The kinematics of massive high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies
Journal article, 2025

We present a new method for modelling the kinematics of galaxies from interferometric observations by performing the optimization of the kinematic model parameters directly in visibility space instead of the conventional approach of fitting velocity fields produced with the CLEAN algorithm in real-space. We demonstrate our method on Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of12CO (2−1), (3−2), or (4−3) emission lines from an initial sample of 30 massive 850 μmselected dusty star-forming galaxies with far-infrared luminosities 1012 L in the redshift range z ∼ 1.2–4.7. Using the results from our modelling analysis for the 12 of the 20 sources with the highest signal-to-noise emission lines that show disc-like kinematics, we conclude the following: (i) our sample prefers a CO-to-H2 conversion factor, of αCO = 0.74 ± 0.37; (ii) these far-infrared luminous galaxies follow a similar Tully–Fisher relation between the circular velocity, Vcirc, and baryonic mass, Mb, as less strongly star-forming samples at high redshift, but extend this relation to much higher masses – showing that these are some of the most massive disc-like galaxies in the Universe; (iii) finally, we demonstrate support for an evolutionary link between massive high-redshift dusty star-forming galaxies and the formation of local early-type galaxies using the both the distributions of the baryonic and kinematic masses of these two populations on the Mb – σ plane and their relative space densities.

galaxies: kinematics and dynamics

submillimetre: galaxies

galaxies: evolution

galaxies: high-redshift

Author

A. Amvrosiadis

Durham University

J. L. Wardlow

Department of Physics, Lancaster University

Jack E. Birkin

Durham University

Texas A&M University

I. Smail

Durham University

A. M. Swinbank

Durham University

James W. Nightingale

Durham University

F. Bertoldi

University of Bonn

W. N. Brandt

Pennsylvania State University

Eberly College of Science

Caitlin M. Casey

The University of Texas at Austin

S.C. Chapman

Dalhousie University

C. C. Chen

Academia Sinica

P. Cox

Institut d 'Astrophysique de Paris

E. da Cunha

University of Western Australia

Australian National University

ARCCentreofExcellenceforAllSkyAstrophysicsin3Dimensions(ASTRO 3D)

H. Dannerbauer

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

University of La Laguna

U. Dudzeviciute

Max Planck Society

Durham University

Bitten Gullberg

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

J. Hodge

Leiden University

Kirsten Knudsen

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

K. Menten

Max Planck Society

F. Walter

Max Planck Society

P. van der Werf

Leiden University

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

00358711 (ISSN) 13652966 (eISSN)

Vol. 536 4 3757-3783

Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology

DOI

10.1093/mnras/stae2760

Related datasets

URI: https://almascience.eso.org/asax/

More information

Latest update

1/29/2025