A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34
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A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34 Dominik A. Riechers1,2, C.M. Bradford1,3, D.L. Clements4, C.D. Dowell1,3, I. Pérez-Fournon5,6, R.J. Ivison7,8, C. Bridge1, A. Conley9, Hai Fu10, J.D. Vieira1, J. Wardlow10, J. Calanog10, A. Cooray10,1, P. Hurley11, R. Neri12, J. Kamenetzky13, J.E. Aguirre14, B. Altieri15, V. Arumugam8, D.J. Benford16, M. Béthermin17,18, J. Bock1,3, D. Burgarella19, A. Cabrera-Lavers5,6,20, S.C. Chapman21, P. Cox12, J.S. Dunlop8, L. Earle9, D. Farrah22, P. Ferrero5,6, A. Franceschini23, R. Gavazzi24, J. Glenn13,9, E.A. Gonzalez Solares21, M.A. Gurwell25, M. Halpern26, E. Hatziminaoglou27, A. Hyde4, E. Ibar7, A. Kovács1,28, M. Krips12, R.E. Lupu14, P.R. Maloney9, P. Martinez-Navajas5,6, H. Matsuhara29, E.J. Murphy1,30, B.J. Naylor3, H.T. Nguyen3,1, S.J. Oliver11, A. Omont24, M.J. Page31, G. Petitpas25, N. Rangwala13, I.G. Roseboom11,8, D. Scott26, A.J. Smith11, J.G. Staguhn16,32, A. Streblyanska5,6, A.P. Thomson8, I. Valtchanov15, M. Viero1, L. Wang11, M. Zemcov1,3, J. Zmuidzinas1,3 1California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Blvd., MC 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 2Cornell University, 220 Space Sciences Building, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA 3Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA 4Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK 5Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 6Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain 7UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK 8Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK 9Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy 389-UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA 10Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA 11Astronomy Centre, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK 12Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimetrique, 300 Rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire, F-38406 Saint Martin d’Heres, France 13Dept. of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, CASA 389-UCB, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA 14Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA 15Herschel Science Centre, European Space Astronomy Centre, Villanueva de la Cañada, 28691 Madrid, Spain 16Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 17Laboratoire AIM-Paris-Saclay, CEA/DSM/Irfu - CNRS - Universite Paris Diderot, CEA-Saclay, point courrier 131, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France 18Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), batiment 121, Universite Paris-Sud 11 and CNRS, UMR 8617, F-91405 Orsay, France 19Aix-Marseille Universite, CNRS, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR7326, F-13388 Marseille, France 20Grantecan S.A., Centro de Astrofisica de La Palma, Cuesta de San Jose, E-38712 Brena Baja, La Palma, Spain 21Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK 22Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA 23Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita di Padova, vicolo Osservatorio, 3, I-35122 Padova, Italy 24Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 98bis boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France 25Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA 26Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada 27ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany 28Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA 29Institute for Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan 30Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, MS 100-22, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 31Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK 32Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA Riechers et al. (2013), Nature, in the press (under press embargo until 13:00 US Eastern time on 17 April 2013) 1 Massive present-day early-type (elliptical and scans of the 3-mm and 1-mm bands toward lenticular) galaxies probably gained the bulk HFLS3 (also known as 1HERMES S350 of their stellar mass and heavy elements J170647.8+584623; S500µm/S350µm = 1.45), the through intense, dust-enshrouded starbursts brightest candidate discovered in our study. – that is, increased rates of star formation – in These observations, augmented by selected the most massive dark matter halos at early follow-up over a broader wavelength range, epochs. However, it remains unknown how unambiguously determine the galaxy redshift to soon after the Big Bang such massive be