| 1. |
- Hodge, J. A., et al.
(author)
-
ALMA Reveals Potential Evidence for Spiral Arms, Bars, and Rings in High-redshift Submillimeter Galaxies
- 2019
-
In: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 876:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present subkiloparsec-scale mapping of the 870 mu m ALMA continuum emission in six luminous (LIR similar to 5 x 10(12 )L(circle dot)) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) from the ALESS survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. Our high-fidelity 0 ''.07-resolution imaging (similar to 500 pc) reveals robust evidence for structures with deconvolved sizes of less than or similar to 0.5-1 kpc embedded within (dominant) exponential dust disks. The large-scale morphologies of the structures within some of the galaxies show clear curvature and/or clump-like structures bracketing elongated nuclear emission, suggestive of bars, star-forming rings, and spiral arms. In this interpretation, the ratio of the "ring" and "bar" radii (1.9 +/- 0.3) agrees with that measured for such features in local galaxies. These potential spiral/ring/bar structures would be consistent with the idea of tidal disturbances, with their detailed properties implying flat inner rotation curves and Toomre-unstable disks (Q < 1). The inferred one-dimensional velocity dispersions (sigma(r) less than or similar to 70-160 km s(-1)) are marginally consistent with the limits implied if the sizes of the largest structures are comparable to the Jeans length. We create maps of the star formation rate density (Sigma(SFR)) on similar to 500 pc scales and show that the SMGs are able to sustain a given (galaxy-averaged) E-SFR over much larger physical scales than local (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies. However, on 500 pc scales, they do not exceed the Eddington limit set by radiation pressure on dust. If confirmed by kinematics, the potential presence of nonaxisymmetric structures would provide a means for net angular momentum loss and efficient star formation, helping to explain the very high star formation rates measured in SMGs.
|
|
| 2. |
- Klitsch, Anne, et al.
(author)
-
Almacal – VI. Molecular gas mass density across cosmic time via a blind search for intervening molecular absorbers
- 2019
-
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 490:1, s. 1220-1230
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We are just starting to understand the physical processes driving the dramatic change in cosmic star formation rate between z ∼ 2 and the present day. A quantity directly linked to star formation is the molecular gas density, which should be measured through independent methods to explore variations due to cosmic variance and systematic uncertainties. We use intervening CO absorption lines in the spectra of mm-bright background sources to provide a census of the molecular gas mass density of the Universe. The data used in this work are taken from ALMACAL, a wide and deep survey utilizing the ALMA calibrator archive. While we report multiple Galactic absorption lines and one intrinsic absorber, no extragalactic intervening molecular absorbers are detected. However, due to the large redshift path surveyed (z = 182), we provide constraints on the molecular column density distribution function beyond z ∼ 0. In addition, we probe column densities of N(H2) > 1016 atoms cm−2, 5 orders of magnitude lower than in previous studies. We use the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG to show that our upper limits of ρ(H2) 108.3 M Mpc−3 at 0 < z ≤ 1.7 already provide new constraints on current theoretical predictions of the cold molecular phase of the gas. These results are in agreement with recent CO emission-line surveys and are complementary to those studies. The combined constraints indicate that the present decrease of the cosmic star formation rate history is consistent with an increasing depletion of molecular gas in galaxies compared to z ∼ 2.
|
|
