z-GAL: A NOEMA spectroscopic redshift survey of bright Herschel galaxies: I. Overview
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

Using the IRAM NOrthern Extended Millimetre Array (NOEMA), we conducted a Large Programme (z-GAL) to measure redshifts for 126 bright galaxies detected in the Herschel Astrophysical Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), the HerMES Large Mode Survey (HeLMS), and the Herschel Stripe 82 (HerS) Survey. We report reliable spectroscopic redshifts for a total of 124 of the Herschel-selected galaxies. The redshifts are estimated from scans of the 3 and 2-mm bands (and, for one source, the 1-mm band), covering up to 31 GHz in each band, and are based on the detection of at least two emission lines. Together with the Pilot Programme, where 11 sources had their spectroscopic redshifts measured, our survey has derived precise redshifts for 135 bright Herschel-selected galaxies, making it the largest sample of high-z galaxies with robust redshifts to date. Most emission lines detected are from 12CO (mainly from J = 2 1 to 5 4), with some sources seen in [CI] and H2O emission lines. The spectroscopic redshifts are in the range 0.8 < z < 6.55 with a median value of z = 2.56 ± 0.10, centred on the peak epoch of galaxy formation. The linewidths of the sources are large, with a mean value for the full width at half maximum I- V of 590 ± 25 km s-1 and with 35% of the sources having widths of 700 km s-1 < I- V < 1800 km s-1. Most of the sources are unresolved or barely resolved on scales of ∼2 to 3; (or linear sizes of ∼15 - 25 kpc, unlensed). Some fields reveal double or multiple sources in line emission and the underlying dust continuum and, in some cases, sources at different redshifts. Taking these sources into account, there are, in total, 165 individual sources with robust spectroscopic redshifts, including lensed galaxies, binary systems, and over-densities. This paper presents an overview of the z-GAL survey and provides the observed properties of the emission lines, the derived spectroscopic redshifts, and a catalogue of the entire sample. The catalogue includes, for each source, the combined continuum and emission lines' maps together with the spectra for each of the detected emission lines. The data presented here will serve as a foundation for the other z-GAL papers in this series reporting on the dust emission, the molecular and atomic gas properties, and a detailed analysis of the nature of the sources. Comparisons are made with other spectroscopic surveys of high-z galaxies and future prospects, including dedicated follow-up observations based on these redshift measurements, are outlined.

Galaxies: ISM

Galaxies: high-redshift

Gravitational lensing: strong

Radio lines: ISM

Submillimeter: galaxies

Författare

P. Cox

Institut d 'Astrophysique de Paris

R. Neri

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

S. Berta

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

D. Ismail

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

F. Stanley

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

A. J. Young

Rutgers University

S. Jin

Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)

Tom Bakx

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Astronomi och plasmafysik

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Nagoya University

A. Beelen

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

H. Dannerbauer

Universidad de la Laguna

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

M. Krips

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

M. Lehnert

CRAL Le Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon

A.A. Omont

Institut d 'Astrophysique de Paris

D. A. Riechers

Universität zu Köln

A. J. Baker

University of the Western Cape

Rutgers University

G. J. Bendo

University of Manchester

E. Borsato

Università di Padova

V. Buat

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

K. M. Butler

Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)

N. Chartab

University of California at Irvine (UCI)

A. Cooray

University of California at Irvine (UCI)

S. Dye

University of Nottingham

S. Eales

Cardiff University

R. Gavazzi

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

D. Hughes

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrońica

R. J. Ivison

Macquarie University

University of Edinburgh

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

B. M. Jones

Universität zu Köln

L. Marchetti

Istituto di Radioastronomia

University of Cape Town

H. Messias

Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA)

European Southern Observatory Santiago

A. Nanni

Narodowe Centrum Badan Jadrowych

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

M. Negrello

Cardiff University

I. Perez-Fournon

Universidad de la Laguna

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

S. Serjeant

Open University

S. Urquhart

Open University

C. Vlahakis

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

A. Weiab

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

P. van der Werf

Universiteit Leiden

Chentao Yang

Chalmers, Rymd-, geo- och miljövetenskap, Astronomi och plasmafysik

Astronomy and Astrophysics

0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)

Vol. 678 A26

Exploring the Hidden Dusty Nuclei of Galaxies (HIDDeN)

Europeiska forskningsrådet (ERC) (789410), 2018-10-01 -- 2023-09-30.

Ämneskategorier

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202346801

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-11-14