The ALMA REBELS survey: [OIII]${}_{88\mu \text{m}}$ line scans of UV-bright $z\gtrsim 7.6$ galaxies

Abstract

We present the [OIII]${}_{88\mu \text{m}}$ spectral scan results from the ALMA Large Program REBELS (Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey). The generally high luminosity of [OIII]${}_{88\mu \text{m}}$ and ALMA's Band 7 efficiency motivated its use for line scans of REBELS targets at $z>8$. Spectral scans of four sources covered 326.4-373.0 GHz ($z=8.10$-9.39), reaching [OIII]${}_{88\mu \text{m}}$ luminosities of $\sim 7.6\times 10^8{\mathrm{L}}_{\odot }$ ($5\sigma$) for a FWHM of 400 km s${}^{-1}$. No credible lines are detected for the four targets. For REBELS-04, the non-detection is unexpected given the $\ge 92\%$ coverage of the redshift likelihood distribution and its estimated SFR of 40 ${\text{M}}_{\odot }{\text{yr}}^{-1}$. Possible explanations for the faint [OIII]${}_{88\mu \text{m}}$ emission (assuming a FWHM of 100 km s${}^{-1}$) include high ISM densities ($>n_{\text{crit}}\approx 510{\text{cm}}^{-3}$) and low ionization parameters ($\mathrm{lo}{\mathrm{g}}_{10}{\mathrm{U}}_{\mathrm{ion}}\lesssim -2.5$). For REBELS-37, a subsequent detection of [CII]${}_{158\mu \text{m}}$ ($z=7.643$) confirmed it lay outside our scan range. For REBELS-11 and REBELS-13, it remains unclear if the non-detection is due to the depth of the line scan or redshift coverage. REBELS-04 and REBELS-37 show significant ($\ge 3.8\sigma$) dust continuum emission in Band 7. If the photometric redshift of REBELS-04 is accurate, i.e., $z_{\mathrm{phot}}=8.57_{-0.09}^{+0.10}$ or $z_{\mathrm{phot}}=8.43_{-0.10}^{+0.10}$ accounting for additional neutral hydrogen in the circumgalactic medium, REBELS-04 would constitute the most distant dust-detected galaxy identified with ALMA to date. Additional Band 6 dust observations of REBELS-37 constrain the shape of the far-IR SED, ruling out cold dust temperatures ($\lesssim 28$ K) at $3\sigma$. Further insight into these galaxies will require spectroscopic redshifts and deeper multi-band dust observations.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 15 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables (including appendices)