The Extended Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (Ex-MORA) Survey: 5σ Source Catalog and Redshift Distribution
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2026

One of the greatest challenges in galaxy evolution over the last decade has been constraining the prevalence of heavily dust-obscured galaxies in the early Universe. At z > 3, these galaxies are increasingly rare, and difficult to identify, as they are interspersed among the more numerous dust-obscured galaxy population at z = 1-3, making efforts to secure confident spectroscopic redshifts expensive, and sometimes unsuccessful. In this work, we present the Extended Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA; Ex-MORA) Survey-a 2 mm blank-field survey in the COSMOS-Web field, and the largest ever ALMA blank-field survey to date, covering 577 arcmin(2). Ex-MORA is an expansion of the MORA survey designed to identify primarily z > 3 dusty, star-forming galaxies while simultaneously filtering out the more numerous z < 3 population by leveraging the very negative K-correction at observed-frame 2 mm. We identify 37 significant (>5 sigma) sources, 33 of which are robust thermal dust emitters. We measure a median redshift of < z >=3.8(-1.52)(+1.7), with two-thirds of the sample at z > 3, and just under half at z > 4, demonstrating the overall success of the 2 mm selection technique. The total integrated z > 3 volume density of Ex-MORA sources is similar to 1-3 & times; 10(-5) Mpc(-3), consistent with other surveys of infrared luminous galaxies at similar epochs. We also find that techniques using rest-frame optical emission (or lack thereof) to identify z > 3 heavily dust-obscured galaxies miss at least half of Ex-MORA galaxies. This supports the idea that the dusty galaxy population is heterogeneous, and that synergies across observatories spanning multiple energy regimes are critical to understanding their formation and evolution at z > 3.

Författare

Arianna S. Long

University of Washington

University of Texas

Caitlin M. Casey

University of Texas

Jed McKinney

University of Texas

Jorge A. Zavala

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

Hollis B. Akins

University of Texas

Olivia R. Cooper

University of Texas

Erini L. Lambrides

NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Code 662

Maximilien Franco

Université Paris Cité

Manuel Aravena

Universidad Diego Portales

Matthieu Bethermin

Université de Strasbourg

Aix-Marseille Université

Karina Caputi

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Jaclyn B. Champagne

University of Arizona

D. L. Clements

Imperial College London

Elisabete Da Cunha

University of Western Australia

Andreas L. Faisst

CALTECH, IPAC, MS 314-6, 1200 E Calif Blvd

Fabrizio Gentile

Université Paris Cité

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

Jacqueline Hodge

Universiteit Leiden

Allison W. S. Man

University of British Columbia (UBC)

Sinclaire M. Manning

University of Massachusetts

David B. Sanders

Univ Hawaii Manoa, Inst Astron, 2680 Woodlawn Dr

Margherita Talia

Universita di Bologna

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

Ezequiel Treister

Universidad de Tarapacá

Gabriel Brammer

Köpenhamns universitet

Marcella Brusa

Universita di Bologna

Steven L. Finkelstein

University of Texas

Seiji Fujimoto

University of Texas

Christopher C. Hayward

Flatiron Institute

Olivier Ilbert

Aix-Marseille Université

Jean-Baptiste Jolly

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe

Rochester Inst Technol, Sch Phys & Astron, Lab Multiwavelength Astrophys

Kirsten Knudsen

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

Anton M. Koekemoer

Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Daizhong Liu

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Georgios Magdis

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU)

Köpenhamns universitet

Henry Joy McCracken

Sorbonne Université

Inst Astrophys Paris

Jason Rhodes

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Brant E. Robertson

University of California

Nick Scoville

CALTECH, Astron Dept, 1200 E Calif Blvd

Kartik Sheth

NASA Headquarters, 300 Hidden Figures Way, SE, Mary W Jackson NASA HQ

Vernesa Smolcic

Sveučilište u Zagrebu

Justin Spilker

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M Univ, George P & Cynthia Woods Mitchell Inst Fundamental, 4242 TAMU

Yoshiaki Taniguchi

The Open University of Japan

Sune Toft

Köpenhamns universitet

C. Megan Urry

Yale Univ, Yale Ctr Astron & Astrophys, POB 208120

Yale Univ, Phys Dept, POB 208120

Min Yun

University of Massachusetts

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 999 1 47

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ae2fda

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2026-03-13