The evolution of interstellar medium mass probed by dust emission: Alma observations at z = 0.3-2
- California Institute of Technology, MC 249-17, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- AIM Unité Mixte de Recherche CEA CNRS, Université Paris VII UMR n158, F-75014 Paris (France)
- North American ALMA Science Center, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822 (United States)
- UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ (United Kingdom)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)
- Spitzer Science Center, MS 314-6, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22901 (United States)
- National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-strasse 27, CH-8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
The use of submillimeter dust continuum emission to probe the mass of interstellar dust and gas in galaxies is empirically calibrated using samples of local star-forming galaxies, Planck observations of the Milky Way, and high-redshift submillimeter galaxies. All of these objects suggest a similar calibration, strongly supporting the view that the Rayleigh-Jeans tail of the dust emission can be used as an accurate and very fast probe of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies. We present ALMA Cycle 0 observations of the Band 7 (350 GHz) dust emission in 107 galaxies from z = 0.2 to 2.5. Three samples of galaxies with a total of 101 galaxies were stellar-mass-selected from COSMOS to have M {sub *} ≅ 10{sup 11} M {sub ☉}: 37 at z ∼ 0.4, 33 at z ∼ 0.9, and 31 at z = 2. A fourth sample with six infrared-luminous galaxies at z = 2 was observed for comparison with the purely mass-selected samples. From the fluxes detected in the stacked images for each sample, we find that the ISM content has decreased by a factor ∼6 from 1 to 2 × 10{sup 10} M {sub ☉} at both z = 2 and 0.9 down to ∼2 × 10{sup 9} M {sub ☉} at z = 0.4. The infrared-luminous sample at z = 2 shows a further ∼4 times increase in M {sub ISM} compared with the equivalent non-infrared-bright sample at the same redshift. The gas mass fractions are ∼2% ± 0.5%, 12% ± 3%, 14% ± 2%, and 53% ± 3% for the four subsamples (z = 0.4, 0.9, and 2 and infrared-bright galaxies).
- OSTI ID:
- 22351590
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 783, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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