Search

Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory: the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). From a sample of 30 Herschel sources with S 500 > 100 mJy, 21 are strongly lensed (i.e., multiply imaged), 4 are moderately lensed (i.e., singly imaged), and the remainder require additional data to determine their lensing status. We apply a visibility-plane lens modeling technique to the SMA data to recover information about the masses of the lenses as well as the intrinsic (i.e., unlensed) sizes (r half) and far-infrared luminosities (L FIR) of the lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The sample of lenses comprises primarily isolated massive galaxies, but includes some groups and clusters as well. Several of the lenses are located at z lens > 0.7, a redshift regime that is inaccessible to lens searches based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. The lensed SMGs are amplified by factors that are significantly below statistical model predictions given the 500 μm flux densities of our sample. We speculate that this may reflect a deficiency in our understanding of the intrinsic sizes and luminosities of the brightest SMGs. The lensed SMGs span nearly one decade in L FIR (median L FIR = 7.9 × 10 12 L ) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median ΣFIR = 6.0 × 1011 L kpc-2). The strong lenses in this sample and others identified via (sub-)mm surveys will provide a wealth of information regarding the astrophysics of galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range in redshift. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory: the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). From a sample of 30 Herschel sources with S 500 > 100 mJy, 21 are strongly lensed (i.e., multiply imaged), 4 are moderately lensed (i.e., singly imaged), and the remainder require additional data to determine their lensing status. We apply a visibility-plane lens modeling technique to the SMA data to recover information about the masses of the lenses as well as the intrinsic (i.e., unlensed) sizes (r half) and far-infrared luminosities (L FIR) of the lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The sample of lenses comprises primarily isolated massive galaxies, but includes some groups and clusters as well. Several of the lenses are located at z lens > 0.7, a redshift regime that is inaccessible to lens searches based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. The lensed SMGs are amplified by factors that are significantly below statistical model predictions given the 500 μm flux densities of our sample. We speculate that this may reflect a deficiency in our understanding of the intrinsic sizes and luminosities of the brightest SMGs. The lensed SMGs span nearly one decade in L FIR (median L FIR = 7.9 × 10 12 L ) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median ΣFIR = 6.0 × 1011 L kpc-2). The strong lenses in this sample and others identified via (sub-)mm surveys will provide a wealth of information regarding the astrophysics of galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range in redshift. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..

Measuring molecular gas mass is vital for understanding the evolution of galaxies at high redshifts (z  ≳ 1). Most measurements rely on CO as a tracer, but dependencies on metallicity, dynamics, and surface density lead to systematic uncertainties in high- z galaxies, where these physical properties are difficult to observe, and where the physical environments can differ systematically from those at z  = 0. Dust continuum emission provides a potential alternative assuming a known dust/gas ratio, but this must be calibrated on a direct gas tracer at z  ≳ 1. In this paper, we consider the [C  i ] 492-GHz emission line, which has been shown to trace molecular gas closely throughout Galactic clouds and has the advantages of being optically thin in typical conditions (unlike CO), and being observable at accessible frequencies at high redshifts (in contrast to the low-excitation lines of CO). We use the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array to measure [C  i ], CO(4–3), and dust emission in a representative sample of star-forming galaxies at z  = 1, and combine these data with multiwavelength spectral energy distributions to study relationships between dust and gas components of galaxies. We uncover a strong [C  i ]–dust correlation, suggesting that both trace similar phases of the gas. By incorporating other samples from the literature, we show that this correlation persists over a wide range of luminosities and redshifts up to z  ∼ 4. Finally, we explore the implications of our results as an independent test of literature calibrations for dust as a tracer of gas mass, and for predicting the C  i abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array observations of the rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) dust continuum emission of six bright Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at |$z$| ≃ 7. One LBG is detected (5.2σ at peak emission), whilst the others remain individually undetected at the 3σ level. The average FIR luminosity of the sample is found to be |$L_{\rm FIR} \simeq 2 \times 10^{11}\, {\rm L}_{\odot }$|⁠, corresponding to an obscured star formation rate (SFR) that is comparable to that inferred from the unobscured UV emission. In comparison to the infrared excess (IRX |$\, =L_{\rm FIR}/L_{\rm UV}$|⁠)–β relation, our results are consistent with a Calzetti-like attenuation law (assuming a dust temperature of T = 40–50 K). We find a physical offset of |$3\, {\rm kpc}$| between the dust continuum emission and the rest-frame UV light probed by Hubble Space Telescope imaging for galaxy ID65666 at |$z=7.17^{+0.09}_{-0.06}$|⁠. The offset is suggestive of an inhomogeneous dust distribution, where 75 per cent of the total star formation activity (SFR |$\, \simeq 70\, {\rm M}_{\odot }/{\rm yr}$|⁠) of the galaxy is completely obscured. Our results provide direct evidence that dust obscuration plays a key role in shaping the bright end of the observed rest-frame UV luminosity function at |$z$| ≃ 7, in agreement with cosmological galaxy formation simulations. The existence of a heavily obscured component of galaxy ID65666 indicates that dusty star-forming regions, or even entire galaxies, that are 'UV dark' are significant even in the |$z$| ≃ 7 galaxy population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of a new study of dust attenuation at redshifts 3 <  z  < 4 based on a sample of 236 star-forming galaxies from the VANDELS spectroscopic survey. Motivated by results from the First Billion Years (FiBY) simulation project, we argue that the intrinsic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of star-forming galaxies at these redshifts have a self-similar shape across the mass range 8.2 ≤ log (M⋆/M⊙) ≤ 10.6 probed by our sample. Using FiBY data, we construct a set of intrinsic SED templates which incorporate both detailed star formation and chemical abundance histories, and a variety of stellar population synthesis (SPS) model assumptions. With this set of intrinsic SEDs, we present a novel approach for directly recovering the shape and normalization of the dust attenuation curve. We find, across all of the intrinsic templates considered, that the average attenuation curve for star-forming galaxies at z ≃ 3.5 is similar in shape to the commonly adopted Calzetti starburst law, with an average total-to-selective attenuation ratio of RV  = 4.18 ± 0.29. In contrast, we find that an average attenuation curve as steep as the SMC extinction law is strongly disfavoured. We show that the optical attenuation (AV) versus stellar mass (M ⋆) relation predicted using our method is consistent with recent ALMA observations of galaxies at 2 <  z  < 3 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), as well as empirical AV  −  M ⋆ relations predicted by a Calzetti-like law. In fact, our results, combined with other literature data, suggest that the AV – M ⋆ relation does not evolve over the redshift range 0 <  z  < 5, at least for galaxies with log(M ⋆/M⊙) ≳ 9.5. Finally, we present tentative evidence which suggests that the attenuation curve may become steeper at lower masses log(M ⋆/M⊙) ≲ 9.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results of a new study of the relationship between infrared excess (IRX ≡ L IR/ L UV), ultraviolet (UV) spectral slope (β) and stellar mass at redshifts 2 <  z  < 3, based on a deep Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 1.3-mm continuum mosaic of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Excluding the most heavily obscured sources, we use a stacking analysis to show that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies in the mass range |$9.25\le \log (M_{\ast }/\rm M_{{\odot }}) \le 10.75$| are fully consistent with the IRX–β relation expected for a relatively grey attenuation curve, similar to the commonly adopted Calzetti law. Based on a large, mass-complete sample of 2 ≤ z ≤ 3 star-forming galaxies drawn from multiple surveys, we proceed to derive a new empirical relationship between β and stellar mass, making it possible to predict UV attenuation (A 1600) and IRX as a function of stellar mass, for any assumed attenuation law. Once again, we find that z ≃ 2.5 star-forming galaxies follow A 1600– M * and IRX– M * relations consistent with a relatively grey attenuation law, and find no compelling evidence that star-forming galaxies at this epoch follow a reddening law as steep as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) extinction curve. In fact, we use a simple simulation to demonstrate that previous determinations of the IRX–β relation may have been biased towards low values