Searching for [CII] Emission from the First Sample of $z\sim 6$ OI Absorption-Associated Galaxies with ALMA

Abstract

We report the first statistical analyses of [CII] and dust continuum observations in six strong OI absorber fields at the end of the reionization epoch obtained by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). Combined with one [CII] emitter reported in Wu et al. (2021), we detect one OI-associated [CII] emitter in six fields. At redshifts of OI-absorbers in non-detection fields, no emitters are brighter than our detection limit within impact parameters of 50 kpc and velocity offsets between $\pm 200\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. The averaged [CII]-detection upper limit is $<0.06$ Jy $\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ (3$\sigma$), corresponding to the [CII] luminosity of $L_{[\mathrm{CII}]}<5.8\times 10^7{L}_{\odot }$ and the [CII]-based star formation rate of $\mathrm{SF}{\mathrm{R}}_{[\mathrm{CII}]}<5.5$ $M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$. Cosmological simulations suggest that only $\sim 10^{-2.5}$ [CII] emitters around [OI] absorbers have comparable SFR to our detection limit. Although the detection in one out of six fields is reported, an order of magnitude number excess of emitters obtained from our ALMA observations supports that the contribution of massive galaxies that caused the metal enrichment cannot be ignored. Further, we also found 14 tentative galaxy candidates with S/N of $\approx 4.3$ at large impact parameters ($>50$ kpc) and having larger outflow velocities within $\pm 600$ km s${}^{-1}$. If these detections are confirmed in the future, then the mechanism of pushing metals at larger distances with higher velocities needs to be further explored from the theoretical side.

Accepted for publication in ApJ. Main text 10 pages, 5 figures

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