Proto-Galactic Starbursts at High Redshift

Abstract

We have computed the evolving ultraviolet-millimeter spectral energy distribution (SED) produced by proto-galactic starbursts at high redshift, incorporating the chemical evolution of the interstellar medium in a consistent manner. Dust extinction is calculated in a novel way, that is not based on empirical calibrations of extinction curves, but rather on the lifetime of molecular clouds which delays the emergence of each successive generation of stars at ultraviolet wavelengths by typically 15 Myr. The predicted rest-frame far-infrared to millimeter-wave emission includes the calculation of molecular emission-line luminosities (${}^{12}$CO and O${}_2$ among other molecules) consistent with the evolving chemical abundances. Here we present details of this new model, along with the results of comparing its predictions with several high-redshift observables, namely: the ultraviolet SEDs of Lyman-limit galaxies, the high-redshift radiogalaxies 4C41.17 and 8C1435, the SCUBA sub-millimeter survey of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), and the SEDs of intermediate-redshift elliptical galaxies. With our new reddening method, we are able to fit the spectrum of the Lyman-limit galaxy 1512-cB58, and we find an extinction of about 1.9 magnitudes at 1600 Å. The model also predicts that most Lyman-limit galaxies should have a value of $\alpha$ inside that range, as it is observed. The 850 $\mu$m flux density of a typical Lyman-limit galaxy is expected to be only $\simeq 0.5$ mJy, and therefore the optical counterparts of the most luminous sub-mm sources in the HDF (or any other currently feasible sub-mm survey) are unlikely to be Lyman-break galaxies.

Submitted to ApJ

References in corpus (2)

• The Ultraviolet Spectrum of MS 1512-cB58: An Insight into Lyman Break Galaxies
• Super-Sonic Turbulence in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

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• The First Billion Years project: constraining the dust attenuation law of star-forming galaxies at z $\simeq$ 5
• Recovering Physical Parameters from Galaxy Spectra Using MOPED
• F stars, metallicity, and the ages of red galaxies at z > 1
• Integral-field spectroscopy of the quadruple QSO HE 0435-1223: Evidence for microlensing
• Coupled spheroid and black-hole formation, and the multifrequency detectability of active galactic nuclei and submillimetre sources
• A Disk Galaxy of Old Stars at z ~ 2.5
• The Sun, stellar-population models, and the age estimation of high-redshift galaxies
• Observing the first galaxies
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of submillimetre-selected galaxies
• Galactosynthesis Predictions at High Redshift
• Ice emission and the redshifts of submillimeter sources