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The mechanism by which galaxies stop forming stars and get rid of their interstellar medium (ISM) remains elusive. Here, we study a sample of more than 2000 elliptical galaxies in which dust emission has been detected. This is the largest sample of such galaxies ever analyzed. We infer the timescale for removal of dust in these galaxies and investigate its dependence on physical and environmental properties. We obtain a dust-removal timescale in elliptical galaxies of τ = 2.26 ± 0.18 Gyr, corresponding to a half-life time of 1.57 ± 0.12 Gyr. This timescale does not depend on environment, stellar mass, or redshift. We observe a departure of dusty elliptical galaxies from the relation between star formation rate and dust mass. This is caused by the star formation rates declining faster than the dust masses and indicates that there exists an internal mechanism that affects star formation but leaves the ISM intact. Morphological quenching together with ionization or outflows caused by older stellar populations (Type Ia supernovae or planetary nebulae) is consistent with these observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT)/AzTEC 1.1 mm observations of ∼100 luminous high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxy candidates from the |$\sim 600\,$|  sq.deg Herschel -ATLAS survey, selected on the basis of their SPIRE red far-infrared colours and with |$S_{500\, \mu \rm m}=35-80$| mJy. With an effective |$\theta _{\rm FWHM}\approx 9.5\,$| arcsec angular resolution, our observations reveal that at least 9 per cent of the targets break into multiple systems with signal-to-noise ratio ≥4 members. The fraction of multiple systems increases to ∼23 per cent (or more) if some non-detected targets are considered multiples, as suggested by the data. Combining the new AzTEC and deblended Herschel photometry, we derive photometric redshifts, infrared luminosities, and star formation rates. While the median redshifts of the multiple and single systems are similar (z med ≈ 3.6), the redshift distribution of the latter is skewed towards higher redshifts. Of the AzTEC sources, ∼85 per cent lie at z phot > 3 while ∼33 per cent are at z phot > 4. This corresponds to a lower limit on the space density of ultrared sources at 4 < z < 6 of |$\sim 3\times 10^{-7}\, \textrm {Mpc}^{-3}$| with a contribution to the obscured star formation of |$\gtrsim 8\times 10^{-4}\, \textrm {M}_\odot \, \textrm {yr}^{-1} \, \textrm {Mpc}^{-3}$|⁠. Some of the multiple systems have members with photometric redshifts consistent among them suggesting possible physical associations. Given their angular separations, these systems are most likely galaxy over-densities and/or early-stage pre-coalescence mergers. Finally, we present 3 mm LMT/RSR spectroscopic redshifts of six red- Herschel galaxies at z spec = 3.85−6.03, two of them (at z ∼ 4.7) representing new redshift confirmations. Here, we release the AzTEC and deblended Herschel photometry as well as catalogues of the most promising interacting systems and z > 4 galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) observations towards 27 low-redshift (0.02 < z < 0.2) star-forming galaxies taken from the Valparaíso ALMA/APEX Line Emission Survey. We perform stacking analyses of the 12CO(1–0), 13CO(1–0), and C18O(1–0) emission lines to explore the L ′ [12CO(1–0)]/ L ′ [13CO(1–0)] [hereafter L ′ (12CO)/ L ′ (13CO)] and L ′ [13CO(1–0)]/ L ′ [C18O(1–0)] [hereafter L ′ (13CO)/ L ′ (C18O)] line luminosity ratio dependence as a function of different global galaxy parameters related to the star formation activity. The sample has far-IR luminosities of |$10^{10.1\!-\!11.9}\,$|  L⊙ and stellar masses of 109.8–10.9 M⊙ corresponding to typical star-forming and starburst galaxies at these redshifts. On average, we find an L ′ (12CO)/ L ′ (13CO) line luminosity ratio value of 16.1 ± 2.5. Galaxies with pieces of evidence of possible merging activity tend to show higher L ′ (12CO)/ L ′ (13CO) ratios by a factor of 2, while variations of this order are also found in galaxy samples with higher star formation rates (SFRs) or star formation efficiencies (SFEs). We also find an average L ′ (13CO)/ L ′ (C18O) line luminosity ratio of 2.5 ± 0.6, which is in good agreement with those previously reported for starburst galaxies. We find that galaxy samples with high L IR, SFR, and SFE show low L ′ (13CO)/ L ′ (C18O) line luminosity ratios with high L ′ (12CO)/ L ′ (13CO) line luminosity ratios, suggesting that these trends are produced by selective enrichment of massive stars in young starbursts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Eight MIxer Receiver (EMIR) instrument on the Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) 