of IRX at red values of β, mimicking the signature expected for an SMC-like dust law. We show that this provides a plausible mechanism for reconciling apparently contradictory results in the literature and that, based on typical measurement uncertainties, stellar mass provides a cleaner prediction of UV attenuation than β. Although the situation at lower stellar masses remains uncertain, we conclude that for 2 <  z  < 3 star-forming galaxies with |$\log (M_{\ast }/\rm M_{{\odot }}) \ge 9.75$|⁠, both the IRX–β and IRX– M * relations are well described by a Calzetti-like attenuation law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a multiwavelength analysis of galaxies selected at 450 and 850 μm from the deepest SCUBA-2 observations in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) field, which have an average depth of σ450 = 1.9 and σ850 = 0.46 mJy beam-1 over ∼70 arcmin2. The final sample comprises 95 sources: 56 (59 per cent) are detected at both wavelengths, 31 (33 per cent) are detected only at 850 μm, and 8 (8 per cent) are detected only at 450 μm. We identify counterparts for 75 per cent of the whole sample. The redshift distributions of the 450 and 850 μm samples peak at different redshifts with median values of z=1.66±0.18 and z=2.30±0.20, respectively. However, the two populations have similar IR luminosities, SFRs, and stellar masses, with mean values of 1.5 ± 0.2 × 1012 L⊙, 150 ± 20 M⊙ yr-1, and 9.0 ± 0.6 × 1010 M⊙, respectively. This places most of our sources (≳85 per cent) on the high-mass end of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies. Exploring the IR excess versus UV-slope (IRX-β) relation we find that the most luminous galaxies are consistent with the Meurer law, while the less luminous galaxies lie below this relation. Using the results of a two-dimensional modelling of the HSTH160-band imaging, we derive a median Sérsic index of n=1.4+0.3-0.1 and a median half-light radius of r1/2 = 4.8 ± 0.4 kpc. Based on a visual-like classification in the same band, we find that the dominant component for most of the galaxies at all redshifts is a disc-like structure, although there is a transition from irregular discs to discs with a spheroidal component at z ~ 1.4, which morphologically supports the scenario of SMGs as progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the Galaxy And Mass Assembly and VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph Public Extragalactic Redshift surveys, we use spectroscopic indices to select quiescent and candidate transition galaxies.We identify potentially rapidly transitioning post-starburst (PSB) galaxies and slower transitioning green-valley galaxies. Over the last 8Gyr, the quiescent population has grown more slowly in number density at high masses (M* > 1011M☉) than at intermediate masses (M* > 1010.6M☉). There is evolution in both the PSB and green-valley stellar mass functions, consistent with higher mass galaxies quenching at earlier cosmic times.At intermediatemasses (M* > 1010.6M☉), we find a green-valley transition time-scale of 2.6 Gyr. Alternatively, at z ~ 0.7, the entire growth rate could be explained by fast-quenching PSB galaxies, with a visibility time-scale of 0.5 Gyr. At lower redshift, the number density of PSBs is so low that an unphysically short visibility window would be required for them to contribute significantly to the quiescent population growth. The importance of the fast-quenching route may rapidly diminish at z < 1. However, at high masses (M* > 1011M☉), there is tension between the large number of candidate transition galaxies compared to the slow growth of the quiescent population. This could be resolved if not all high-mass PSB and green-valley galaxies are transitioning from star forming to quiescent, for example if they rejuvenate out of the quiescent population following the accretion of gas and triggering of star formation, or if they fail to completely quench their star formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the mean star formation rates (SFRs) in the host galaxies of ~3000 optically selected quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey within the Herschel-ATLAS fields, and a radio-luminous subsample covering the redshift range of z = 0.2-2.5. Using Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Herschel photometry (12-500 μm) we construct composite spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in bins of redshift and active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity. We perform SED fitting to measure the mean infrared luminosity due to star formation, removing the contamination from AGN emission. We find that the mean SFRs show a weak positive trend with increasing AGN luminosity. However, we demonstrate that the observed trend could be due to an increase in black hole (BH) mass (and a consequent increase of inferred stellar mass) with increasing