N. Bourne

Herschel ⋆ -ATLAS: Rapid evolution of dust in galaxies over the last 5 billion years

We present the first direct and unbiased measurement of the evolution of the dust mass function of galaxies over the past 5 billion years of cosmic history using data from the Science Demonstration Phase of the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (Herschel-ATLAS). The sample consists of galaxies selected at 250 m which have reliable counterparts from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at z < 0.5, and contains 1867 sources. Dust masses are calculated using both a single-temperature grey-body model for the spectral energy distribution and also a model with multiple temperature components. The dust temperature for either model shows no trend with redshift. Splitting the sample into bins of redshift reveals a strong evolution in the dust properties of the most massive galaxies. At z= 0.4–0.5, massive galaxies had dust masses about five times larger than in the local Universe. At the same time, the dust-to-stellar mass ratio was about three to four times larger, and the optical depth derived from fitting the UV-sub-mm data with an energy balance model was also higher. This increase in the dust content of massive galaxies at high redshift is difficult to explain using standard dust evolution models and requires a rapid gas consumption time-scale together with either a more top-heavy initial mass function (IMF), efficient mantle growth, less dust destruction or combinations of all three. This evolution in dust mass is likely to be associated with a change in overall interstellar medium mass, and points to an enhanced supply of fuel for star formation at earlier cosmic epochs.

Gravitational Lens Models Based on Submillimeter Array Imaging of Herschel-selected Strongly Lensed Sub-millimeter Galaxies at z > 1.5

Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory: the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). From a sample of 30 Herschel sources with S 500 > 100 mJy, 21 are strongly lensed (i.e., multiply imaged), 4 are moderately lensed (i.e., singly imaged), and the remainder require additional data to determine their lensing status. We apply a visibility-plane lens modeling technique to the SMA data to recover information about the masses of the lenses as well as the intrinsic (i.e., unlensed) sizes (r half) and far-infrared luminosities (L FIR) of the lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The sample of lenses comprises primarily isolated massive galaxies, but includes some groups and clusters as well. Several of the lenses are located at z lens > 0.7, a redshift regime that is inaccessible to lens searches based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. The lensed SMGs are amplified by factors that are significantly below statistical model predictions given the 500 μm flux densities of our sample. We speculate that this may reflect a deficiency in our understanding of the intrinsic sizes and luminosities of the brightest SMGs. The lensed SMGs span nearly one decade in L FIR (median L FIR = 7.9 × 1012 L ☉) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median ΣFIR = 6.0 × 1011 L ☉ kpc–2). The strong lenses in this sample and others identified via (sub-)mm surveys will provide a wealth of information regarding the astrophysics of galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range in redshift.

Herschel-ATLAS: multi-wavelength SEDs and physical properties of 250 μm selected galaxies at z < 0.5

We present a pan-chromatic analysis of an unprecedented sample of 1402 250 μm selected galaxies at z < 0.5 () from the Herschel-ATLAS survey. We complement our Herschel 100–500 μm data with UV–K-band photometry from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey and apply the magphys energy-balance technique to produce pan-chromatic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a representative sample of 250 μm selected galaxies spanning the most recent 5 Gyr of cosmic history. We derive estimates of physical parameters, including star formation rates, stellar masses, dust masses and infrared (IR) luminosities. The typical H-ATLAS galaxy at z < 0.5 has a far-infrared luminosity in the range 1010–1012 L⊙ (SFR: 1–50 M⊙ yr−1) and thus is broadly representative of normal star-forming galaxies over this redshift range. We show that 250 μm selected galaxies contain a larger mass of dust at a given IR luminosity or star formation rate than previous samples selected at 60 μm from the IRAS. We derive typical SEDs for H-ATLAS galaxies, and show that the emergent SED shape is most sensitive to specific star formation rate. The optical–UV SEDs also become more reddened due to dust at higher redshifts. Our template SEDs are significantly cooler than existing IR templates. They may therefore be most appropriate for inferring total IR luminosities from moderate redshift sub-millimetre selected samples and for inclusion in models of the lower redshift sub-millimetre galaxy populations.

Herschel-ATLAS: A binary HyLIRG pinpointing a cluster of starbursting protoellipticals

Panchromatic observations of the best candidate hyperluminous infrared galaxies from the widest Herschel extragalactic imaging survey have led to the discovery of at least four intrinsically luminous z = 2.41 galaxies across an 100 kpc region—a cluster of starbursting protoellipticals. Via subarcsecond interferometric imaging we have measured accurate gas and star formation surface densities. The two brightest galaxies span ~3 kpc FWHM in submillimeter/radio continuum and CO J = 4-3, and double that in CO J = 1-0. The broad CO line is due partly to the multitude of constituent galaxies and partly to large rotational velocities in two counter-rotating gas disks—a scenario predicted to lead to the most intense starbursts, which will therefore come in pairs. The disks have M_(dyn) of several × 10^(11) M ☉, and gas fractions of ~40%. Velocity dispersions are modest so the disks are unstable, potentially on scales commensurate with their radii: these galaxies are undergoing extreme bursts of star formation, not confined to their nuclei, at close to the Eddington limit. Their specific star formation rates place them 5 × above the main sequence, which supposedly comprises large gas disks like these. Their high star formation efficiencies are difficult to reconcile with a simple volumetric star formation law. N-body and dark matter simulations suggest that this system is the progenitor of a B(inary)-type 10^(14.6)-M ☉ cluster.

Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: dusty early-type galaxies and passive spirals

We present the dust properties and star-formation histories of local submillimetre-selected galaxies in Herschel-ATLAS, classified by optical morphology. The early-type galaxies (ETGs) that are detected contain as much dust as typical spirals, and form a unique sample that has been blindly selected at submillimetre wavelengths. Comparing H-ATLAS galaxies to a control sample of optically selected galaxies, we find 5.5% of luminous ETGs are detected in H-ATLAS. The H-ATLAS ETGs contain a significant mass of cold dust: the mean dust mass is 5.5x10^7 Msun, with individual galaxies ranging from 9x10^5-4x10^8 Msun. This is comparable to that of spirals in our sample, and is an order of magnitude more dust than that found for the control ETGs, which have a median dust mass inferred from stacking of (0.8-4.0)x10^6 Msun. The ETGs detected in H-ATLAS have bluer NUV-r colours, higher specific star-formation rates and younger stellar populations than ETGs which are optically selected, and may be transitioning from the blue cloud to the red sequence. We also find that H-ATLAS and control ETGs inhabit similar low-density environments. We conclude that the dust in H-ATLAS and control ETGs cannot be solely from stellar sources, and a large contribution from dust formed in the ISM or external sources is required. Alternatively, dust destruction may not be as efficient as predicted. We also explore the properties of the most passive spiral galaxies in our sample with SSFR<10^-11/yr. We find these passive spirals have lower dust-to-stellar mass ratios, higher stellar masses and older stellar population ages than normal spirals. The passive spirals inhabit low density environments similar to those of the normal spiral galaxies in our sample. This shows that the processes which turn spirals passive do not occur solely in the intermediate density environments of group and cluster outskirts. (Abridged)

Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: a census of dust in optically selected galaxies from stacking at submillimetre wavelengths

We use the Herschel-ATLAS survey to conduct the first large-scale statistical study of the submillimetre properties of optically selected galaxies. Using ∼80 000 r-band selected galaxies from 126 deg2 of the GAMA survey, we stack into submillimetre imaging at 250, 350 and 500 μ m to gain unprecedented statistics on the dust emission from galaxies at z < 0.35. We find that low-redshift galaxies account for 5 per cent of the cosmic 250-μm background (4 per cent at 350 μ m; 3 per cent at 500 μ m), of which approximately 60 per cent comes from ‘blue’ and 20 per cent from ‘red’ galaxies (rest-frame g−r). We compare the dust properties of different galaxy populations by dividing the sample into bins of optical luminosity, stellar mass, colour and redshift. In blue galaxies we find that dust temperature and luminosity correlate strongly with stellar mass at a fixed redshift, but red galaxies do not follow these correlations and overall have lower luminosities and temperatures. We make reasonable assumptions to account for the contaminating flux from lensing by red-sequence galaxies and conclude that galaxies with different optical colours have fundamentally different dust emission properties. Results indicate that while blue galaxies are more luminous than red galaxies due to higher temperatures, the dust masses of the two samples are relatively similar. Dust mass is shown to correlate with stellar mass, although the dust-to-stellar mass ratio is much higher for low stellar mass galaxies, consistent with the lowest mass galaxies having the highest specific star formation rates. We stack the 250 μ m-to-NUV luminosity ratio, finding results consistent with greater obscuration of star formation at lower stellar mass and higher redshift. Submillimetre luminosities and dust masses of all galaxies are shown to evolve strongly with redshift, indicating a fall in the amount of obscured star formation in ordinary galaxies over the last four billion years.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : the 0.013 < z < 0.1 cosmic spectral energy distribution from 0.1 μm to 1 mm

We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA) I data set combined with GALEX, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) imaging to construct the low-redshift (z < 0.1) galaxy luminosity functions in FUV, NUV, ugriz and YJHK bands from within a single well-constrained volume of 3.4 × 105 (Mpc h−1)3. The derived luminosity distributions are normalized to the SDSS data release 7 (DR7) main survey to reduce the estimated cosmic variance to the 5 per cent level. The data are used to construct the cosmic spectral energy distribution (CSED) from 0.1 to 2.1 μm free from any wavelength-dependent cosmic variance for both the elliptical and non-elliptical populations. The two populations exhibit dramatically different CSEDs as expected for a predominantly old and young population, respectively. Using the Driver et al. prescription for the azimuthally averaged photon escape fraction, the non-ellipticals are corrected for the impact of dust attenuation and the combined CSED constructed. The final results show that the Universe is currently generating (1.8 ± 0.3) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 of which (1.2 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is directly released into the inter-galactic medium and (0.6 ± 0.1) × 1035 h W Mpc−3 is reprocessed and reradiated by dust in the far-IR. Using the GAMA data and our dust model we predict the mid- and far-IR emission which agrees remarkably well with available data. We therefore provide a robust description of the pre- and post-dust attenuated energy output of the nearby Universe from 0.1 μm to 0.6 mm. The largest uncertainty in this measurement lies in the mid- and far-IR bands stemming from the dust attenuation correction and its currently poorly constrained dependence on environment, stellar mass and morphology.

