An ALMA survey of the S2CLS UDS field: Optically invisible submillimetre galaxies

Abstract

We analyse a robust sample of 30 near-infrared-faint (K>25.3, 5 sigma) submillimetre galaxies selected across a 0.96 deg^2 field, to investigate their properties and the cause of their lack of detectable optical/near-infrared emission. Our analysis exploits precise identifications based on ALMA 870um continuum imaging, combined with the very deep near-infrared imaging from the UKIDSS-UDS survey. We estimate that K>25.3 submillimetre galaxies represent 15+/-2 per cent of the total population brighter than S870=3.6mJy, with an expected surface density of ~450/deg^2 above S870>1mJy. As such they pose a source of contamination in surveys for both high-redshift "quiescent" galaxies and very-high-redshift Lyman-break galaxies. We show that these K-faint submillimetre galaxies are simply the tail of the broader submillimetre population, with comparable dust and stellar masses to K<25.3 mag submillimetre galaxies, but lying at significantly higher redshifts (z=3.44+/-0.06 versus z=2.36+/-0.11) and having higher dust attenuation (Av=5.2+/-0.3 versus Av=2.9+/-0.1). We investigate the origin of the strong dust attenuation and find indications that these K-faint galaxies have smaller dust continuum sizes than the K<25.3 galaxies, as measured by ALMA, which suggests their high attenuation is related to their compact sizes. We find a correlation of dust attenuation with star-formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR), with the K-faint submillimetre galaxies representing the higher-Sigma_SFR and highest-Av galaxies. The concentrated, intense star-formation activity in these systems is likely to be associated with the formation of spheroids in compact galaxies at high redshifts, but as a result of their high obscuration these are completely missed in UV, optical and even near-infrared surveys.

