A massive core for a cluster of galaxies at a redshift of 4.3

Abstract

Massive galaxy clusters are now found as early as 3 billion years after the Big Bang, containing stars that formed at even earlier epochs. The high-redshift progenitors of these galaxy clusters, termed 'protoclusters', are identified in cosmological simulations with the highest dark matter overdensities. While their observational signatures are less well defined compared to virialized clusters with a substantial hot intra-cluster medium (ICM), protoclusters are expected to contain extremely massive galaxies that can be observed as luminous starbursts. Recent claimed detections of protoclusters hosting such starbursts do not support the kind of rapid cluster core formation expected in simulations because these structures contain only a handful of starbursting galaxies spread throughout a broad structure, with poor evidence for eventual collapse into a protocluster. Here we report that the source SPT2349-56 consists of at least 14 gas-rich galaxies all lying at z = 4.31 based on sensitive observations of carbon monoxide and ionized carbon. We demonstrate that each of these galaxies is forming stars between 50 and 1000 times faster than our own Milky Way, and all are located within a projected region only $\sim$ 130 kiloparsecs in diameter. This galaxy surface density is more than 10 times the average blank field value (integrated over all redshifts) and $>$1000 times the average field volume density. The velocity dispersion ($\sim$ 410 km s${}^{-1}$) of these galaxies and enormous gas and star formation densities suggest that this system represents a galaxy cluster core at an advanced stage of formation when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old. A comparison with other known protoclusters at high redshifts shows that SPT2349-56 is a uniquely massive and dense system that could be building one of the most massive structures in the Universe today.

arXiv commentTo appear in April 26 issue of Nature

References in corpus (77)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Simulating the joint evolution of quasars, galaxies and their large-scale distribution
• The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope
• The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
• The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation
• The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z=0-8
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• The Rockstar Phase-Space Temporal Halo Finder and the Velocity Offsets of Cluster Cores
• A Redshift Survey of the Submillimeter Galaxy Population
• Analysis of galaxy SEDs from far-UV to far-IR with CIGALE: Studying a SINGS test sample
• The Molecular Interstellar Medium in Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• The Galactic disk mass function: reconciliation of the HST and nearby determinations
• The 10 Meter South Pole Telescope
• Halo concentrations in the standard LCDM cosmology
• A Large Structure of Galaxies At Redshift z~3 and its Cosmological Implications
• Star Formation and Dust Attenuation Properties in Galaxies from a Statistical UV-to-FIR Analysis
• A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies
• Evolution of the cosmic web
• Distant Radio Galaxies and their Environments
• Stellar Population Diagnostics of Elliptical Galaxy Formation
• Two bright submillimeter galaxies in a z=4.05 proto-cluster in GOODS-North, and accurate radio-infrared photometric redshifts
• Virial Scaling of Massive Dark Matter Halos: Why Clusters Prefer a High Normalization Cosmology
• Ancient Light from Young Cosmic Cities: Physical and Observational Signatures of Galaxy Proto-Clusters
• The Australia Telescope Compact Array Broadband Backend (CABB)
• Extragalactic millimeter-wave sources in South Pole Telescope survey data: source counts, catalog, and statistics for an 87 square-degree field
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: The Redshift Distribution and Evolution of Submillimeter Galaxies
• Clustering of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies
• ALMA redshifts of millimeter-selected galaxies from the SPT survey: The redshift distribution of dusty star-forming galaxies
• The contribution of starbursts and normal galaxies to infrared luminosity functions at z < 2
• The Intense Starburst HDF850.1 in a Galaxy Overdensity at z=5.2 in the Hubble Deep Field
• The Large APEX Bolometer Camera LABOCA
• Discovery of a galaxy cluster with a violently starbursting core at z=2.506
• Galaxy Protoclusters as Drivers of Cosmic Star-Formation History in the First 2 Gyr
• ALMA Imaging and Gravitational Lens Models of South Pole Telescope-Selected Dusty, Star-Forming Galaxies at High Redshifts
• What Does a Submillimeter Galaxy Selection Actually Select? The Dependence of Submillimeter Flux Density on Star Formation Rate and Dust Mass
• Submillimetre galaxies in a hierarchical universe: number counts, redshift distribution, and implications for the IMF
• A mature cluster with X-ray emission at z=2.07
• Herschel-ATLAS: a binary HyLIRG pinpointing a cluster of starbursting proto-ellipticals
• A massive, distant proto-cluster at z=2.47 caught in a phase of rapid formation?