AGN luminosity. We compare to a sample of X-ray selected AGN and find that the two populations have consistent mean SFRs when matched in AGN luminosity and redshift. On the basis of the available virial BH masses, and the evolving BH mass to stellar mass relationship, we find that the mean SFRs of our QSO sample are consistent with those of main sequence star-forming galaxies. Similarly the radio-luminous QSOs have mean SFRs that are consistent with both the overall QSO sample and with star-forming galaxies on the main sequence. In conclusion, on average QSOs reside on the main sequence of star-forming galaxies, and the observed positive trend between the mean SFRs and AGN luminosity can be attributed to BH mass and redshift dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining large-area optical quasar surveys with the new far-infrared (FIR) Herschel-ATLAS Data Release 1, we search for an observational signature associated with the minority of quasars possessing bright FIR luminosities. We find that FIR-bright quasars show broad C IV emission-line blueshifts in excess of that expected from the optical luminosity alone, indicating particularly powerful nuclear outflows. The quasars show no signs of having redder optical colours than the general ensemble of optically selected quasars, ruling out differences in line-of-sight dustwithin the host galaxies. We postulate that these objectsmay be caught in a special evolutionary phase, with unobscured, high black hole accretion rates and correspondingly strong nuclear outflows. The high FIR emission found in these objects is then either a result of star formation related to the outflow, or is due to dust within the host galaxy illuminated by the quasar. We are thus directly witnessing coincident small-scale nuclear processes and galaxy-wide activity, commonly invoked in galaxy simulations that rely on feedback from quasars to influence galaxy evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the evolution of the cosmic spectral energy distribution (CSED) from z = 1 zto 0. Our CSEDs originate from stacking individual spectral energy distribution (SED) fits based on panchromatic photometry from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) and COSMOS data sets in 10 redshift intervals with completeness corrections applied. Below z = 0.45, we have credible SED fits from 100 nm to 1 mm. Due to the relatively low sensitivity of the far-infrared data, our far-infrared CSEDs contain a mix of predicted and measured fluxes above z = 0.45. Our results include appropriate errors to highlight the impact of these corrections. We show that the bolometric energy output of the Universe has declined by a factor of roughly 4 - from 5.1 ± 1.0 at z ~ 1 to 1.3 ± 0.3 × 1035 h70 W Mpc-3 at the current epoch. We show that this decrease is robust to cosmic sample variance, the SED modelling and other various types of error. Our CSEDs are also consistent with an increase in the mean age of stellar populations. We also show that dust attenuation has decreased over the same period, with the photon escape fraction at 150 nm increasing from 16 ± 3 at z ~ 1 to 24 ± 5 per cent at the current epoch, equivalent to a decrease in AFUV of 0.4 mag. Our CSEDs account for 68 ± 12 and 61 ± 13 per cent of the cosmic optical and infrared backgrounds, respectively, as defined from integrated galaxy counts and are consistent with previous estimates of the cosmic infrared background with redshift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present physical properties [redshifts (z), star-formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses (Mstar)] of bright (S850 ≥ 4 mJy) submm galaxies in the ≃2 deg2 COSMOS and UDS fields selected with SCUBA-2/JCMT.We complete the galaxy identification process for all (≃2000) S/N ≥ 3.5 850-μm sources, but focus our scientific analysis on a high-quality subsample of 651 S/N ≥ 4 sources with complete multiwavelength coverage including 1.1-mm imaging. We check the reliability of our identifications, and the robustness of the SCUBA-2 fluxes by revisiting the recent ALMA follow-up of 29 sources in our sample. Considering >4mJy ALMA sources, our identification method has a completeness of ≃86 per cent with a reliability of ≃92 per cent, and only ≃15–20 per cent of sources are significantly affected by multiplicity (when a secondary component contributes >1/3 of the primary source flux). The impact of source blending on the 850-μmsource counts as determined with SCUBA-2 ismodest; scaling the single-dish fluxes by ≃0.9 reproduces the ALMA source counts. For our final SCUBA- 2 sample, we find median z = 2.40+0.10 −0.04, SFR = 287 ± 6M⊫ yr−1 and log(Mstar/M⊫) = 11.12 ± 0.02 (the latter for 349/651 sources with optical identifications). These properties clearly locate bright submm galaxies on the high-mass end of the ‘main sequence’ of starforming galaxies out to z ≃ 6, suggesting