arXiv comment9 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

References in corpus (63)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• An ALMA survey of Sub-millimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Physical properties derived from ultraviolet-to-radio modelling
• The Detection of a Population of Submillimeter-Bright, Strongly-Lensed Galaxies
• A deep ALMA image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimetre Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: The Far-Infrared Properties of SMGs
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: 850um maps, catalogues and number counts
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: The Redshift Distribution and Evolution of Submillimeter Galaxies
• An ALMA survey of submillimeter galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Source catalog and multiplicity
• The SCUBA HAlf Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES) - III. Identification of radio and mid-infrared counterparts to submillimetre galaxies
• Kiloparsec-scale dust disks in high-redshift luminous submillimeter galaxies
• Sub-millimeter galaxies as progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• The Intense Starburst HDF850.1 in a Galaxy Overdensity at z=5.2 in the Hubble Deep Field
• An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: High resolution 870um source counts
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field: Physical properties of 707 Sub-millimetre Galaxies
• Predicting dust extinction from the stellar mass of a galaxy
• The diversity of SCUBA-selected galaxies
• A dominant population of optically invisible massive galaxies in the early Universe
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies
• Compact starbursts in z~3-6 submillimeter galaxies revealed by ALMA
• The Discovery of ERO Counterparts to Faint Submm Galaxies
• The Hubble Deep Field North SCUBA Super-map III - Optical and near-infrared properties of submillimetre galaxies
• ALMA spectroscopic survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Continuum number counts, resolved 1.2-mm extragalactic background, and properties of the faintest dusty star forming galaxies
• Observations of a z=1.44 Dusty, Ultraluminous Galaxy and Implications for Deep Sub-mm Surveys
• ALMA reveals potential evidence for spiral arms, bars, and rings in high-redshift submillimeter galaxies
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Near-infrared morphologies and stellar sizes
• Evidence for a Massive Post-Starburst Galaxy at z ~ 6.5
• The stellar mass function of the most massive galaxies at 3<=z<5 in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey
• Resolving the ISM at the peak of cosmic star formation with ALMA - The distribution of CO and dust continuum in z~2.5 sub-millimetre galaxies
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Source catalogue and properties
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: High-resolution dust continuum morphologies and the link between sub-millimetre galaxies and spheroid formation
• Discovery of a dark, massive, ALMA-only galaxy at z~5-6 in a tiny 3-millimeter survey
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: number counts of submillimeter galaxies
• SMAObservations of GOODS 850-11 and GOODS 850-13 - First Examples of Multiple Submillimeter Sources Resolved by an Interferometer
• Massive post-starburst galaxies at z > 1 are compact proto-spheroids
• An ALMA survey of the brightest sub-millimetre sources in the SCUBA-2 COSMOS field
• Discovery of the host galaxy of HDF850.1, the brightest sub-mm source in the Hubble Deep Field
• Structural evolution in massive galaxies at z~2
• Properties of mm galaxies: Constraints from K-band blank fields
• GOODS 850-5 -- A z>4 Galaxy Discovered in the Submillimeter?
• The nature of sub-millimeter and highly star-forming galaxies in the EAGLE simulation
• Millimeter-wave Point Sources from the 2500-square-degree SPT-SZ Survey: Catalog and Population Statistics
• MAGPHYS+photo-z: Constraining the Physical Properties of Galaxies with Unknown Redshifts
• ALMA twenty-six arcmin${}^2$ survey of GOODS-S at one-millimeter (ASAGAO): Near-infrared-dark faint ALMA sources
• A Submillimeter Perspective on the GOODS Fields (SUPER GOODS). III. A Large Sample of ALMA Sources in the GOODS-S
• The faint counterparts of MAMBO mm sources near the NTT Deep Field
• Physical properties and evolution of (Sub-)millimeter selected galaxies in the galaxy formation simulation Shark
• Near-Infrared Colors of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies
• First redshift determination of an optically/UV faint submillimeter galaxy using CO emission lines
• Interferometric detections of GOODS 850-5 at 1 mm and 1.4 GHz
• Detection of an ultra-bright submillimeter galaxy in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field using AzTEC/ASTE
• GOODS-ALMA: 1.1 mm galaxy survey - I. Source catalogue and optically dark galaxies
• An Accurate Position for HDF 850.1: The Brightest Submillimeter Source in the Hubble Deep Field-North
• The prevalence of AGN feedback in massive galaxies at z~1
• An imperfectly passive nature: Bright sub-millimeter emission from dust-obscured star formation in the z=3.717 "passive" system, ZF20115
• GOODS-ALMA: Optically dark ALMA galaxies shed light on a cluster in formation at z = 3.5
• ALMA Deep Field in SSA22: A near-infrared-dark submillimeter galaxy at z=4.0
• An ALMA Survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS Field: The Far-infrared/Radio correlation for High-redshift Dusty Star-forming Galaxies
• Multi-wavelength properties of radio and machine-learning identified counterparts to submillimeter sources in S2COSMOS
• Real or Interloper? The Redshift Likelihoods of z>8 Galaxies in the HUDF12
• Extremely Red Submillimeter Galaxies: New z>~4-6 Candidates Discovered using ALMA and Jansky VLA
• Submillimetre Constraints on Hyper-Extremely Red Objects in the Subaru Deep Field

Cited by in corpus (47)