• An excess of dusty starbursts related to the Spiderweb galaxy
• Mass Calibration and Cosmological Analysis of the SPT-SZ Galaxy Cluster Sample Using Velocity Dispersion ${\sigma }_v$ and X-ray $Y_{\text{X}}$ Measurements
• IDCS J1426+3508: Discovery of a Massive, IR-Selected Galaxy Cluster at z = 1.75
• The rapid assembly of an elliptical galaxy of 400 billion solar masses at a redshift of 2.3
• The redshift distribution of dusty star forming galaxies from the SPT survey
• Extragalactic millimeter-wave point source catalog, number counts and statistics from 771 square degrees of the SPT-SZ Survey
• How to Zoom: Bias, Contamination, and Lagrange Volumes in Multimass Cosmological Simulations
• A CO emission line from the optical and near-IR undetected submillimeter galaxy GN10
• The Ubiquity of Coeval Starbursts in Massive Galaxy Cluster Progenitors
• Multi-wavelength study of XMMU J2235.3-2557: the most massive galaxy cluster at z > 1
• ALMA Deep Field in SSA22: A concentration of dusty starbursts in a z=3.09 protocluster core
• Do submillimeter galaxies really trace the most massive dark matter halos? Discovery of a high-z cluster in a highly active phase of evolution
• The halo masses and galaxy environments of hyperluminous QSOs at z~2.7 in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• Spatial correlation between submillimetre and Lyman-alpha galaxies in the SSA 22 protocluster
• JKCS041: a Coma cluster progenitor at z=1.803
• LCDM predictions for galaxy protoclusters I: the relation between galaxies, protoclusters and quasars at z~6
• Sub-mm imaging of a proto-cluster region at z=3.09
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Search for [CII] line and dust emission in 6<z<8 galaxies
• WFC3 grism confirmation of the distant cluster Cl J1449+0856 at z=2.00: Quiescent and star-forming galaxy populations
• A submm survey of Lyman-alpha haloes in the SA22 protocluster at z=3.1
• Is There a Maximum Star Formation Rate in High-Redshift Galaxies?
• Spatially unassociated galaxies contribute significantly to the blended submillimetre galaxy population: predictions for follow-up observations of ALMA sources
• Submillimeter Number Counts at 250, 350 and 500 microns in BLAST data
• Cold Filamentary Accretion and the Formation of Metal Poor Globular Clusters and Halo Stars
• The statistical properties of LCDM halo formation
• Faint Submillimeter Galaxies Revealed by Multifield Deep ALMA Observations: Number Counts, Spatial Clustering, and A Dark Submillimeter Line Emitter
• A SINFONI view of flies in the Spiderweb: a galaxy cluster in the making
• The bias of the submillimetre galaxy population: SMGs are poor tracers of the most massive structures in the z ~ 2 Universe
• Large scale structure around a z=2.1 cluster
• The XXL Survey: XVII. X-ray and Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Properties of the Redshift 2.0 Galaxy Cluster XLSSC 122
• LABOCA observations of nearby, active galaxies
• The early phases of galaxy clusters formation in IR: coupling hydrodynamical simulations with GRASIL3D
• HST Grism Confirmation of Two $z\sim 2$ Structures from the Clusters Around Radio-Loud AGN (CARLA) Survey
• Stellar masses and star formation rates of lensed dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey
• IDCS J1426.5+3508: The Most Massive Galaxy Cluster at $z>1.5$
• Ultra-Red Galaxies Signpost Candidate Proto-Clusters at High Redshift
• What shapes the far-infrared spectral energy distributions of galaxies?
