HerMES: The Submillimeter Spectral Energy Distributions of Herschel/SPIRE-Detected Galaxies

Abstract

We present colours of sources detected with the Herschel/SPIRE instrument in deep extragalactic surveys of the Lockman Hole, Spitzer-FLS, and GOODS-N fields in three photometric bands at 250, 350 and 500 micrometers. We compare these with expectations from the literature and discuss associated uncertainties and biases in the SPIRE data. We identify a 500 micrometer flux limited selection of sources from the HerMES point source catalogue that appears free from neighbouring/blended sources in all three SPIRE bands. We compare the colours with redshift tracks of various contemporary models. Based on these spectral templates we show that regions corresponding to specific population types and redshifts can be identified better in colour-flux space. The redshift tracks as well as the colour-flux plots imply a majority of detected objects with redshifts at 1<z<3.5, somewhat depending on the group of model SEDs used. We also find that a population of S_250/S_350<0.8 at fluxes above 50 mJy as observed by SPIRE is not well represented by contemporary models and could consist of a mix of cold and lensed galaxies.

5 pages, 8 figures, for special Herschel issue

References in corpus (8)

• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance
• HerMES: The SPIRE confusion limit
• Astrophysical and Cosmological Information from Large-scale sub-mm Surveys of Extragalactic Sources
• HerMES: SPIRE galaxy number counts at 250, 350 and 500 microns
• Over half of the far-infrared background light comes from galaxies at z >= 1.2
• A backward evolution model for infrared surveys: the role of AGN- and Color-L_TIR distributions
• Galaxy Colours in the AKARI Deep SEP Survey

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES
• The Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey: SPIRE-mm Photometric Redshifts
• HerMES: point source catalogues from deep Herschel-SPIRE observations
• Modelling Galaxy and AGN Evolution in the IR: Black Hole Accretion versus Star-Formation Activity
• H-ATLAS: A Candidate High Redshift Cluster/Protocluster of Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Herschel-PACS North Ecliptic Pole Survey
• The Infrared Properties of Sources Matched in the WISE all-sky and Herschel-ATLAS Surveys
• A panchromatic study of BLAST counterparts: total star-formation rate, morphology, AGN fraction and stellar mass