English

Studying [CII] Emission in Low-mass Galaxies at z ~ 7

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-05-02 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We report on a [CII]158μm\rm{[CII]}_{158\mu\rm{m}} search using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) on three lensed, confirmed {\lya} emitting galaxies at z7z \sim 7. Our targets are ultra-violet (UV) faint systems with stellar masses on the order of M109MM_{*} \sim 10^{9} M_{\odot}. We detect a single [CII] line emission (4σ4\sigma) from the brightest (L2.4×1010LL \sim 2.4 \times 10^{10}L_{\odot}) galaxy in our sample, MACS0454-1251. We determine a systemic redshift (z[CII]=6.3151±0.0005z_{\rm{[CII]}} = 6.3151 \pm 0.0005) for MACS0454-1251 and measure a {\lya} velocity offset of Δv300±70kms1\Delta v \approx 300 \pm 70 \rm{km\,s}^{-1}. The remaining two galaxies we detect no {\ct} but provide 3σ3 \sigma upper limits on their {\ct} line luminosities which we use to investigate the L[CII]SFRL_{\textrm{[CII]}} - \rm{SFR} relation. Overall our single {\ct} detection shows agreement with the relation for dwarf and local starburst galaxies. Our [CII] deficient galaxies could potentially be exhibiting low metallicities (Z<ZZ<Z_{\odot}). Another possible explanation for weaker [CII] emission could be strong feedback from star formation disrupting molecular clouds. We do not detect continuum emission in any of the sources, placing upper limits on their dust masses. Assuming a single dust temperature of Td=35KT_{d}=35 \rm{K} dust masses (MdustM_{\rm{dust}}) range from <4.8×107M< 4.8 \times 10^{7} M_{\odot} to 2.3×108M2.3 \times 10^{8} M_{\odot}. Collectively, our results suggest faint reionization era sources could be metal poor and/or could have strong feedback suppressing [CII] emission.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.11548,
  title  = {Studying [CII] Emission in Low-mass Galaxies at z ~ 7},
  author = {Kelsey Glazer and Marusa Bradac and Ryan L. Sanders and Seiji Fujimoto and Patricia Bolan and Andrea Ferrara and Victoria Strait and Tucker Jones and Brian C. Lemaux and Livia Vallini and Russell Ryan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.11548},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

7 pages, 4 figures accepted for publication to MNRAS