The hidden side of cosmic star formation at z > 3: Bridging optically-dark and Lyman break galaxies with GOODS-ALMA

Abstract

Our current understanding of the cosmic star formation history at z>3 is primarily based on UV-selected galaxies (i.e., LBGs). Recent studies of H-dropouts have revealed that we may be missing a large proportion of star formation that is taking place in massive galaxies at z>3. In this work, we extend the H-dropout criterion to lower masses to select optically dark/faint galaxies (OFGs), in order to complete the census between LBGs and H-dropouts. Our criterion (H> 26.5 mag & [4.5] < 25 mag) combined with a de-blending technique is designed to select not only extremely dust-obscured massive galaxies but also normal star-forming galaxies. In total, we identified 27 OFGs at z_phot > 3 (z_med=4.1) in the GOODS-ALMA field, covering a wide distribution of stellar masses with log($M_{\star }$/$M_{\odot }$) = 9.4-11.1. We find that up to 75% of the OFGs with log($M_{\star }$/$M_{\odot }$) = 9.5-10.5 were neglected by previous LBGs and H-dropout selection techniques. After performing stacking analyses, the OFGs exhibit shorter gas depletion timescales, slightly lower gas fractions, and lower dust temperatures than typical star-forming galaxies. Their SFR_tot (SFR_ IR+SFR_UV) is much larger than SFR_UVcorr (corrected for dust extinction), with SFR_tot/SFR_UVcorr = $8\pm 1$, suggesting the presence of hidden dust regions in the OFGs that absorb all UV photons. The average dust size measured by a circular Gaussian model fit is R_e(1.13 mm)=1.01$\pm$0.05 kpc. We find that the cosmic SFRD at z>3 contributed by massive OFGs is at least two orders of magnitude higher than the one contributed by equivalently massive LBGs. Finally, we calculate the combined contribution of OFGs and LBGs to the cosmic SFRD at z=4-5 to be 4 $\times$ 10${}^{-2}$ $M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$Mpc${}^{-3}$, which is about 0.15 dex (43%) higher than the SFRD derived from UV-selected samples alone at the same redshift.

26 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (42)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. IV. The Silicate-Graphite-PAH Model in the Post-Spitzer Era
• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34
• The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 7 Ms Source Catalogs
• SHARC-2 350 Micron Observations of Distant Submillimeter Selected Galaxies
• A Turnover in the Galaxy Main Sequence of Star Formation at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ for Redshifts $z<1.3$
• Galaxy growth in a massive halo in the first billion years of cosmic history
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: ALMA resolves the rest-frame far-infrared emission of sub-millimeter galaxies
• The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE): ultraviolet to far-infrared catalogs, medium-bandwidth photometric redshifts with improved accuracy, stellar masses, and confirmation of quiescent galaxies to z~3.5
• Dust temperature and mid-to-total infrared color distributions for star-forming galaxies at 0<z<4
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] Survey: The nature, luminosity function and star formation history of dusty galaxies up to z~6
• Deep U band and R imaging of GOODS-South: Observations,data reduction and first results
• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey Large Program: The Infrared Excess of z=1.5-10 UV-selected Galaxies and the Implied High-Redshift Star Formation History
• ISM properties of a Massive Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy discovered at z ~ 7
• VLA and ALMA Imaging of Intense, Galaxy-Wide Star Formation in z ~ 2 Galaxies
• The VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project: Evolution of specific star formation rates out to $z\sim 5$
• Normal, Dust-Obscured Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• The REBELS ALMA Survey: cosmic dust temperature evolution out to z $\sim$ 7
• The infrared-radio correlation of star-forming galaxies is strongly M${}_{\star }$-dependent but nearly redshift-invariant since z$\sim$4
• The Hawk-I UDS and GOODS Survey (HUGS): Survey design and deep K-band number counts
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Source catalog, number counts, and prevailing compact sizes in 1.1 mm galaxies
• COLDz: A High Space Density of Massive Dusty Starburst Galaxies ~1 Billion Years after the Big Bang
• ALMA twenty-six arcmin${}^2$ survey of GOODS-S at one-millimeter (ASAGAO): Near-infrared-dark faint ALMA sources
• An ALMA survey of the S2CLS UDS field: Optically invisible submillimetre galaxies
• Illuminating the dark side of cosmic star formation two billion years after the Big Bang
• Deceptively cold dust in the massive starburst galaxy GN20 at $z\sim 4$
• Knocking on giants' doors: I. The evolution of the dust-to-stellar mass ratio in distant dusty galaxies
• A new estimate of the cosmic star formation density from a radio-selected sample, and the contribution of $H$-dark galaxies at $z\ge 3$
• GOODS-ALMA: The slow downfall of star-formation in $z$ = 2-3 massive galaxies
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Starbursts in the main sequence reveal compact star formation regulating galaxy evolution prequenching
• GOODS-ALMA: Optically dark ALMA galaxies shed light on a cluster in formation at z = 3.5
• A census of optically dark massive galaxies in the early Universe from magnification by lensing galaxy clusters
• GOODS-ALMA: Using IRAC and VLA to probe fainter millimeter galaxies

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Galaxy Build-up in the first 1.5 Gyr of Cosmic History: Insights from the Stellar Mass Function at $z\sim 4-9$ from JWST NIRCam Observations
• 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
• No [CII] or dust detection in two Little Red Dots at z${}_{\mathrm{spec}}$ > 7
• Delving deep: a population of extremely dusty dwarfs observed by JWST
• PANORAMIC: Discovery of an Ultra-Massive Grand-Design Spiral Galaxy at $z\sim 5.2$
• JADES Ultra-red Flattened Objects: Morphologies and Spatial Gradients in Color and Stellar Populations
• A${}^3$COSMOS: Measuring the cosmic dust-attenuated star formation rate density at $4<z<5$
• New JWST redshifts for the host galaxies of CDF-S XT1 and XT2: understanding their nature
• JWST/MIRI unveils the stellar component of the GN20 dusty galaxy overdensity at $z$=4.05
• NOEMA reveals the true nature of luminous red JWST z>10 galaxy candidates
• JWST PRIMER: A deep JWST study of all ALMA-detected galaxies in PRIMER COSMOS -- dust-obscured star-formation history back to z $\simeq$ 7
• 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
• Behind the dust veil: A panchromatic view of an optically dark galaxy at z=4.82
• "Dust Giant": Extended and Clumpy Star-Formation in a Massive Dusty Galaxy at $z=1.38$
• An optically-dark merging system at z~6 detected by JWST
• Unveiling the Dark Side of UV/Optical Bright Galaxies: Optically Thick Dust Absorption
• Overdense fireworks in GOODS-N: Unveiling a record number of massive dusty star forming galaxies at z$\sim$5.2 with the N2CLS
• Compact dust-obscured star-formation and the origin of the galaxy bimodality
• ALMA survey of a massive node of the Cosmic Web at $z\sim 3$. II. A dynamically cold and massive disk galaxy in the proximity of a hyperluminous quasar
• JWST Spectroscopic View of a Rapidly Growing Dust-obscured Quasar at $z\sim 4$: Effect of Dust Extinction Correction on Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio Estimation