Gravitational lensing reveals extreme dust-obscured star formation in quasar host galaxies

Abstract

We have observed 104 gravitationally-lensed quasars at $z\sim 1-4$ with Herschel/SPIRE, the largest such sample ever studied. By targeting gravitational lenses, we probe intrinsic far-infrared (FIR) luminosities and star formation rates (SFRs) more typical of the population than the extremely luminous sources that are otherwise accessible. We detect 72 objects with Herschel/SPIRE and find 66 percent (69 sources) of the sample have spectral energy distributions (SEDs) characteristic of dust emission. For 53 objects with sufficiently constrained SEDs, we find a median effective dust temperature of $38_{-5}^{+12}$ K. By applying the radio-infrared correlation, we find no evidence for an FIR excess which is consistent with star-formation-heated dust. We derive a median magnification-corrected FIR luminosity of $3.6_{-2.4}^{+4.8}\times 10^{11}{\mathrm{L}}_{\odot }$ and median SFR of $120_{-80}^{+160}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ for 94 quasars with redshifts. We find $\sim 10$ percent of our sample have FIR properties similar to typical dusty star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2-3$ and a range of SFRs $<20-10000{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$ for our sample as a whole. These results are in line with current models of quasar evolution and suggests a coexistence of dust-obscured star formation and AGN activity is typical of most quasars. We do not find a statistically-significant difference in the FIR luminosities of quasars in our sample with a radio excess relative to the radio-infrared correlation. Synchrotron emission is found to dominate at FIR wavelengths for $<15$ percent of those sources classified as powerful radio galaxies.

47 pages, 89 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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