Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA): 2mm Efficiently Selects the Highest-Redshift Obscured Galaxies

Abstract

We present the characteristics of 2mm-selected sources from the largest Atacama Large Millimeter and submillimeter Array (ALMA) blank-field contiguous survey conducted to-date, the Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA) survey covering 184arcmin${}^2$ at 2mm. Twelve of the thirteen detections above 5$\sigma$ are attributed to emission from galaxies, eleven of which are dominated by cold dust emission. These sources have a median redshift of $⟨z_{2mm}⟩=3.6_{-0.3}^{+0.4}$ primarily based on optical/near-infrared (OIR) photometric redshifts with some spectroscopic redshifts, with 77$\pm$11% of sources at $z>3$ and 38$\pm$12% of sources at $z>4$. This implies that 2mm selection is an efficient method for identifying the highest redshift dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Lower redshift DSFGs ($z<3$) are far more numerous than those at $z>3$ yet likely to drop out at 2mm. MORA shows that DSFGs with star-formation rates in excess of 300M${}_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$ and relative rarity of $\sim$10${}^{-5}$ Mpc${}^{-3}$ contribute $\sim$30% to the integrated star-formation rate density between $3<z<6$. The volume density of 2mm-selected DSFGs is consistent with predictions from some cosmological simulations and is similar to the volume density of their hypothesized descendants: massive, quiescent galaxies at $z>2$. Analysis of MORA sources' spectral energy distributions hint at steeper empirically-measured dust emissivity indices than typical literature studies, with $⟨\beta ⟩=2.2_{-0.4}^{+0.5}$. The MORA survey represents an important step in taking census of obscured star-formation in the Universe's first few billion years, but larger area 2mm surveys are needed to more fully characterize this rare population and push to the detection of the Universe's first dusty galaxies.

arXiv comment42 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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