Intense Star Formation within Resolved Compact Regions in a Galaxy at z=2.3

Massive galaxies in the early Universe have been shown to be forming stars at surprisingly high rates. Prominent examples are dust-obscured galaxies which are luminous when observed at sub-millimeter (sub-mm) wavelengths and which may be forming stars at rates upto 1,000Mo/yr. These intense bursts o...

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Published in:arXiv.org 2010-03
Main Authors: Swinbank, Mark, Smail, Ian, Longmore, Steve, Harris, Andrew, Baker, Andrew, De Breuck, Carlos, Richard, Johan, Edge, Alastair, Ivison, Rob, Blundell, Ray, Coppin, Kristen, Cox, Pierre, Gurwell, Mark, Hainline, Laura, Krips, Melanie, Lundgren, Andreas, Neri, Roberto, Siana, Brian, Stark, Dan, Wilner, David, Younger, Josh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Compact galaxies
Cosmic dust
Galactic clusters
Galaxies
Image resolution
Luminosity
Molecular clouds
Red shift
Spatial resolution
Star & galaxy formation
Star formation
Stars & galaxies
Telescopes
Universe
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Summary:Massive galaxies in the early Universe have been shown to be forming stars at surprisingly high rates. Prominent examples are dust-obscured galaxies which are luminous when observed at sub-millimeter (sub-mm) wavelengths and which may be forming stars at rates upto 1,000Mo/yr. These intense bursts of star formation are believed to be driven by mergers between gas rich galaxies. However, probing the properties of individual star-forming regions within these galaxies is beyond the spatial resolution and sensitivity of even the largest telescopes at present. Here, we report observations of the sub-mm galaxy SMMJ2135-0102 at redshift z=2.3259 which has been gravitationally magnified by a factor of 32 by a massive foreground galaxy cluster lens. This cosmic magnification, when combined with high-resolution sub-mm imaging, resolves the star-forming regions at a linear scale of just ~100 parsecs. We find that the luminosity densities of these star-forming regions are comparable to the dense cores of giant molecular clouds in the local Universe, but they are ~100x larger and 10^7 times more luminous. Although vigorously star-forming, the underlying physics of the star formation processes at z~2 appears to be similar to that seen in local galaxies even though the energetics are unlike anything found in the present-day Universe.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1003.3674