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Submillimetre flux as a probe of molecular ISM mass in high-z galaxies

Authors :
Liang, Lichen
Feldmann, Robert; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1109-1919
Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
Kereš, Dušan
Hopkins, Philip F; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3729-1684
Hayward, Christopher C; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4073-3236
Quataert, Eliot
Scoville, Nick Z
Liang, Lichen
Feldmann, Robert; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1109-1919
Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
Kereš, Dušan
Hopkins, Philip F; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3729-1684
Hayward, Christopher C; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4073-3236
Quataert, Eliot
Scoville, Nick Z
Source :
Liang, Lichen; Feldmann, Robert; Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André; Kereš, Dušan; Hopkins, Philip F; Hayward, Christopher C; Quataert, Eliot; Scoville, Nick Z (2018). Submillimetre flux as a probe of molecular ISM mass in high-z galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters, 478(1):L83-L88.
Publication Year :
2018

Abstract

Recent long-wavelength observations on the thermal dust continuum suggest that the Rayleigh–Jeans tail can be used as a time-efficient quantitative probe of the dust and interstellar medium (ISM) mass in high-z galaxies. We use high-resolution cosmological simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environment (FIRE) project to analyse the dust emission of M* ≳ 1010 M⊙ galaxies at z= 2–4. Our simulations (MassiveFIRE) explicitly include various forms of stellar feedback, and they produce the stellar masses and star formation rates of high-z galaxies in agreement with observations. Using radiative transfer modelling, we show that sub-millimetre (sub-mm) luminosity and molecular ISM mass are tightly correlated and that the overall normalization is in quantitative agreement with observations. Notably, sub-mm luminosity traces molecular ISM mass even during starburst episodes as dust mass and mass-weighted temperature evolve only moderately between z = 4 and z = 2, including during starbursts. Our finding supports the empirical approach of using broadband sub-mm flux as a proxy for molecular gas content in high-z galaxies. We thus expect single-band sub-mm observations with ALMA to dramatically increase the sample size of high-z galaxies with reliable ISM masses in the near future.

Details

Database :
OAIster
Journal :
Liang, Lichen; Feldmann, Robert; Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André; Kereš, Dušan; Hopkins, Philip F; Hayward, Christopher C; Quataert, Eliot; Scoville, Nick Z (2018). Submillimetre flux as a probe of molecular ISM mass in high-z galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Letters, 478(1):L83-L88.
Notes :
application/pdf, info:doi/10.5167/uzh-157194, English
Publication Type :
Electronic Resource
Accession number :
edsoai.on1416169248
Document Type :
Electronic Resource