• A millimeter-wave redshift search for the unlensed HyLIRG, HS1700.850.1

Cited by in corpus (153)

• CMB-S4 Science Case, Reference Design, and Project Plan
• Observations of the Lyman-$\alpha$ Universe
• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: CO luminosity functions and the molecular gas content of galaxies through cosmic history
• On the dust temperatures of high redshift galaxies
• The Complete Redshift Distribution of Dusty Star-forming Galaxies from the SPT-SZ Survey
• Very high redshift quasars and the rapid emergence of super-massive black holes
• UNCOVERing the extended strong lensing structures of Abell 2744 with the deepest JWST imaging
• The East Asian Observatory SCUBA--2 survey of the COSMOS field: unveiling 1147 bright sub-millimeter sources across 2.6 square degrees
• SILVERRUSH. VIII. Spectroscopic Identifications of Early Large Scale Structures with Protoclusters Over 200 Mpc at z~6-7: Strong Associations of Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies
• CCAT-prime Collaboration: Science Goals and Forecasts with Prime-Cam on the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Protocluster at $z=3.37$ with a High Fraction of Quiescent Galaxies
• A massive blow for $\Lambda$CDM $-$ the high redshift, mass, and collision velocity of the interacting galaxy cluster El Gordo contradicts concordance cosmology
• COLDz: A High Space Density of Massive Dusty Starburst Galaxies ~1 Billion Years after the Big Bang
• MAHALO Deep Cluster Survey II. Characterizing massive forming galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster at z=2.2
• Millimeter-wave Point Sources from the 2500-square-degree SPT-SZ Survey: Catalog and Population Statistics
• The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey: The reversal of the star-formation rate $-$ density relation at $2<z<5$
• The DIANOGA simulations of galaxy clusters: characterizing star formation in proto-clusters
• Confirming Herschel candidate protoclusters from ALMA/VLA CO observations
• GA-NIFS: The core of an extremely massive proto-cluster at the Epoch of Reionization probed with JWST/NIRSpec
• Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies
• First results from the JWST Early Release Science Program Q3D: Turbulent times in the life of a $z\sim 3$ extremely red quasar revealed by NIRSpec IFU
• Emergence of an Ultra-Red Ultra-Massive Galaxy Cluster Core at $z=4$
• On the Gas Content, Star Formation Efficiency, and Environmental Quenching of Massive Galaxies in Proto-Clusters at z~2.0-2.5
• Rapid early coeval star formation and assembly of the most massive galaxies in the universe
• COSMOS2020: Discovery of a protocluster of massive quiescent galaxies at $z=2.77$
• Spectroscopic confirmation of a mature galaxy cluster at redshift two
• The Young and the Wild: What happens to Protoclusters forming at z = 4?
• FOREVER22: galaxy formation in protocluster regions
• The rate of Type-Ia supernovae in galaxy clusters and the delay-time distribution out to redshift 1.75
• COALAS: I. ATCA CO(1-0) survey and luminosity function in the Spiderweb protocluster at z=2.16
• Ubiquitous Molecular Outflows in z > 4 Massive, Dusty Galaxies II. Momentum-Driven Winds Powered by Star Formation in the Early Universe
• Probing galaxy evolution in massive clusters using ACT and DES: splashback as a cosmic clock
• Spectroscopic observations of PHz G237.01+42.50: A galaxy protocluster at z=2.16 in the Cosmos field
• Comprehensive Gas Characterization of a $z=2.5$ Protocluster: A Cluster Core Caught in the Beginning of Virialization?
• Simple halo model formalism for the cosmic infrared background and its correlation with the thermal Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect
• Is there enough star formation in simulated protoclusters?
• ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: an ALMA galaxy signposting a MUSE galaxy group at z=4.3 behind 'El Gordo'
• Microwave Spectro-Polarimetry of Matter and Radiation across Space and Time
• A Planck-selected dusty proto-cluster at z=2.16 associated with a strong over-density of massive H$\alpha$ emitting galaxies
• Overdensity of submillimeter galaxies around the $z\simeq 2.3$ MAMMOTH-1 nebula
• SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging Eao Survey (Studies) III: Multi-wavelength properties, luminosity functions and preliminary source catalog of 450-$\mu$m-selected galaxies
• GOODS-ALMA: Optically dark ALMA galaxies shed light on a cluster in formation at z = 3.5
• Cosmic Vine: A z=3.44 large-scale structure hosting massive quiescent galaxies
• Sub-Millimetre Galaxies with Webb: Near-Infrared Counterparts and Multi-wavelength Morphology
• Kinematics and Star Formation of High-Redshift Hot Dust-Obscured Quasars as Seen by ALMA
• AzTEC 1.1 mm observations of high-z protocluster environments: SMG overdensities and misalignment between AGN jets and SMG distribution
• Accelerated galaxy growth and environmental quenching in a protocluster at z=3.24
• Overdensities of Submillimetre-Bright Sources around Candidate Protocluster Cores Selected from the South Pole Telescope Survey
• Predicted future fate of COSMOS galaxy protoclusters over 11 Gyr with constrained simulations
• Probing the existence of a rich galaxy overdensity at z=5.2
• Optical and near-infrared observations of the SPT2349-56 proto-cluster core at z = 4.3
• Planck far-infrared detection of Hyper Suprime-Cam protoclusters at $\mathbf{z}\sim 4$: hidden AGN and star formation activity
• Rapid build-up of the stellar content in the protocluster core SPT2349$-$56 at $z=4.3$
• A non-corotating gas component in an extreme starburst at z=4.3
• The UV Luminosity Function of Protocluster Galaxies at $z\sim 4$: the Bright-end Excess and the Enhanced Star Formation Rate Density
• A detailed study of massive galaxies in a protocluster at z=3.13
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of two Extremely Massive Protoclusters BOSS1244 and BOSS1542 at $z=2.24$
• COSMOS2020: Identification of High-z Protocluster Candidates in COSMOS
• Chandra reveals a luminous Compton-thick QSO powering a $Ly\alpha$ blob in a $z=4$ starbursting protocluster
• High-resolution ALMA study of CO (2-1) line and dust continuum emissions in cluster galaxies at z = 1.46
• A hidden active galactic nucleus powering bright [O III] nebulae in a protocluster at $z=4.5$ revealed by JWST
• Discovery of Protoclusters at z~3.7 & 4.9: Embedded in Primordial Superclusters
• The VANDELS survey: Discovery of massive overdensities of galaxies at z>2
• Predicting sub-millimeter flux densities from global galaxy properties
• A Systematic Search for Galaxy Proto-Cluster Cores at $z\sim 2$
• Galaxy Lookback Evolution Models -- a Comparison with Magneticum Cosmological Simulations and Observations
• The [CII]/[NII] ratio in 3 < z < 6 sub-millimetre galaxies from the South Pole Telescope survey
• The AGN contribution to the UV-FIR luminosities of interacting galaxies and its role in identifying the Main Sequence
• A Multiwavelength Study of ELAN Environments (AMUSE${}^2$): Detection of a dusty star-forming galaxy within the enormous Lyman $\alpha$ nebula at $z=2.3$ sheds light on its origin
• The JCMT SCUBA-2 Survey of the James Webb Space Telescope North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field
• Molecular gas in radio galaxies in dense Mpc-scale environments at $z=0.4-2.6$
• ALMACAL IX: multi-band ALMA survey for dusty star-forming galaxies and the resolved fractions of the cosmic infrared background
• Protocluster detection in simulations of HSC-SSP and the 10-year LSST forecast, using PCcones
• FIR-luminous [CII] emitters in the ALMA-SCUBA-2 COSMOS survey (AS2COSMOS): The nature of submillimeter galaxies in a 10 comoving Mpc-scale structure at z~4.6
• SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (STUDIES) IV: Spatial clustering and halo masses of 450-$\mu$m-selected sub-millimeter galaxies
• The brightest UV-selected galaxies in protoclusters at $z\sim 4$: Ancestors of Brightest Cluster Galaxies?
