Bibcode
Oteo, I.; Ivison, R. J.; Dunne, L.; Smail, I.; Swinbank, A. M.; Zhang, Z.-Y.; Lewis, A.; Maddox, S.; Riechers, D.; Serjeant, S.; Van der Werf, P.; Biggs, A. D.; Bremer, M.; Cigan, P.; Clements, D. L.; Cooray, A.; Dannerbauer, H.; Eales, S.; Ibar, E.; Messias, H.; Michałowski, M. J.; Pérez-Fournon, I.; van Kampen, E.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 827, Issue 1, article id. 34, 11 pp. (2016).
Fecha de publicación:
8
2016
Revista
Número de citas
86
Número de citas referidas
78
Descripción
Exploiting the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the Atacama Large
Millimeter/submillimeter Array, we have studied the morphology and the
physical scale of the interstellar medium—both gas and
dust—in SGP 38326, an unlensed pair of interacting starbursts at z
= 4.425. SGP 38326 is the most luminous star bursting system known at z
> 4, with a total IR luminosity of L IR ˜ 2.5
× 1013 L ⊙ and a star formation rate of
˜ 4500 M ⊙ yr‑1. SGP 38326 also
contains a molecular gas reservoir among the most massive yet found in
the early universe, and it is the likely progenitor of a massive,
red-and-dead elliptical galaxy at z ˜ 3. Probing scales of
˜0.″1 or ˜800 pc we find that the smooth distribution
of the continuum emission from cool dust grains contrasts with the more
irregular morphology of the gas, as traced by the [C ii] fine structure
emission. The gas is also extended over larger physical scales than the
dust. The velocity information provided by the resolved [C ii] emission
reveals that the dynamics of the two interacting components of SGP 38326
are each compatible with disk-like, ordered rotation, but also reveals
an ISM which is turbulent and unstable. Our observations support a
scenario where at least a subset of the most distant extreme starbursts
are highly dissipative mergers of gas-rich galaxies.