The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: The nature of the faintest dusty star-forming galaxies

Abstract

We present a characterization of the physical properties of a sample of 35 securely-detected, dusty galaxies in the deep ALMA 1.2-mm image obtained as part of the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the {\it Hubble} Ultra Deep Field (ASPECS) Large Program. This sample is complemented by 26 additional sources identified via an optical/infrared source positional prior. Using their well-characterized spectral energy distributions, we derive median stellar masses and star formation rates (SFR) of $4.8\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ and 30 $M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$, and interquartile ranges of $(2.4-11.7)\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ and $20-50M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$, respectively. We derive a median spectroscopic redshift of 1.8 with an interquartile range $1.1-2.6$, significantly lower than submillimeter galaxies detected in shallower, wide-field surveys. We find that 59\%$\pm$13\%, 6\%$\pm$4\%, and 34\%$\pm$9\% of our sources are within, above and below $\pm 0.4$ dex from the SFR-stellar mass relation or main-sequence (MS), respectively. The ASPECS galaxies closely follow the SFR-molecular gas mass relation and other previously established scaling relations, confirming a factor of five increase of the gas-to-stellar mass ratio from $z=0.5$ to $z=2.5$ and a mild evolution of the gas depletion timescales with a typical value of 0.7 Gyr at $z=1-3$. ASPECS galaxies located significantly below the MS, a poorly exploited parameter space, have low gas-to-stellar-mass ratios of $\sim 0.1-0.2$ and long depletion timescales $>1$ Gyr. Galaxies along the MS dominate the cosmic density of molecular gas at all redshifts. Systems above the main sequence have an increasing contribution to the total gas reservoirs from $z<1$ to $z=2.5$, while the opposite is found for galaxies below the MS.

ApJ published on Sept. 24, 2020. Contains 36 pages, 17 figures. Final version matching the proof reviewed article