An upper limit to [C II] emission in a z ~= 5 galaxy

Abstract

Low-ionization-state far-infrared (FIR) emission lines may be useful diagnostics of star-formation activity in young galaxies, and at high redshift may be detectable from the ground. In practice, however, very little is known concerning how strong such line emission might be in the early Universe. We attempted to detect the 158 micron [C II] line from a lensed galaxy at z = 4.926 using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. This source is an ordinary galaxy, in the sense that it shows high but not extreme star formation, but lensing makes it visible. Our analysis includes a careful consideration of the calibrations and weighting of the individual scans. We find only modest improvement over the simpler reduction methods, however, and the final spectrum remains dominated by systematic baseline ripple effects. We obtain a 95 per cent confidence upper limit of 33 mJy for a 200 km/s full width at half maximum line, corresponding to an unlensed luminosity of 1x10^9 L_sun for a standard cosmology. Combining this with a marginal detection of the continuum emission using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, we derive an upper limit of 0.4 per cent for the ratio of L_CII/L_FIR in this object.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• The applicability of FIR fine-structure lines as Star Formation Rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types
• Star Formation and Gas Kinematics of Quasar Host Galaxies at z~6: New insights from ALMA
• A 158 Micron [CII] Line Survey of Galaxies at z ~ 1 to 2: An Indicator of Star Formation in the Early Universe
• First detection of [CII]158um at high redshift: vigorous star formation in the early universe
• An Intensely Star-Forming Galaxy at z~7 with Low Dust and Metal Content Revealed by Deep ALMA and HST Observations
• Strong [CII] emission at high redshift
• A Detection of [CII] line emission in the z=4.7 QSO BR1202-0725
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