30-m telescope, we conducted a spectroscopic redshift search of seven z phot ∼ 4 submillimetre bright galaxies selected from the Herschel Bright Sources sample with fluxes at 500 μm greater than 80 mJy. For four sources, we obtained spectroscopic redshifts between 3.4 < z < 4.1 through the detection of multiple CO-spectral lines with J  ≥ 3. Later, we detected low- J transitions for two of these sources with the Green Bank Telescope including the CO(1–0) transition. For the remaining three sources, more data are needed to determine the spectroscopic redshift unambiguously. The measured CO luminosities and line widths suggest that all these sources are gravitationally lensed. These observations demonstrate that the 2 mm window is indispensable to confirm robust spectroscopic redshifts for z < 4 sources. Finally, we present an efficient graphical method to correctly identify spectroscopic redshifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and near-infrared (NIR) integral field spectrographs, including both Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations in the Near Infrared and K-band Multi Object Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope, we investigate the two-dimensional distributions of H and rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) continuum in six submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z ~ 2. At a similar spatial resolution (~0: 005 FWHM; ~4.5 kpc at z = 2), we find that the half-light radius of Hα is significantly larger than that of the FIR continuum in half of the sample, and on average Hα is a median factor of 2:0 ± 0:4 larger. Having explored various ways to correct for the attenuation, we find that the attenuation-corrected Hα-based star-formation rates (SFRs) are systematically lower than the infrared (IR)-based SFRs by at least a median factor of 3 ± 1, which cannot be explained by the diαerence in half-light radius alone. In addition, we find that in 40% of cases the total V-band attenuation (AV) derived from energy balance modeling of the full ultraviolet (UV)-to-FIR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) is significantly higher than what is derived from SED modeling using only the UV-to-NIR part of the SEDs, and the discrepancy appears to increase with increasing total infrared luminosity. Finally, in considering all of our findings along with the studies in the literature, we postulate that the dust distributions in SMGs, and possibly also in less IR luminous z ~ 2 massive star-forming galaxies, can be decomposed into the following three main components: the diαuse dust heated by older stellar populations, the more obscured and extended young star-forming Hii regions, and the heavily obscured central regions that have a low filling factor but dominate the infrared luminosity in which the majority of attenuation cannot be probed via UV-to-NIR emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present SCUBA-2 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m observations of 13 candidate starbursting protoclusters selected using Planck and Herschel data. The cumulative number counts of the 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m sources in 9 of 13 of these candidate protoclusters show significant overdensities compared to the field, with the probability <10−2 assuming the sources are randomly distributed in the sky. Using the 250, 350, 500, and 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m flux densities, we estimate the photometric redshifts of individual SCUBA-2 sources by fitting spectral energy distribution templates with an MCMC method. The photometric redshift distribution, peaking at 2 < z < 3, is consistent with that of known z > 2 protoclusters and the peak of the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD). We find that the 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m sources in our candidate protoclusters have infrared luminosities of |$L_{\mathrm{IR}}\gtrsim 10^{12}\, \mathrm{L}_{\odot }$| and star formation rates of SFR  = (500–1500) M⊙ yr−1. By comparing with results in the literature considering only Herschel photometry, we conclude that our 13 candidate protoclusters can be categorized into four groups: six of them being high-redshift starbursting protoclusters, one being a lower redshift cluster or protocluster, three being protoclusters that contain lensed dusty star-forming galaxies or are rich in 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m sources, and three regions without significant Herschel or SCUBA-2 source overdensities. The total SFRs of the candidate protoclusters are found to be comparable or higher than those of known protoclusters, suggesting our sample contains some of the most extreme protocluster