2018/01/22 by S. Duivenvoorden, Steven Duivenvoorden, Seb Oliver +41
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Luminosity #Photometric redshift #Physics #Redshift #Spectral energy distribution #Star formation #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty691
22 pages, 14 figures and 3 tables
arxiv created 2018/01/22 · openalex publication_date 2018/03/15 · arxiv updated 2018/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
High-redshift, luminous, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) constrain the extremity of galaxy formation theories. The most extreme are discovered through follow-up on candidates in large area surveys. Here, we present extensive 850 m SCUBA-2 follow-up observations of 188 red DSFG candidates from the Herschel Multitiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) Large Mode Survey, covering 274 deg 2 . We detected 87 per cent with a signal-to-noise ratio >3 at 850 m. We introduce a new method for incorporating the confusion noise in our spectral energy distribution fitting by sampling correlated flux density fluctuations from a confusion limited map. The new 850 m data provide a better constraint on the photometric redshifts of the candidates, with photometric redshift errors decreasing from z /(1 + z) 0.21 to 0.15. Comparison spectroscopic redshifts also found little bias ( (zz spec )/(1 + z spec ) = 0.08). The mean photometric redshift is found to be 3.6 with a dispersion of 0.4 and we identify 21 DSFGs with a high probability of lying at z > 4. After simulating our selection effects we find number counts are consistent with phenomenological galaxy evolution models. There is a statistically significant excess of WISE-1 and SDSS sources near our red galaxies, giving a strong indication that lensing may explain some of the apparently extreme objects. Nevertheless, our sample includes examples of galaxies with the highest star formation rates in the Universe ( 10 3 M yr -1 ).