English

SPT0346-52: Negligible AGN Activity in a Compact, Hyper-starburst Galaxy at z = 5.7

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2016-12-07 v1

Abstract

We present Chandra ACIS-S and ATCA radio continuum observations of the strongly lensed dusty, star-forming galaxy SPT-S J034640-5204.9 (hereafter SPT0346-52) at zz = 5.656. This galaxy has also been observed with ALMA, HST, Spitzer, Herschel, APEX, and the VLT. Previous observations indicate that if the infrared (IR) emission is driven by star formation, then the inferred lensing-corrected star formation rate (\sim 4500 M\sunM_{\sun} yr1^{-1}) and star formation rate surface density ΣSFR\Sigma_{\rm SFR} (\sim 2000 M\sunyr1kpc2M_{\sun} {yr^{-1}} {kpc^{-2}}) are both exceptionally high. It remained unclear from the previous data, however, whether a central active galactic nucleus (AGN) contributes appreciably to the IR luminosity. The {\it Chandra} upper limit shows that SPT0346-52 is consistent with being star-formation dominated in the X-ray, and any AGN contribution to the IR emission is negligible. The ATCA radio continuum upper limits are also consistent with the FIR-to-radio correlation for star-forming galaxies with no indication of an additional AGN contribution. The observed prodigious intrinsic IR luminosity of (3.6 ±\pm 0.3) ×\times 1013^{13} L\sunL_{\sun} originates almost solely from vigorous star formation activity. With an intrinsic source size of 0.61 ±\pm 0.03 kpc, SPT0346-52 is confirmed to have one of the highest ΣSFR\Sigma_{SFR} of any known galaxy. This high ΣSFR\Sigma_{SFR}, which approaches the Eddington limit for a radiation pressure supported starburst, may be explained by a combination of very high star formation efficiency and gas fraction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.08553,
  title  = {SPT0346-52: Negligible AGN Activity in a Compact, Hyper-starburst Galaxy at z = 5.7},
  author = {Jingzhe Ma and A. H. Gonzalez and J. D. Vieira and M. Aravena and M. L. N. Ashby and M. Bethermin and M. S. Bothwell and W. N. Brandt and C. de Breuck and J. E. Carlstrom and S. C. Chapman and B. Gullberg and Y. Hezaveh and K. Litke and M. Malkan and D. P. Marrone and M. McDonald and E. J. Murphy and J. S. Spilker and J. Sreevani and A. A. Stark and M. Strandet and S. X. Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.08553},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