population. We infer that cross-matching Planck and Herschel data is a robust method for selecting candidate protoclusters with overdensities of 850  |$\mathrm{ \mu}$| m sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present measurements of the angular correlation function of sub-millimetre (sub-mm) galaxies (SMGs) identified in four out of the five fields of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) – GAMA-9h, GAMA-12h, GAMA-15h, and NGP – with flux densities |$S_{250 \, \mu {\rm m}} \gt 30$| mJy at 250 μm. We show that galaxies selected at this wavelength trace the underlying matter distribution differently at low and high redshifts. We study the evolution of the clustering finding that at low redshifts sub-mm galaxies exhibit clustering strengths of r 0 ∼ 2–3 h −1 Mpc, below |$z$| < 0.3. At high redshifts, on the other hand, we find that sub-mm galaxies are more strongly clustered with correlation lengths r 0 = 8.1 ± 0.5, 8.8 ± 0.8, and 13.9 ± 3.9 h −1 Mpc at |$z$|  = 1–2, 2–3. and 3–5, respectively. We show that sub-mm galaxies across the redshift range 1 < |$z$| < 5, typically reside in dark-matter halos of mass of the order of |${\sim } 10^{12.5}\hbox{--}10^{13.0} \, h^{-1}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot}$| and are consistent with being the progenitors of local massive elliptical galaxies that we see in the local Universe. [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 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]

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic phenomena in the Universe; believed to result from the collapse and subsequent explosion of massive stars. Even though it has profound consequences for our understanding of their nature and selection biases, little is known about the dust properties of the galaxies hosting GRBs. We present analysis of the far-infrared properties of an unbiased sample of 20 BeppoSAX and Swift GRB host galaxies (at an average redshift of z = 3.1) located in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey, the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, the Herschel Fornax Cluster Survey, the Herschel Stripe 82 Survey and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey, totalling 880 deg², or ~3 per cent of the sky in total. Our sample selection is serendipitous, based only on whether the X-ray position of a GRB lies within a large-scale Herschel survey - therefore our sample can be considered completely unbiased. Using deep data at wavelengths of 100-500 µm, we tentatively detected 1 out of 20 GRB hosts located in these fields. We constrain their dust masses and star formation rates (SFRs), and discuss these in the context of recent measurements of submillimetre galaxies and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The average far-infrared flux of our sample gives an upper limit on SFR of < 114 M8857; yr-1. The detection rate of GRB hosts is consistent with that predicted assuming that GRBs trace the cosmic SFR density in an unbiased way, i.e. that the fraction of GRB hosts with SFR > 500 M8857; yr-1 is consistent with the contribution of such luminous galaxies to the cosmic star formation density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as a tool for studying star formation in the Universe, so it is crucial to investigate whether their host galaxies and immediate environments are in any way special compared with other star-forming galaxies. Here we present spatially resolved maps of dust emission of the host galaxy of the closest known GRB 980425 at z = 0.0085 using our new high-resolution observations from Herschel, Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). We modelled the spectral energy distributions of the host and of the star-forming region displaying the Wolf-Rayet signatures in the spectrum (WR region), located 800 pc from the GRB position. The host is characterised by low dust content and a high fraction of UV-visible star formation, similar to other dwarf galaxies. These galaxies are abundant in the local universe, so it is not surprising to find a GRB in one of them, assuming the correspondence between the GRB rate and star formation. The WR region contributes substantially to the host emission at the far-infrared, millimetre, and radio wavelengths and we propose that this is a consequence of its high gas density. If dense environments are also found close to the positions of other GRBs, then the ISM density should also be considered, along with metallicity, an important factor influencing whether a given stellar population can produce a GRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) generate an afterglow emission that can be detected from radio to X-rays during days, or even weeks after the initial