• Groups and protocluster candidates in the CLAUDS and HSC-SSP joint deep surveys
• A galaxy group candidate at z~3.7 in the COSMOS field
• Discovery of a Dusty, Chemically Mature Companion to a z$\sim$4 Starburst Galaxy in JWST ERS Data
• Noema formIng Cluster survEy (NICE): Discovery of a starbursting galaxy group with a radio-luminous core at z=3.95
• The Rest-Frame Submillimeter Spectrum of High Redshift, Dusty, Star-Forming Galaxies from the SPT-SZ Survey
• JWST's PEARLS: resolved study of the stellar and dust components in starburst galaxies at cosmic noon
• NOEMA formIng Cluster survEy (NICE): Characterizing eight massive galaxy groups at $1.5<z<4$ in the COSMOS field
• Fast SMBH growth in the SPT2349--56 protocluster at $z=4.3$
• ALMA Observations of Lyman-alpha Blob 1: Multiple major-mergers and widely distributed interstellar media
• A Model for Excess Johnson Noise in Superconducting Transition-edge Sensors
• Molecular gas properties of Planck-selected protocluster candidates at z~1.3-3
• The Manhattan Suite: Accelerated galaxy evolution in the early Universe
• ALMA unveils wider environment of distant red protocluster core
• The High-Redshift Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) Survey: Radio Source Properties
• Evidence for extended gaseous reservoirs around AGN at cosmic noon from ALMA CO(3-2) observations
• Starbursts with suppressed velocity dispersion revealed in a forming cluster at z=2.51
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: CO(J = 3 - 2) mapping and lens modeling of an ACT-selected dusty star-forming galaxy
• A Radio-to-millimeter Census of Star-forming Galaxies in Protocluster 4C~23.56 at z = 2.5 : Global and local gas kinematics
• What do observations tell us about the highest-redshift supermassive black holes?
• A Dusty Dawn: Galactic Dust Buildup at $z\gtrsim 5$
• Discovering Large-Scale Structure at $2<z<5$ in the C3VO Survey
• Investigating overdensities around z>6 galaxies through ALMA observations of [CII]
• Discovery of a protocluster core associated with an enormous Ly$\alpha$ Nebula at $z=2.3$
• Predictions for the sky-averaged depth of the 21cm absorption signal at high redshift in cosmologies with and without non-baryonic cold dark matter
• The Nature of 500 micron Risers I: SMA Observations
• Early Science with the Large Millimeter Telescope: a 1.1 mm AzTEC Survey of Red-$Herschel$ dusty star-forming galaxies
• A systematic search for galaxy protocluster cores at the transition epoch of their star formation activity
• Candidate high-redshift protoclusters and lensed galaxies in the Planck list of high-z sources overlapping with Herschel-SPIRE imaging
• ASW${}^2$DF: Census of the obscured star formation in a galaxy cluster in formation at $z=2.2$
• Tomography of the environment of the COSMOS/AzTEC-3 submillimeter galaxy at z=5.3 revealed by Lyalpha and MUSE observations
• Kinematic analysis of $\mathbf{z}=4.3$ galaxies in the SPT2349$-$56 protocluster core
• ALMACAL. XI. Over-densities as signposts to proto-clusters? A cautionary tale
• Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment in Protoclusters
• Massive molecular gas reservoir around the central AGN in the CARLA J1103+3449 cluster at z=1.44
• Galaxy populations in the most distant SPT-SZ clusters -- II. Galaxy structural properties in massive clusters at 1.4<z<1.7
• Accelerated structural evolution of galaxies in a starbursting cluster at z=2.51
• The XXL survey. XLIX. Linking the members star formation histories to the cluster mass assembly in the z=1.98 galaxy cluster XLSSC 122
• NOEMA Redshift Measurements of Extremely Bright Submillimeter Galaxies Near the GOODS-N
