SUBMILLIMETER FOLLOW-UP OF WISE-SELECTED HYPERLUMINOUS GALAXIES

Journal Article · Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/756/1/96· OSTI ID:22092432

Jingwen, Wu; Eisenhardt, Peter R. M.; Stern, Daniel; Assef, Roberto ^[1]; Tsai, Chao-Wei; Cutri, Roc; Griffith, Roger; Jarrett, Thomas ^[2]; Sayers, Jack; Bridge, Carrie ^[3]; Benford, Dominic ^[4]; Blain, Andrew ^[5]; Petty, Sara; Lake, Sean ^[6]; Bussmann, Shane ^[7]; Comerford, Julia M.; Evans, II, Neal J. ^[8]; Lonsdale, Carol ^[9]; Rho, Jeonghee ^[10]; others, and

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1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
2. Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
3. Division of Physics, Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
4. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH Leicester (United Kingdom)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
7. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS78, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
8. Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78731 (United States)
9. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
10. SETI Institute, 189 BERNARDO Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043 (United States)

We have used the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) to follow-up a sample of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) selected, hyperluminous galaxies, the so-called W1W2-dropout galaxies. This is a rare ({approx}1000 all-sky) population of galaxies at high redshift (peaks at z = 2-3), which are faint or undetected by WISE at 3.4 and 4.6 {mu}m, yet are clearly detected at 12 and 22 {mu}m. The optical spectra of most of these galaxies show significant active galactic nucleus activity. We observed 14 high-redshift (z > 1.7) W1W2-dropout galaxies with SHARC-II at 350-850 {mu}m, with nine detections, and observed 18 with Bolocam at 1.1 mm, with five detections. Warm Spitzer follow-up of 25 targets at 3.6 and 4.5 {mu}m, as well as optical spectra of 12 targets, are also presented in the paper. Combining WISE data with observations from warm Spitzer and CSO, we constructed their mid-IR to millimeter spectral energy distributions (SEDs). These SEDs have a consistent shape, showing significantly higher mid-IR to submillimeter ratios than other galaxy templates, suggesting a hotter dust temperature. We estimate their dust temperatures to be 60-120 K using a single-temperature model. Their infrared luminosities are well over 10{sup 13} L{sub Sun }. These SEDs are not well fitted with existing galaxy templates, suggesting they are a new population with very high luminosity and hot dust. They are likely among the most luminous galaxies in the universe. We argue that they are extreme cases of luminous, hot dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs), possibly representing a short evolutionary phase during galaxy merging and evolution. A better understanding of their long-wavelength properties needs ALMA as well as Herschel data.

• OSTI ID: 22092432
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 756, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC DUST
ENERGY SPECTRA
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
INFRARED SURVEYS
INTERMEDIATE INFRARED RADIATION
LUMINOSITY
RED SHIFT
UNIVERSE
WAVELENGTHS