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Published November 2010 | Published
Journal Article Open

Herschel reveals a T_(dust)-unbiased selection of z ~ 2 ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Abstract

Using Herschel Photodetector Array Camera (PACS) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) observations of Lockman Hole-North and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-North (GOODS-N) as part of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) project, we explore the far-infrared (IR) properties of a sample of mid-IR-selected starburst-dominated ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) at z ~ 2. The selection of the sample is based on the detection of the stellar bump that appears in the spectral energy distribution of star-forming galaxies at 1.6 μm. We derive robust estimates of infrared luminosities (L_(IR)) and dust temperatures (T_d) of the population and find that while the luminosities in our sample span less than an order of magnitude (12.24 ≤ log(L_(IR)/L_⊙) ≤ 12.94), they cover a wide range of dust temperatures (25 ≤ T_d ≤ 62 K). Galaxies in our sample range from those that are as cold as high-z submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) to those that are as warm as optically faint radio galaxies (OFRGs) and local ULIRGs. Nevertheless, our sample has median T_d = 42.3 K, filling the gap between SMGs and OFRGs, bridging the two populations. We demonstrate that a significant fraction of our sample would be missed from ground-based (sub)mm surveys (850–1200 μm), showing that the latter introduce a bias towards the detection of colder sources. We conclude that Herschel observations confirm the existence of high-z ULIRGs warmer than SMGs, show that the mid-IR selection of high-z ULIRGs is not T_d dependent, reveal a large dispersion in T_d of high-z ULIRGs and provide the means to characterize the bulk of the ULIRG population, free from selection biases introduced by ground-based (sub)mm surveys.

Additional Information

© 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS. Accepted 2010 July 27. Received 2010 July 15; in original form 2010 May 31. Article first published online: 29 Oct. 2010. SPIRE has been developed by a consortium of institutes led by Cardiff University (UK) and including Univ. Lethbridge (Canada); NAOC (China); CEA, LAM (France); IFSI, Univ. Padua (Italy); IAC (Spain); Stockholm Observatory (Sweden); Imperial College London, RAL, UCL-MSSL, UKATC, Univ. Sussex (UK) and Caltech, JPL, NHSC, Univ. Colorado (USA). This development has been supported by national funding agencies: CSA (Canada); NAOC (China); CEA, CNES, CNRS (France); ASI (Italy); MCINN (Spain); SNSB (Sweden); STFC (UK) and NASA (USA). HIPE is a joint development by the Herschel Science Ground Segment Consortium, consisting of ESA, the NASA Herschel Science Center and the HIFI, PACS and SPIRE consortia. The data presented in this paper will be released through the Herschel Data base in Marseille, HeDaM (hedam.oamp.fr/ HerMES).

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August 19, 2023
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