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The nature of the [C II] emission in dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey.

Authors :
Gullberg, B.
De Breuck, C.
Vieira, J. D.
Weiß, A.
Aguirre, J. E.
Aravena, M.
Béthermin, M.
Bradford, C. M.
Bothwell, M. S.
Carlstrom, J. E.
Chapman, S. C.
Fassnacht, C. D.
Gonzalez, A. H.
Greve, T. R.
Hezaveh, Y.
Holzapfel, W. L.
Husband, K.
Ma, J.
Malkan, M.
Marrone, D. P.
Source :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society; 5/21/2015, Vol. 449 Issue 3, p2883-2900, 18p
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

We present [C II] observations of 20 strongly lensed dusty star-forming galaxies at 2.1 < z < 5.7 using Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment and Herschel. The sources were selected on their 1.4 mm flux (S<subscript>1.4 mm</subscript> > 20 mJy) from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey, with far-infrared (FIR) luminosities determined from extensive photometric data. The [C II] line is robustly detected in 17 sources, all but one being spectrally resolved. 11 out of 20 sources observed in [C II] also have low-J CO detections from Australia Telescope Compact Array. A comparison with mid- and high-J CO lines from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array reveals consistent [C II] and CO velocity profiles, suggesting that there is little differential lensing between these species. The [C II], low-J CO and FIR data allow us to constrain the properties of the interstellar medium. We find [C II] to CO(1-0) luminosity ratios in the SPT sample of 5200 ± 1800, with significantly less scatter than in other samples. This line ratio can be best described by a medium of [C II] and CO emitting gas with a higher [C II] than CO excitation temperature, high CO optical depth τ<subscript>CO(1-0)</subscript> ≫ 1, and low to moderate [C II] optical depth τ[CII]≲ 1. The geometric structure of photodissociation regions allows for such conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00358711
Volume :
449
Issue :
3
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
110315136
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv372