The Circumgalactic Medium of Submillimeter Galaxies. I. First Results from a Radio-Identified Sample

Abstract

We present the first results from an on-going survey to characterize the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the massive high-redshift galaxies detected as submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). We constructed a parent sample of 163 SMG-QSO pairs with separations less than $\sim$36 arcsec by cross-matching far-infrared-selected galaxies from Herschel with spectroscopically confirmed QSOs. The Herschel sources were selected to match the properties of SMGs. We determined the sub-arcsecond positions of six Herschel sources with the Very Large Array and obtained secure redshift identification for three of those with near-infrared spectroscopy. The QSO sightlines probe transverse proper distances of 112, 157, and 198 kpc at foreground redshifts of 2.043, 2.515, and 2.184, respectively, which are comparable to the virial radius of the $\sim 10^{13}$ Msun halos expected to host SMGs. High-quality absorption-line spectroscopy of the QSOs reveals systematically strong HI Lyman-alpha absorption around all three SMGs, with rest-frame equivalent widths of $\sim 2-3$ Å. However, none of the three absorbers exhibits compelling evidence for optically thick HI gas or metal absorption, in contrast to the dominance of strong neutral absorbers in the CGM of luminous $z\sim 2$ QSOs. The low covering factor of optically thick HI gas around SMGs tentatively indicates that SMGs may not have as prominent cool gas reservoirs in their halos as the co-eval QSOs and that they may inhabit less massive halos than previously thought.

arXiv commentApJ accepted after minor revision

References in corpus (90)