• The ALMA REBELS Survey: The Dust-obscured Cosmic Star Formation Rate Density at Redshift 7
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Source catalog, number counts, and prevailing compact sizes in 1.1 mm galaxies
• Accurate dust temperature determination in a $z=7.13$ galaxy
• Characterization of Two 2mm-detected Optically-Obscured Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies
• COALAS: I. ATCA CO(1-0) survey and luminosity function in the Spiderweb protocluster at z=2.16
• The hidden side of cosmic star formation at z > 3: Bridging optically-dark and Lyman break galaxies with GOODS-ALMA
• The Structure of Massive Star-Forming Galaxies from JWST and ALMA: Dusty, High Redshift Disk Galaxies
• Resolving a dusty, star-forming SHiZELS galaxy at z=2.2 with HST, ALMA and SINFONI on kiloparsec scales
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: the radio view of the cosmic star formation history
• ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: ALMA-Herschel Joint Study of Lensed Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies across $z\simeq 0.5-6$
• JWST's PEARLS: A JWST/NIRCam view of ALMA sources
• Unveiling the hidden universe with JWST: The contribution of dust-obscured galaxies to the stellar mass function at $z\sim 3-8$
• JWST CEERS probes the role of stellar mass and morphology in obscuring galaxies
• Tracing the evolution of dust-obscured activity using sub-millimetre galaxy populations from STUDIES and AS2UDS
• Sub-Millimetre Galaxies with Webb: Near-Infrared Counterparts and Multi-wavelength Morphology
• $JWST$ Insight Into a Lensed $HST$-dark Galaxy and its Quiescent Companion at $z=2.58$
• The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Widespread dust-obscured star formation in typical star-forming galaxies at z=4-6
• A NOEMA molecular line scan of the Hubble Deep Field North: Improved constraints on the CO luminosity functions and cosmic density of molecular gas
• A census of optically dark massive galaxies in the early Universe from magnification by lensing galaxy clusters
• High-resolution ALMA study of CO (2-1) line and dust continuum emissions in cluster galaxies at z = 1.46
• Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-Obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time
• Predicting sub-millimeter flux densities from global galaxy properties
• A photo-z cautionary tale: Redshift confirmation of COSBO-7 at z=2.625
• PASSAGES: The Large Millimeter Telescope and ALMA Observations of Extremely Luminous High Redshift Galaxies Identified by the Planck
• ALMACAL IX: multi-band ALMA survey for dusty star-forming galaxies and the resolved fractions of the cosmic infrared background
• A Multiwavelength Study of ELAN Environments (AMUSE${}^2$): Ubiquitous dusty star-forming galaxies associated with enormous Ly$\alpha$ nebulae on megaparsec scales
• Illuminating the Dark Side of Cosmic Star Formation III: Building the largest homogeneous sample of Radio-Selected Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies in COSMOS with PhoEBO
• The Black Hole Mass Function Across Cosmic Times II. Heavy Seeds and (Super)Massive Black Holes
• An ultra-deep multi-band VLA survey of the faint radio sky (COSMOS-XS): New constraints on the cosmic star formation history
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• NOEMA confirmation of an optically dark ALMA-AzTEC submillimetre galaxy at $z=5.24$. A late-stage starburst prior to quenching
• Do current X-ray observations capture most of the black-hole accretion at high redshifts?
• New JWST redshifts for the host galaxies of CDF-S XT1 and XT2: understanding their nature
• Growth of Massive Black Hole Seeds by Migration of Stellar and Primordial Black Holes: Gravitational Waves and Stochastic Background
• GalaPy, the highly optimised C++/Python spectral modelling tool for galaxies -- I. Library presentation and photometric fitting
• 2mm Observations and the Search for High-Redshift Dusty Star-forming Galaxies
• Euclid: Identifying the reddest high-redshift galaxies in the Euclid Deep Fields with gradient-boosted trees
• Revealing the hidden cosmic feast: A z=4.3 galaxy group hosting two optically dark, efficiently star-forming galaxies
• Large format imaging spectrograph for the Large Submillimeter Telescope (LST)
• Going deeper into the dark with COSMOS-Web: JWST unveils the total contribution of Radio-Selected NIRfaint galaxies to the cosmic Star Formation Rate Density
• Behind the dust veil: A panchromatic view of an optically dark galaxy at z=4.82
• CO(1--0) imaging reveals 10-kiloparsec molecular gas reservoirs around star-forming galaxies at high redshift
• Formation of Substructure in Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies (FOSSILS): Evidence of Multiple Pathways to Trigger Starbursts in Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies
• A mock redshift catalogue of the dusty star-forming galaxy population with intrinsic clustering and lensing for deep millimetre surveys
• SEMPER I. Radio Predictions for Star-Forming Galaxies at $0<z<5$
• Disclosing Submillimeter Galaxy Formation: Mergers or Secular Evolution?
• Extensive Lensing Survey of Optical and Near-Infrared Dark Objects (El Sonido): HST H-Faint Galaxies behind 101 Lensing Clusters