. ALMA observations at 870um and 2mm reveal six galaxies within a 35'' region with flux ratios consistent with emission from dust. Given the rarity of 870um sources and the small field-of-view of ALMA, we speculate that some of these sources are physically associated. None of the sources are at the same redshift as the post-starburst, and four do not have spectroscopic redshifts. We suggest that follow-up optical and/or ALMA observations be carried out to measure redshifts for the galaxies in this potential protocluster environment.