Herschel-ATLAS: the far-infrared-radio correlation at z <0.5

We use data from the Herschel-ATLAS to investigate the evolution of the far-infrared-radio correlation over the redshift range 0 5 sigma sources in the Herschel-ATLAS Science Demonstration Field and cross-matching these data with radio data from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimetres (FIRST) survey and the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA) Northern Sky Survey (NVSS), we obtain 104 radio counterparts to the Herschel sources. With these data we find no evidence for evolution in the far-infrared-radio correlation over the redshift range 0 < z < 0.5, where the median value for the ratio between far-infrared and radio luminosity, q(IR), over this range is q(IR) = 2.40 +/- 0.12 (and a mean of q(IR) = 2.52 +/- 0.03 accounting for the lower limits), consistent with both the local value determined from IRAS and values derived from surveys targeting the high-redshift

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Panchromatic Data Release (far-UV-far-IR) and the low-z energy budget

We present the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Panchromatic Data Release (PDR) constituting over 230 deg2 of imaging with photometry in 21 bands extending from the far-UV to the far-IR. These data complement our spectroscopic campaign of over 300k galaxies, and are compiled from observations with a variety of facilities including: GALaxy Evolution eXplorer, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and Herschel, with the GAMA regions currently being surveyed by VLT Survey Telescope (VST) and scheduled for observations by Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). These data are processed to a common astrometric solution, from which photometry is derived for ∼221 373 galaxies with r < 19.8 mag. Online tools are provided to access and download data cutouts, or the full mosaics of the GAMA regions in each band. We focus, in particular, on the reduction and analysis of the VISTA VIsta Kilo-degree INfrared Galaxy data, and compare to earlier data sets (i.e. 2MASS and UKIDSS) before combining the data and examining its integrity. Having derived the 21-band photometric catalogue, we proceed to fit the data using the energy balance code magphys. These measurements are then used to obtain the first fully empirical measurement of the 0.1–500 μm energy output of the Universe. Exploring the cosmic spectral energy distribution across three time-intervals (0.3–1.1, 1.1–1.8, and 1.8–2.4 Gyr), we find that the Universe is currently generating (1.5 ± 0.3) × 1035 h70 W Mpc−3, down from (2.5 ± 0.2) × 1035 h70 W Mpc−3 2.3 Gyr ago. More importantly, we identify significant and smooth evolution in the integrated photon escape fraction at all wavelengths, with the UV escape fraction increasing from 27(18) per cent at z = 0.18 in NUV(FUV) to 34(23) per cent at z = 0.06. The GAMA PDR can be found at: http://gama-psi.icrar.org/.

T-PHOT: A new code for PSF-matched, prior-based, multiwavelength extragalactic deconfusion photometry

Context. The advent of deep multiwavelength extragalactic surveys has led to the necessity for advanced and fast methods for photometric analysis. In fact, codes which allow analyses of the same regions of the sky observed at different wavelengths and resolutions are becoming essential to thoroughly exploit current and future data. In this context, a key issue is the confusion (i.e. blending) of sources in low-resolution images.Aims. We present t-phot, a publicly available software package developed within the astrodeep project. t-phot is aimed at extracting accurate photometry from low-resolution images, where the blending of sources can be a serious problem for the accurate and unbiased measurement of fluxes and colours.Methods. t-phot can be considered as the next generation to tfit, providing significant improvements over and above it and other similar codes (e.g. convphot). t-phot gathers data from a high-resolution image of a region of the sky, and uses this information (source positions and morphologies) to obtain priors for the photometric analysis of the lower resolution image of the same field. t-phot can handle different types of datasets as input priors, namely i) a list of objects that will be used to obtain cutouts from the real high-resolution image; ii) a set of analytical models (as .fits stamps); iii) a list of unresolved, point-like sources, useful for example for far-infrared (FIR) wavelength domains.Results. By means of simulations and analysis of real datasets, we show that t-phot yields accurate estimations of fluxes within the intrinsic uncertainties of the method, when systematic errors are taken into account (which can be done thanks to a flagging code given in the output). t-phot is many times faster than similar codes like tfit and convphot (up to hundreds, depending on the problem and the method adopted), whilst at the same time being more robust and more versatile. This makes it an excellent choice for the analysis of large datasets. When used with the same parameter sets as for tfit it yields almost identical results (although in a much shorter time); in addition we show how the use of different settings and methods significantly enhances the performance.Conclusions. t-phot proves to be a state-of-the-art tool for multiwavelength optical to far-infrared image photometry. Given its versatility and robustness, t-phot can be considered the preferred choice for combined photometric analysis of current and forthcoming extragalactic imaging surveys.