z=6.3369+/-0.0009 based on a suite of 7 CO + + starburst progenitors exist. The measured lines, 7 H2O lines, and OH, OH , H2O , NH3, [CI], redshift (z) distribution of dusty, massive and [CII] lines detected in emission and starbursts has long been suspected to be absorption (Figure 1). At this redshift, the biased low in redshift owing to selection Universe was just 880 million years old (or 1/16th effects,1 as confirmed by recent findings of of its present age), and 1” on the sky corresponds systems out to redshift z~5.2,3,4 Here we report to a physical scale of 5.6 kpc. Further the identification of a massive starburst observations from optical to radio wavelengths galaxy at redshift 6.34 through a submillimeter reveal strong continuum emission over virtually color-selection technique. We unambiguously the entire wavelength range between 2.2 µm and determined the redshift from a suite of 20 cm, with no detected emission shortward of molecular and atomic fine structure cooling 1 µm (see Supplementary Information Section 2 lines. These measurements reveal a hundred and Figures S1-S11 for additional details). billion solar masses of highly excited, chemically evolved interstellar medium (ISM) HFLS3 hosts an intense starburst. The 870 µm - in this galaxy, which constitutes at least 40% flux of HFLS3 is >3.5 times higher than those of of the baryonic mass. A "maximum starburst" the brightest high-redshift starbursts in a 0.25-deg2 region containing the Hubble Ultra converts the gas into stars at a rate more than 8 2,000 times that of the Milky Way, a rate Deep Field (HUDF). From the continuum spectral among the highest observed at any epoch. energy distribution (Fig. 2), we find that the far- infrared (FIR) luminosity LFIR and inferred star Despite the overall downturn of cosmic star -1 formation towards the highest redshifts,5 it formation rate (SFR) of 2,900 Msunyr of HFLS3 seems that environments mature enough to are 15-20 times those of the prototypical local form the most massive, intense starbursts ultra-luminous starburst Arp 220, and >2,000 existed at least as early as 880 million years times those of the Milky Way (Table 1 and after the Big Bang. Supplementary Information Section 3). The SFR of HFLS3 alone corresponds to ~4.5 times the We have searched 21 deg2 of the ultraviolet-based SFR of all z=5.5-6.5 star-forming Herschel/SPIRE data of the HerMES blank field galaxies in the HUDF combined,9 but the rarity survey6 at 250 – 500 µ m for “ultra-red” sources and dust obscuration of ultra-red sources like with flux densities S250µm < S350µm < S500µm and HFLS3 implies that they do not dominate the UV 10 S500µm/S350µm>1.3, i.e., galaxies that are photon density needed to reionize the universe. significantly redder (and thus, potentially at higher redshift) than massive starbursts discovered thus HFLS3 is a massive, gas-rich galaxy. From the far. This selection yields five candidate ultra-red spectral energy distribution and the intensity of sources down to a flux limit of 30 mJy at 500 µm the CO and [CII] emission, we find a dust mass of 9 Md=1.3 x 10 Msun and total molecular and atomic (>5σ and above the confusion noise; see 11 gas masses of Mgas=1.0 x 10 Msun and Supplementary Information Section 1 for 10 additional details), corresponding to a source MHI=2.0 x 10 Msun. These masses are 15-20 density of ≤0.24 deg-2. For comparison, models of times those of Arp 220, and correspond to a gas- number counts in the Herschel/SPIRE bands to-dust ratio of ~80 and a gas depletion timescale suggest a space density of massive starburst of Mgas/SFR ~36 Myr. These values are -2 comparable to lower-redshift submillimeter- galaxies at z>6 with S500µm>30 mJy of 0.014 deg selected starbursts.11,12 From the [CI] luminosity, (ref. 7). 7 we find an atomic carbon mass of 4.5 x 10 Msun. To understand the nature of galaxies selected by At the current star formation rate of HFLS3, this this technique, we have obtained full frequency level of carbon enrichment could have been Riechers et al. (2013), Nature, in the press (under press embargo until 13:00 US Eastern time on 17 April 2013) 2 achieved through supernovae on a timescale of From the spectral energy distribution of HFLS3, 7 13 +9 ~10 yr. The profiles of the molecular and atomic we derive a dust temperature of Tdust=56 -12 K, emission lines typically show two velocity ~10 K less than in Arp 220, but ~3 times that of components (Figs. 1, S5, and S7). The gas is the Milky Way. CO radiative transfer models distributed over a 1.7 kpc radius region with a assuming collisional excitation suggest a gas +59 high velocity gradient and dispersion (Fig. 3).