Extragalactic millimeter-wave sources in South Pole Telescope survey data: source counts, catalog, and statistics for an 87 square-degree field
Abstract
We report the results of an 87 square-degree point-source survey centered at R.A. 5h30m, decl. -55 deg. taken with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) at 1.4 and 2.0 mm wavelengths with arc-minute resolution and milli-Jansky depth. Based on the ratio of flux in the two bands, we separate the detected sources into two populations, one consistent with synchrotron emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) and one consistent with thermal emission from dust. We present source counts for each population from 11 to 640 mJy at 1.4 mm and from 4.4 to 800 mJy at 2.0 mm. The 2.0 mm counts are dominated by synchrotron-dominated sources across our reported flux range; the 1.4 mm counts are dominated by synchroton-dominated sources above ~15 mJy and by dust-dominated sources below that flux level. We detect 141 synchrotron-dominated sources and 47 dust-dominated sources at S/N > 4.5 in at least one band. All of the most significantly detected members of the synchrotron-dominated population are associated with sources in previously published radio catalogs. Some of the dust-dominated sources are associated with nearby (z << 1) galaxies whose dust emission is also detected by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS). However, most of the bright, dust-dominated sources have no counterparts in any existing catalogs. We argue that these sources represent the rarest and brightest members of the population commonly referred to as sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs). Because these sources are selected at longer wavelengths than in typical SMG surveys, they are expected to have a higher mean redshift distribution and may provide a new window on galaxy formation in the early universe.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0912.2338,
title = {Extragalactic millimeter-wave sources in South Pole Telescope survey data: source counts, catalog, and statistics for an 87 square-degree field},
author = {J. D. Vieira and T. M. Crawford and E. R. Switzer and P. A. R. Ade and K. A. Aird and M. L. N. Ashby and B. A. Benson and L. E. Bleem and M. Brodwin and J. E. Carlstrom and C. L. Chang and H. -M. Cho and A. T. Crites and T. de Haan and M. A. Dobbs and W. Everett and E. M. George and M. Gladders and N. R. Hall and N. W. Halverson and F. W. High and G. P. Holder and W. L. Holzapfel and J. D. Hrubes and M. Joy and R. Keisler and L. Knox and A. T. Lee and E. M. Leitch and M. Lueker and D. P. Marrone and V. McIntyre and J. J. McMahon and J. Mehl and S. S. Meyer and J. J. Mohr and T. E. Montroy and S. Padin and T. Plagge and C. Pryke and C. L. Reichardt and J. E. Ruhl and K. K. Schaffer and L. Shaw and E. Shirokoff and H. G. Spieler and B. Stalder and Z. Staniszewski and A. A. Stark and K. Vanderlinde and W. Walsh and R. Williamson and Y. Yang and O. Zahn and A. Zenteno},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.2338},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
35 emulateapj pages, 12 figures, 5 tables