• Probing the Mpc-scale environment of hyperluminous infrared galaxies at 2<z<4
• Connecting the growth of galaxies to the large-scale environment in a massive node of the Cosmic Web at z~3
• Galaxy populations of ProtoClusters in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations
• Galaxy populations in protoclusters at cosmic noon
• Cluster candidates with massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• Lyman Alpha line properties at $z\simeq 3.78$ and their environmental dependence: a case study around a massive proto-cluster
• Revealing the hidden cosmic feast: A z=4.3 galaxy group hosting two optically dark, efficiently star-forming galaxies
• A Large Molecular Gas Reservoir in the Protocluster SPT2349$-$56 at $z=4.3$
• Protoclusters at z=5.7: A view from the MultiDark galaxies
• Evidence for environmental effects in the $z=4.3$ protocluster core SPT2349$-$56
• A large thermal energy reservoir in the nascent intracluster medium at a redshift of 4.3
• Molecular gas in a gravitationally lensed galaxy group at $z=2.9$
• Gas properties as a function of environment in the proto-supercluster Hyperion at z ~ 2.45
• Euclid preparation. Exploring the properties of proto-clusters in the Simulated Euclid Wide Survey
• Tracing the Total Stellar Mass and Star Formation of High-Redshift Protoclusters
• Clustering of red and blue galaxies around high-redshift 3C radio sources as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope
• Quantifying the Impact of Incompleteness on Identifying and Interpreting Galaxy Protocluster Populations with the TNG-Cluster Simulation
• Millimeter-wave observations of Euclid Deep Field South using the South Pole Telescope: A data release of temperature maps and catalogs
• A massive quiescent galaxy confirmed in a protocluster at z=3.09
• An ALMA spectroscopic survey of the Planck high-redshift object PLCK G073.4-57.5 confirms two protoclusters
• Vz-GAL: Probing Cold Molecular Gas in Dusty Star-forming Galaxies at z=1-6
• Prospects for studying the mass and gas in protoclusters with future CMB observations
• PASSAGES: The Discovery of a Strongly Lensed Protocluster Core Candidate at Cosmic Noon
• Demonstration of Weak-Link Physics in the Dynamical Response of Transition-Edge Sensors
• Cosmic Vine: High abundance of massive galaxies and dark matter halos in a forming cluster at z=3.44
• Simultaneously Modelling Dusty Star Forming Galaxies and Massive Quiescents: A Calibration Framework for Galaxy Formation Models
• ADF22+: a declining faint end in the far-infrared luminosity function in the SSA22 protocluster at z=3.09
• Bright [CII]158$\mu$m Streamers as a Beacon for Giant Galaxy Formation in SPT2349$-$56 at $z=4.3$
• Merging history of massive galaxies at 3<z<6
• Euclid: A blue galaxy population and a brightest cluster galaxy in the making in a $z\sim 1.74$ MaDCoWS2 galaxy cluster candidate
• Fueling and feedback mechanisms at the nodes of the cosmic web
• Understanding galaxy formation and evolution through an all-sky submillimetre spectroscopic survey
• A Chandra view of SPT-CL J0217-5014: a massive galaxy cluster at a cosmic intersection at z=0.53
• A deep ALMA Band 3 survey of HDFS/MUSE3D: Survey description and initial results
• The Photometric Analysis of the Environment Around Two Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• Ram-pressure stripping caught in action in a young cluster at $z=2.51$
• Extragalactic astrophysics with next-generation CMB experiments
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Extragalactic Point Sources in the Southern Surveys at 150, 220 and 280 GHz observed between 2008-2010
• Resolving circumgalactic gas flows around a z$\approx$3.6 quasar using MUSE and ALMA