Dust in the reionization era: ALMA observations of a zz=8.38 Galaxy

We report on the detailed analysis of a gravitationally-lensed Y-band dropout, A2744_YD4, selected from deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging in the Frontier Field cluster Abell 2744. Band 7 observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) indicate the proximate detection of a significant 1mm continuum flux suggesting the presence of dust for a star-forming galaxy with a photometric redshift of $z\simeq8$. Deep X-SHOOTER spectra confirms the high redshift identity of A2744_YD4 via the detection of Lyman $\alpha$ emission at a redshift $z$=8.38. The association with the ALMA detection is confirmed by the presence of [OIII] 88$\mu$m emission at the same redshift. Although both emission features are only significant at the 4 $\sigma$ level, we argue their joint detection and the positional coincidence with a high redshift dropout in the HST images confirms the physical association. Analysis of the available photometric data and the modest gravitational magnification ($\mu\simeq2$) indicates A2744_YD4 has a stellar mass of $\sim$ 2$\times$10$^9$ M$_{\odot}$, a star formation rate of $\sim20$ M$_{\odot}$/yr and a dust mass of $\sim$6$\times$10$^{6}$ M$_{\odot}$. We discuss the implications of the formation of such a dust mass only $\simeq$200 Myr after the onset of cosmic reionisation.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

The Super Eight Galaxies: Properties of a Sample of Very Bright Galaxies at 7 \u3c z \u3c 8

We present the Super Eight galaxies - a set of very luminous, high-redshift (7.1 \u3c z \u3c 8.0) galaxy candidates found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) Survey fields. The original sample includes eight galaxies that are Y-band dropout objects with H-band magnitudes of m H \u3c 25.5. Four of these objects were originally reported in Calvi et al. Combining new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3/F814W imaging and Spitzer IRAC data with archival imaging from BoRG and other surveys, we explore the properties of these galaxies. Photometric redshift fitting places six of these galaxies in the redshift range of 7.1 \u3c z \u3c 8.0, resulting in three new high-redshift galaxies and confirming three of the four high-redshift galaxy candidates from Calvi et al. We calculate the half-light radii of the Super Eight galaxies using the HST F160W filter and find that the Super Eight sizes are in line with the typical evolution of size with redshift. The Super Eights have a mean mass of log (M ∗/M o) ∼10, which is typical for sources in this luminosity range. Finally, we place our sample on the UV z ∼ 8 luminosity function and find that the Super Eight number density is consistent with other surveys in this magnitude and redshift range

The Super Eight Galaxies: Properties of a Sample of Very Bright Galaxies at 7 < z < 8

We present the Super Eight galaxies—a set of very luminous, high-redshift (7.1 < z < 8.0) galaxy candidates found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) Survey fields. The original sample includes eight galaxies that are Y-band dropout objects with H-band magnitudes of m H < 25.5. Four of these objects were originally reported in Calvi et al. Combining new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3/F814W imaging and Spitzer IRAC data with archival imaging from BoRG and other surveys, we explore the properties of these galaxies. Photometric redshift fitting places six of these galaxies in the redshift range of 7.1 < z < 8.0, resulting in three new high-redshift galaxies and confirming three of the four high-redshift galaxy candidates from Calvi et al. We calculate the half-light radii of the Super Eight galaxies using the HST F160W filter and find that the Super Eight sizes are in line with the typical evolution of size with redshift. The Super Eights have a mean mass of log (M */M ⊙) ~10, which is typical for sources in this luminosity range. Finally, we place our sample on the UV z ~ 8 luminosity function and find that the Super Eight number density is consistent with other surveys in this magnitude and redshift range

xCOLD GASS: The Complete IRAM 30 m Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas for Galaxy Evolution Studies

We introduce xCOLD GASS, a legacy survey providing a census of molecular gas in the local universe. Building on the original COLD GASS survey, we present here the full sample of 532 galaxies with CO (1–0) measurements from the IRAM 30 m telescope. The sample is mass-selected in the redshift interval $0.01\lt z\lt 0.05$ from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and therefore representative of the local galaxy population with ${M}_{* }\ \gt {10}^{9}\,{M}_{\odot }$. The CO (1–0) flux measurements are complemented by observations of the CO (2–1) line with both the IRAM 30 m and APEX telescopes, H i observations from Arecibo, and photometry from SDSS, WISE, and GALEX. Combining the IRAM and APEX data, we find that the ratio of CO (2–1) to CO (1–0) luminosity for integrated measurements is ${r}_{21}=0.79\pm 0.03$, with no systematic variations across the sample. The CO (1–0) luminosity function is constructed and best fit with a Schechter function with parameters ${L}_{\mathrm{CO}}^{* }=(7.77\pm 2.11)\times {10}^{9}\,{\rm{K}}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{pc}}^{2}$, ${\phi }^{* }=(9.84\pm 5.41)\times {10}^{-4}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$, and $\alpha =-1.19\pm 0.05$. With the sample now complete down to stellar masses of 109 ${M}_{\odot }$, we are able to extend our study of gas scaling relations and confirm that both molecular gas fractions (${f}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$) and depletion timescale (${t}_{\mathrm{dep}}({{\rm{H}}}_{2})$) vary with specific star formation rate (or offset from the star formation main sequence) much more strongly than they depend on stellar mass. Comparing the xCOLD GASS results with outputs from hydrodynamic and semianalytic models, we highlight the constraining power of cold gas scaling relations on models of galaxy formation

The onset of star formation 250 million years after the Big Bang

A fundamental quest of modern astronomy is to locate the earliest galaxies and study how they influenced the intergalactic medium a few hundred million years after the Big Bang1,2,3. The abundance of star-forming galaxies is known to decline4,5 from redshifts of about 6 to 10, but a key question is the extent of star formation at even earlier times, corresponding to the period when the first galaxies might have emerged. Here we report spectroscopic observations of MACS1149-JD16, a gravitationally lensed galaxy observed when the Universe was less than four per cent of its present age. We detect an emission line of doubly ionized oxygen at a redshift of 9.1096 ± 0.0006, with an uncertainty of one standard deviation. This precisely determined redshift indicates that the red rest-frame optical colour arises from a dominant stellar component that formed about 250 million years after the Big Bang, corresponding to a redshift of about 15. Our results indicate that it may be possible to detect such early episodes of star formation in similar galaxies with future telescopes