Continuum observations at 350 microns of high-redshift molecular emission line galaxies

Abstract

We report observations of 15 high-redshift (z = 1 - 5) galaxies at 350 μm using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera II array detector. Emission was detected from eight galaxies, for which far-infrared luminosities, star formation rates (SFRs), total dust masses, and minimum source size estimates are derived. These galaxies have SFRs and star formation efficiencies comparable to other high-redshift molecular emission line galaxies. The results are used to test the idea that star formation in these galaxies occurs in a large number of basic units, the units being similar to star-forming clumps in the Milky Way. The luminosity of these extreme galaxies can be reproduced in a simple model with (0.9-30)×10 6 dense clumps, each with a luminosity of 5 × 105 L ⊙, the mean value for such clumps in the Milky Way. Radiative transfer models of such clumps can provide reasonable matches to the overall spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the galaxies. They indicate that the individual clumps are quite opaque in the far-infrared. Luminosity-to-mass ratios vary over two orders of magnitude, correlating strongly with the dust temperature derived from simple fits to the SED. The gas masses derived from the dust modeling are in remarkable agreement with those from CO luminosities, suggesting that the assumptions going into both calculations are reasonable. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.