explosion. The peak of this emission crosses the millimeter and submillimeter range during the first hours to days, making their study in this range crucial for constraining the models. Observations have been limited until now due to the low sensitivity of the observatories in this range. This situation will be greatly improved with the start of scientific operations of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Aims. In this work we do a statistical analysis of the complete sample of mm/submm observations of GRB afterglows obtained before the beginning of scientific operations at ALMA. Methods. We present observations of 11 GRB afterglows obtained from the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) and the SubMillimeter Array (SMA), as well as the first detection of a GRB with ALMA, still in the commissioning phase, and put them into context with a catalogue of all the observations that have been published until now in the spectral range that is covered by ALMA. Results. The catalogue of mm/submm observations collected here is the largest to date and is composed of 102 GRBs, of which 88 have afterglow observations, whereas the rest are host galaxy searches. With our programmes, we contributed with data of 11 GRBs and the discovery of 2 submm counterparts. In total, the full sample, including data from the literature, has 22 afterglow detections with redshifts ranging from 0.168 to 8.2. GRBs have been detected in mm/submm wavelengths with peak luminosities spanning 2.5 orders of magnitude, the most luminous reaching 1033 erg s-1 Hz-1. We observe a correlation between the X-ray brightness at 0.5 days and the mm/submm peak brightness. Finally we give a rough estimate of the distribution of peak flux densities of GRB afterglows, based on the current mm/submm sample. Conclusions. Observations in the mm/submm bands have been shown to be crucial for our understanding of the physics of GRBs, but have until now been limited by the sensitivity of the observatories. With the start of the operations at ALMA, the sensitivity has improved by more than an order of magnitude, opening a new era in the study of GRB afterglows and their host galaxies. Our estimates predict that, once completed, ALMA will detect up to ∼98% of the afterglows if observed during the passage of the peak synchrotron emission [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminous infrared galaxies and submillimeter galaxies contribute significantly to stellar mass assembly and provide an important test of the connection between the gamma-ray burst (GRB) rate and that of overall cosmic star formation. We present sensitive 3 GHz radio observations using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of 32 uniformly selected GRB host galaxies spanning a redshift range from 0 < z < 2.5, providing the first fully dust- and sample-unbiased measurement of the fraction of GRBs originating from the universe's most bolometrically luminous galaxies. Four galaxies are detected, with inferred radio star formation rates (SFRs) ranging between 50 and 300 M☼ yr–1. Three of the four detections correspond to events consistent with being optically obscured “dark” bursts. Our overall detection fraction implies that between 9% and 23% of GRBs between 0.5 < z < 2.5 occur in galaxies with S3GHz > 10 μJy, corresponding to SFR > 50 M☼ yr–1 at z ∼ 1 or >250 M☼ yr–1 at z ∼ 2. Similar galaxies contribute approximately 10%-30% of all cosmic star formation, so our results are consistent with a GRB rate that is not strongly biased with respect to the total SFR of a galaxy. However, all four radio-detected hosts have stellar masses significantly lower than IR/submillimeter-selected field galaxies of similar luminosities. We suggest that the GRB rate may be suppressed in metal-rich environments but independently enhanced in intense starbursts, producing a strong efficiency dependence on mass but little net dependence on bulk galaxy SFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the detection at 850 μm of the central source in SSA22-LAB1, the archetypal “Lyman-α Blob” (LAB), a 100 kpc scale radio-quiet emission-line nebula at z = 3.1. The flux density of the source, S850 = 4.6 ± 1.1 mJy, implies the presence of a galaxy or group of galaxies with a total luminosity of LIR ≈ 1012L☼. The position of an active source at the center of a ∼50 kpc radius ring of linearly polarized Lyα emission detected by Hayes et al. suggests that the central source is leaking Lyα photons preferentially in the plane of the sky, which undergo scattering in H I clouds at a large galactocentric radius. The Lyα morphology around the submillimeter detection is reminiscent of a biconical outflow, and the average Lyα line profiles of the two “lobes” are dominated by a red peak, which is expected for a resonant line emerging from a medium with a bulk velocity gradient that is outflowing relative to the line center. Taken together, these observations provide compelling evidence that the central active galaxy (or galaxies) is responsible for a large fraction of the extended Lyα emission and morphology. Less clear is the history of the cold gas in the circumgalactic medium being traced by Lyα: is it mainly pristine material accreting into the halo that has not yet been processed through an interstellar medium (ISM), now being blown back as it encounters an outflow, or does it mainly comprise gas that has been swept-up within the ISM and expelled from the galaxy? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on radio continuum observations of the host galaxy of the short gamma-ray burst 071227 (z = 0.381) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We detect the galaxy in the 5.5 GHz band with an integrated flux density of Fν = 43 ± 11 μJy, corresponding to an unobscured star-formation rate of about 24 M☼ yr–1, 40 times higher than what was found from optical emission lines. Among the ∼30 well-identified and studied host galaxies of short bursts this is the third case where the host is found to undergo an episode of intense star formation. This suggests that a fraction of all short-burst progenitors hosted in star-forming galaxies could be physically related to recent star formation activity, implying a relatively short merger timescale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) 1.1 mm continuum imaging toward two extremely red H – [4.5] > 4 (AB) galaxies at z > 3, which we have previously discovered making use of Spitzer SEDS and Hubble Space Telescope CANDELS ultra-deep images of the Ultra Deep Survey field. One of our objects is detected on the PdBI map with a 4.3σ significance, corresponding to . By combining this detection with the Spitzer 8 and 24 μm photometry for this source, and SCUBA2 flux density upper limits, we infer that this galaxy is a composite active galactic nucleus/star-forming system. The infrared (IR)-derived star formation rate is SFR ≈ 200 ± 100 M☼ yr–1, which implies that this galaxy is a higher-redshift analogue of the ordinary ultra-luminous infrared galaxies more commonly found at z ∼ 2-3. In the field of the other target, we find a tentative 3.1σ detection on the PdBI 1.1 mm map, but 3.7 arcsec away of our target position, so it likely corresponds to a different object. In spite of the lower significance, the PdBI detection is supported by a close SCUBA2 3.3σ detection. No counterpart is found on either the deep SEDS or CANDELS maps, so, if real, the PdBI source could be similar in nature to the submillimeter source GN10. We conclude that the analysis of ultra-deep near- and mid-IR images offers an efficient, alternative route to discover new sites of powerful star formation activity at high redshifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to determine the level of obscured star formation activity and dust attenuation in a sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) hosts, and to test the hypothesis that GRB hosts have properties consistent with those of the general star-forming galaxy populations. We present a radio continuum survey of all z < 1 GRB hosts in The Optically Unbiased GRB Host (TOUGH) sample supplemented with radio data for all (mostly pre-Swift) GRB-SN hosts discovered before 2006 October. We present new radio data for 22 objects and have obtained a detection for three of them (GRB 980425, 021211, 031203; none in the TOUGH sample), increasing the number of radio-detected GRB hosts from two to five. The star formation rate (SFR) for the GRB 021211 host of ∼825 M☼ yr–1, the highest ever reported for a GRB host, places it in the category of ultraluminous infrared galaxies. We found that at least ∼63% of GRB hosts have SFR < 100 M☼ yr–1 and at most ∼8% can have SFR > 500 M☼ yr–1. For the undetected hosts the mean radio flux (<35 μJy 3σ) corresponds to an average SFR < 15 M☼ yr–1. Moreover, ≳ 88% of the z ≲ 1 GRB hosts have ultraviolet dust attenuation AUV < 6.7 mag (visual attenuation AV < 3 mag). Hence, we did not find evidence for large dust obscuration in a majority of GRB hosts. Finally, we found that the distributions of SFRs and AUV of GRB hosts are consistent with those of Lyman break galaxies, Hα emitters at similar redshifts, and of galaxies from cosmological simulations. The similarity of the GRB population with other star-forming galaxies is consistent with the hypothesis that GRBs, a least at z ≲ 1, trace a large fraction of all star formation, and are therefore less biased indicators than once thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]