Preprint article · Journal article
The Evolution of the IR Luminosity Function and Dust-obscured Star Formation over the Past 13 Billion Years
University of Texas at Austin1
Rochester Institute of Technology2
Chalmers University of Technology3
Space Telescope Science Institute4
University of California at Irvine5
Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark6
National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark7
University of Toronto8
European Southern Observatory9
University of Hawaii10
California Institute of Technology11
Universidad Diego Portales12
National Aeronautics and Space Administration13
Johns Hopkins University14
University of Copenhagen15
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile16
University of Illinois17
University of Massachusetts18
CNRS19
University of Groningen20
Imperial College London21
University of Western Australia22
Cosmic Dawn Center23
Flatiron Institute24
Leiden Observatory25
...and 15 moreWe present the first results from the Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA) survey, the largest Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) blank-field contiguous survey to date (184 arcmin2) and the only at 2 mm to search for dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). We use the 13 sources detected above 5σ to estimate the first ALMA galaxy number counts at this wavelength.
These number counts are then combined with the state-of-the-art galaxy number counts at 1.2 and 3 mm and with a backward evolution model to place constraints on the evolution of the IR luminosity function and dust-obscured star formation in the past 13 billion years. Our results suggest a steep redshift evolution on the space density of DSFGs and confirm the flattening of the IR luminosity function at faint luminosities, with a slope of .
We conclude that the dust-obscured component, which peaks at z ≈ 2–2.5, has dominated the cosmic history of star formation for the past ~12 billion years, back to z ~ 4. At z = 5, the dust-obscured star formation is estimated to be ~35% of the total star formation rate density and decreases to 25%–20% at z = 6–7, implying a minor contribution of dust-enshrouded star formation in the first billion years of the universe.
With the dust-obscured star formation history constrained up to the end of the epoch of reionization, our results provide a benchmark to test galaxy formation models, to study the galaxy mass assembly history, and to understand the dust and metal enrichment of the universe at early times.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | American Astronomical Society |
Year: | 2021 |
Pages: | 165 |
ISSN: | 15384357 , 0004637x , 15384365 and 00670049 |
Types: | Preprint article and Journal article |
DOI: | 10.3847/1538-4357/abdb27 |
ORCIDs: | 0000-0002-7051-1100 , 0000-0002-0930-6466 , 0000-0003-0415-0121 , 0000-0002-6290-3198 , 0000-0002-3915-2015 , 0000-0001-8183-1460 , 0000-0002-9548-5033 , 0000-0001-9759-4797 , 0000-0003-3627-7485 , 0000-0001-8519-1130 , 0000-0001-7201-5066 , 0000-0003-4073-3236 , 0000-0001-6586-8845 , 0000-0001-9187-3605 , 0000-0002-7821-8873 , 0000-0002-6610-2048 , 0000-0002-7530-8857 , Magdis, G. E. , 0000-0003-2475-124X , 0000-0003-1151-4659 , 0000-0002-1233-9998 , 0000-0002-0438-3323 , 0000-0002-5496-4118 , 0000-0002-8437-0433 , 0000-0003-3631-7176 , 0000-0001-7568-6412 , 0000-0001-7192-3871 and 0000-0001-7095-7543 |
ALMA SURVEY COSMOLOGY LEGACY SURVEY DEEP FIELD SOUTH Dust continuum emission FORMATION RATE DENSITY GALAXY FORMATION Galaxies Galaxy counts Galaxy evolution High-redshift galaxies Luminosity function MU-M Millimeter astronomy PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION SUBMILLIMETER NUMBER COUNTS Star formation Submillimeter astronomy Surveys UNIVERSE astro-ph.GA