that major mergers are not a dominant driver of the high-redshift submm-selected population. Their number densities are also consistent with the evolving galaxy stellar mass function. Hence, the submm galaxy population is as expected, albeit reproducing the evolution of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies remains a challenge for theoretical models/simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces egg, the Empirical Galaxy Generator, a tool designed within the ASTRODEEP collaboration to generate mock galaxy catalogs for deep fields with realistic fluxes and simple morphologies. The simulation procedure is based exclusively on empirical prescriptions - rather than first principles - to provide the most accurate match with current observations at 0 < z < 7. We considered that galaxies can be either quiescent or star-forming, and used their stellar mass (M*) and redshift (z) as the fundamental properties from which all the other observables can be statistically derived. Drawing z and M* from the observed galaxy stellar mass functions, a star-formation rate (SFR) is attributed to each galaxy from the tight SFR-M* main sequence, while dust attenuation, optical colors and simple disk plus bulge morphologies are obtained from empirical relations that we established from the high quality Hubble and Herschel observations from the CANDELS fields. Random scatter was introduced in each step to reproduce the observed distributions of each parameter. Based on these observables, an adequate panchromatic spectral energy distribution (SED) is selected for each galaxy and synthetic photometry is produced by integrating the redshifted SED in common broad-band filters. Finally, the mock galaxies are placed on the sky at random positions with a fixed angular two-point correlation function to implement basic clustering. The resulting flux catalogs reproduce accurately the observed number counts in all broad bands from the ultraviolet up to the sub-millimeter, and can be directly fed to image simulators such as SkyMaker. The images can then be used to test source extraction softwares and image-based techniques such as stacking. EGG is open-source, and is made available to the community on behalf of the ASTRODEEP collaboration, together with a set of pre-generated catalogs and images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a study of the dust, stars and atomic gas (HI) in an HI-selected sample of local galaxies (z < 0.035) in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey fields. This HI-selected sample reveals a population of very high gas fraction (>80 per cent), low stellar mass sources that appear to be in the earliest stages of their evolution. We compare this sample with dust- and stellar-mass-selected samples to study the dust and gas scaling relations over a wide range of gas fractions (proxy for evolutionary state of a galaxy). The most robust scaling relations for gas and dust are those linked to near-ultraviolet - r (specific star formation rate) and gas fraction; these do not depend on sample selection or environment. At the highest gas fractions, our additional sample shows that the dust content is well below expectations from extrapolating scaling relations for more evolved sources, and dust is not a good tracer of the gas content. The specific dust mass for local galaxies peaks at a gas fraction of ~75 per cent. The atomic gas depletion time is also longer for high gas fraction galaxies, opposite to the trend found for molecular gas depletion time-scale. We link this trend to the changing efficiency of conversion of HI to H2 as galaxies increase in stellar mass surface density during their evolution. Finally, we show that galaxies start out barely obscured and increase in obscuration as they evolve, yet there is no clear and simple link between obscuration and global galaxy properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the Lambda Adaptive Multi-Band Deblending Algorithm in R (LAMBDAR), a novel code for calculating matched aperture photometry across images that are neither pixel- nor PSF-matched, using prior aperture definitions derived from high-resolution optical imaging. The development of this program is motivated by the desire for consistent photometry and uncertainties across large ranges of photometric imaging, for use in calculating spectral energy distributions. We describe the program, specifically key features required for robust determination of panchromatic photometry: propagation of apertures to images with arbitrary resolution, local background estimation, aperture normalization, uncertainty determination and propagation, and object deblending. Using simulated images, we demonstrate that the program is able to recover accurate photometric measurements in both high-resolution, low-confusion, and low-resolution, high-confusion, regimes. We apply the program to the 21-band