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Sub-mm Clues to Elliptical Galaxy Formation by Dunlop, James S. is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Sub-mm Clues to Elliptical Galaxy Formation about?

There is growing evidence that, at the S(850) < 1 mJy level, the sub-mm galaxy population (and hence a potentially significant fraction of the sub-mm background) is associated with the star-forming Lyman-break population already detected at optical wavelengths. However, the implied star-formation rates in such objects (typically 3-30 solar masses per year) fall one or two orders of magnitude short of the level of star-forming activity required to produce the most massive elliptical galaxies on a timescale ~ 1 Gyr. If a significant fraction of massive ellipticals did form the bulk of their stars in short-lived massive starbursts at high redshift, then they should presumably be found among the brighter, S(850) ~ 10 mJy sub-mm sources which are undoubtedly not part of the Lyman-break population. A first powerful clue that this is indeed the case comes from our major SCUBA survey of radio galaxies, which indicates that massive dust-enshrouded star-formation in at least this subset of massive ellipticals is largely confined to z > 2.5, with a mean redshift z = 3.5. While radio selection raises concerns about bias, I argue that our current knowledge of the brightest (S(850) ~ 10 mJy) sub

Author

Dunlop, James S.

Published

2000

Language

EN