• The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
• Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• Observational Evidence of AGN Feedback
• The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
• Profiles of dark haloes: evolution, scatter, and environment
• How Do Galaxies Get Their Gas?
• The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance
• The Initial Mass Function of Stars: Evidence for Uniformity in Variable Systems
• Galaxy Bimodality due to Cold Flows and Shock Heating
• Unveiling Dust-enshrouded Star Formation in the Early Universe: a Sub-mm Survey of the Hubble Deep Field
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• A Deep Sub-millimeter Survey of Lensing Clusters: A New Window on Galaxy Formation and Evolution
• A Redshift Survey of the Submillimeter Galaxy Population
• Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z=4 from UltraVISTA
• A Method of Correcting Near-Infrared Spectra for Telluric Absorption
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Uncertainties Affecting the Stellar Mass - Halo Mass Relation for 0<z<4
• Calibrating Extinction-Free Star Formation Rate Diagnostics with 33GHz Free-Free Emission in NGC6946
• Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at High Redshift
• The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES
• Submillimeter Galaxies at z~2: Evidence for Major Mergers & Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF and CO-H2 Conversion Factor
• Dusty star forming galaxies at high redshift
• Optimal Techniques in Two-dimensional Spectroscopy: Background Subtraction for the 21st Century
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function
• The Impact of cold gas accretion above a mass floor on galaxy scaling relations
• An interferometric CO survey of luminous submm galaxies
• Optical and Radio Properties of Extragalactic Sources Observed by the FIRST and SDSS Surveys
• A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies
• On the Estimation of Confidence Intervals for Binomial Population Proportions in Astronomy: The Simplicity and Superiority of the Bayesian Approach
• The SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) -- II. Submillimetre maps, catalogue and number counts
• An Accurate Flux Density Scale from 1 to 50 GHz
• The LABOCA Survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South
• The Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey: First Submillimetre Images, the Source Counts, and Resolution of the Background
• Intense Star Formation within Resolved Compact Regions in a Galaxy at z=2.3
• The Gaseous Environment of High-z Galaxies: Precision Measurements of Neutral Hydrogen in the Circumgalactic Medium of z ~ 2-3 Galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• SHARC-2 350 Micron Observations of Distant Submillimeter Selected Galaxies
• The SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) - III. Identification of radio and mid-infrared counterparts to submillimetre galaxies
• Tracing the molecular gas in distant submillimetre galaxies via CO(1-0) imaging with the EVLA
• Clustering of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies
• Sub-millimeter galaxies as progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• HerMES: The SPIRE confusion limit
• ALMA redshifts of millimeter-selected galaxies from the SPT survey: The redshift distribution of dusty star-forming galaxies
• Binary Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Evidence for Excess Clustering on Small Scales
• A Herschel view of the far-infrared properties of submillimetre galaxies
• The far-infrared/radio correlation as probed by Herschel
• The Rest-frame Optical Spectra of SCUBA Galaxies
• The Dead Sequence: A Clear Bimodality in Galaxy Colors from z=0 to z=2.5
• The LABOCA survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: A photometric redshift survey of submillimetre galaxies
• The Distribution of Column Densities and b Values in the Lyman-Alpha Forest
• The clustering of intermediate redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
• The Herschel-ATLAS Data Release 1 Paper I: Maps, Catalogues and Number Counts
• The Stellar Mass Content of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies
• The Formation of Submillimetre-Bright Galaxies from Gas Infall over a Billion Years
• The LABOCA Survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Clustering of submillimetre galaxies
• The Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey: Source Extraction and Cross-Identifications in Confusion-Dominated SPIRE Images
• The stellar masses and specific star-formation rates of submillimetre galaxies
• AGES: The AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey
• The Phoenix Deep Survey: The 1.4 GHz microJansky catalogue
• A Redshift Survey of Herschel Far-Infrared Selected Starbursts and Implications for Obscured Star Formation
• Neutral hydrogen in galaxy halos at the peak of the cosmic star formation history
• Evolution of Dust Temperature of Galaxies through Cosmic Time as seen by Herschel
• Quasars Probing Quasars I: Optically Thick Absorbers Near Luminous Quasars
• The rapid assembly of an elliptical galaxy of 400 billion solar masses at a redshift of 2.3
• Rapid dust production in submillimeter galaxies at z>4?
• Quasars Probing Quasars VI. Excess HI Absorption Within One Proper Mpc of z~2 Quasars
• The distribution of neutral hydrogen around high-redshift galaxies and quasars in the EAGLE simulation
• Blind detections of CO J = 1--0 in 11 H-ATLAS galaxies at z = 2.1--3.5 with the GBT/Zpectrometer
• Quasars Probing Quasars II: The Anisotropic Clustering of Optically Thick Absorbers around Quasars
• The Herschel Stripe 82 Survey (HerS): Maps and Early Catalog
• Millimeter imaging of submillimeter galaxies in the COSMOS field: Redshift distribution
• Herschel-ATLAS: counterparts from the UV--NIR in the science demonstration phase catalogue
• Herschel-ATLAS: First data release of the Science Demonstration Phase source catalogues
• Deep 1.1 mm-wavelength imaging of the GOODS-South field by AzTEC/ASTE -- II. Redshift distribution and nature of the submillimetre galaxy population
• Constructing Merger Trees that Mimic N-Body Simulations
• Quasars Probing Quasars IV: Joint Constraints on the Circumgalactic Medium from Absorption and Emission
• A Comprehensive View of a Strongly Lensed Planck-Associated Submillimeter Galaxy
• A Stellar Feedback Origin for Neutral Hydrogen in High-Redshift Quasar-Mass Halos
• High Redshift Metals I.: The Decline of C IV at z > 5.3
• A Substantial Mass of Cool, Metal-Enriched Gas Surrounding the Progenitors of Modern-Day Ellipticals
• Candidate Gravitationally Lensed Dusty Star-forming Galaxies in the Herschel Wide Area Surveys
• HerMES: A search for high-redshift dusty galaxies in the HerMES Large Mode Survey - Catalogue, number counts and early results
• A combined re-analysis of existing blank-field SCUBA surveys: comparative 850-micron source lists, combined number counts, and evidence for strong clustering of the bright sub-mm galaxy population
• Confronting Simulations of Optically Thick Gas in Massive Halos with Observations at z=2-3
• LBT/LUCIFER Observations of the z~2 Lensed Galaxy J0900+2234
• The properties of (sub)millimetre-selected galaxies as revealed by CANDELS HST WFC3/IR imaging in GOODS-South
• HerMES: Point source catalogues from Herschel-SPIRE observations II
• First results from HerMES on the evolution of the submillimetre luminosity function
• The Keck+Magellan Survey for Lyman Limit Absorption III: Sample Definition and Column Density Measurements
• A MMT/Hectospec Redshift Survey of 24 Micron Sources in the Spitzer First Look Survey
• Spectroscopic Characterisation of 250um-Selected Hyper-Luminous Star Forming Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cold Filamentary Accretion and the Formation of Metal Poor Globular Clusters and Halo Stars
• An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the COSMOS field: Physical properties derived from energy balance spectral energy distribution modelling
• Ubiquitous Molecular Outflows in z > 4 Massive, Dusty Galaxies II. Momentum-Driven Winds Powered by Star Formation in the Early Universe
• A Fundamental Test for Galaxy Formation Models: Matching the Lyman-$\alpha$ Absorption Profiles of Galactic Halos over Three Decades in Distance
• A Long Stream of Metal-Poor Cool Gas around a Massive Starburst Galaxy at z = 2.67
• The Strong Gravitationally Lensed Herschel Galaxy HLock01: Optical Spectroscopy Reveals a Close Galaxy Merger with Evidence of Inflowing Gas
• The Circumgalactic Medium of Submillimeter Galaxies. II. Unobscured QSOs within Dusty Starbursts and QSO Sightlines with Impact Parameters below 100 Kiloparsec
• Observational Diagnostics of Gas Flows: Insights from Cosmological Simulations