photometric data set from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Panchromatic Data Release (PDR; Driver et al. 2016), which contains imaging spanning the far-UV to the far-IR. We compare photometry derived from LAMBDAR with that presented in Driver et al. (2016), finding broad agreement between the data sets. None the less, we demonstrate that the photometry from LAMBDAR is superior to that from the GAMA PDR, as determined by a reduction in the outlier rate and intrinsic scatter of colours in the LAMBDAR data set. We similarly find a decrease in the outlier rate of stellar masses and star formation rates using LAMBDAR photometry. Finally, we note an exceptional increase in the number of UV and mid-IR sources able to be constrained, which is accompanied by a significant increase in the mid-IR colour-colour parameter-space able to be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the properties of the galaxies selected from the deepest 850-µm survey undertaken to date with (Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) SCUBA-2 on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey. A total of 106 sources (>5s) were uncovered at 850 µm from an area of ≃150 arcmin² in the centre of the COSMOS/UltraVISTA/Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) field, imaged to a typical depth of s850 ≃ 0.25 mJy. We utilize the available multifrequency data to identify galaxy counterparts for 80 of these sources (75 per cent), and to establish the complete redshift distribution for this sample, yielding z = 2.38 ± 0.09. We have also been able to determine the stellar masses of the majority of the galaxy identifications, enabling us to explore their location on the star formation rate:stellar mass (SFR:M *) plane. Crucially, our new deep 850-µm-selected sample reaches flux densities equivalent to SFR 100M&#9737 yr-1, enabling us to confirm that sub-mm galaxies form the high-mass end of the 'main sequence' (MS) of star-forming galaxies at z > 1.5 (with a mean specific SFR of sSFR = 2.25 ± 0.19 Gyr-1 at z ≃ 2.5). Our results are consistent with no significant flattening of the MS towards high masses at these redshifts. However, our results add to the growing evidence that average sSFR rises only slowly at high redshift, resulting in log10sSFR being an apparently simple linear function of the age of the Universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the properties of the first 250 μm blind sample of nearby galaxies (15 < D < 46 Mpc) containing 42 objects from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. Herschel's sensitivity probes the faint end of the dust luminosity function for the first time, spanning a range of stellar mass (7.4 < M⋆ < 11.3 log10 M⊙), star formation activity (-11.8 < SSFR < -8.9 log10 yr-1), gas fraction (3-96 per cent), and colour (0.6 < FUV-KS < 7.0 mag). The median cold dust temperature is 14.6 K, colder than in the Herschel Reference Survey (18.5 K) and Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (17.7 K). The mean dust-to-stellar mass ratio in our sample is higher than these surveys by factors of 3.7 and 1.8, with a dust mass volume density of (3.7 ± 0.7) × 105 M⊙ Mpc-3. Counter-intuitively, we find that the more dust rich a galaxy, the lower its UV attenuation. Over half of our dust-selected sample are very blue in FUV-KS colour, with irregular and/or highly flocculent morphology; these galaxies account for only 6 per cent of the sample's stellar mass but contain over 35 per cent of the dust mass. They are the most actively star-forming galaxies in the sample, with the highest gas fractions and lowest UV attenuation. They also appear to be in an early stage of converting their gas into stars, providing valuable insights into the chemical evolution of young galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present two large, nearby (0.013 ≤ z ≤ 0.06) samples of early-type galaxies (ETGs): a visually classified sample of 220 ETGs, created using source-matched data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) data base with far-infrared/submm detections from Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS); and a visually classified sample of 551 ETGs which are undetected with H-ATLAS. Active galactic nuclei are removed from our samples using optical emission-line diagnostics. These samples are scrutinized to determine characteristics of submm detected versus undetected ETGs. We find similarities in the stellar mass distributions of the two ETG samples but testing other properties uncovers significant differences. The submm detected sample is shown to have lower concentration and Sérsic indices than those in the undetected sample – a result which may be linked to the presence of dust in the former. Optical and ultraviolet–optical colours are also shown to be much bluer, indicating that the dust is linked with recent star formation. The intrinsic effective radii are on average 1.5 times larger for the submm detected ETGs. Surface densities and groups data from the GAMA data base are examined for the two samples, leading to the conclusion that dusty ETGs inhabit sparser environments than non-dusty ETGs in the nearby Universe, although environments of the brightest ETGs are shown to differ the least. Modified Planck functions are fit to the H-ATLAS detected Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) fluxes for ETGs with submm flux densities of at least 3σ in the 350 μm SPIRE band, giving a resultant mean cold dust temperature of Td = 22.1 K, with a range of 9–30 K. The corresponding mean dust mass is 1.8 × 107 M⊙, with a range of (0.08–35.0) × 107 M⊙. The dust masses calculated from these fits, normalized by stellar mass, are shown to increase with decreasing stellar mass and bluer colours. Based on visual classifications of elliptical and lenticular, we find similar dust properties for these two early-type morphologies. We conclude that there is a population of elliptical galaxies which exhibit larger dust masses, lower Sérsic index and bluer colours than the more well-known, massive, red population of ellipticals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We use the Herschel-ATLAS survey to conduct the first large-scale statistical study of the submillimetre properties of optically selected galaxies. Using ∼80 000 r-band selected galaxies from 126 deg2 of the GAMA survey, we stack into submillimetre imaging at 250, 350 and 500 μ m to gain unprecedented statistics on the dust emission from galaxies at z < 0.35. We find that low-redshift galaxies account for 5 per cent of the cosmic 250- μm background (4 per cent at 350 μ m; 3 per cent at 500 μ m), of which approximately 60 per cent comes from 'blue' and 20 per cent from 'red' galaxies (rest-frame g− r). We compare the dust properties of different galaxy populations by dividing the sample into bins of optical luminosity, stellar mass, colour and redshift. In blue galaxies we find that dust temperature and luminosity correlate strongly with stellar mass at a fixed redshift, but red galaxies do not follow these correlations and overall have lower luminosities and temperatures. We make reasonable assumptions to account for the contaminating flux from lensing by red-sequence galaxies and conclude that galaxies with different optical colours have fundamentally different dust emission properties. Results indicate that while blue galaxies are more luminous than red galaxies due to higher temperatures, the dust masses of the two samples are relatively similar. Dust mass is shown to correlate with stellar mass, although the dust-to-stellar mass ratio is much higher for low stellar mass galaxies, consistent with the lowest mass galaxies having the highest specific star formation rates. We stack the 250 μ m-to- NUV luminosity ratio, finding results consistent with greater obscuration of star formation at lower stellar mass and higher redshift. Submillimetre luminosities and dust masses of all galaxies are shown to evolve strongly with redshift, indicating a fall in the amount of obscured star formation in ordinary galaxies over the last four billion years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from the Herschel-ATLAS to investigate the evolution of the far-infrared-radio correlation over the redshift range . Using the total far-infrared luminosity of all sources in the Herschel-ATLAS Science Demonstration Field and cross-matching these data with radio data from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimetres (FIRST) survey and the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA) Northern Sky Survey (NVSS), we obtain 104 radio counterparts to the Herschel sources. With these data we find no evidence for evolution in the far-infrared-radio correlation over the redshift range , where the median value for the ratio between far-infrared and radio luminosity, q, over this range is (and a mean of accounting for the lower limits), consistent with both the local value determined from IRAS and values derived from surveys targeting the high-redshift Universe. By comparing the radio fluxes of our sample measured from both FIRST and NVSS we show that previous results suggesting an increase in the value of q from high to low redshift may be the result of resolving out extended emission of the low-redshift sources with relatively high-resolution interferometric data, although contamination from active galactic nuclei could still play a significant role. We also find tentative evidence that the longer wavelength cooler dust is heated by an evolved stellar population which does not trace the star formation rate as closely as the shorter wavelength m emission or the radio emission, supporting suggestions based on detailed models of individual galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]