The ALMA REBELS Survey: Dust Continuum Detections at z > 6.5
astro-ph.GA
/ Authors
Hanae Inami, Hiddo S. B. Algera, Sander Schouws, Laura Sommovigo, Rychard Bouwens, Renske Smit, Mauro Stefanon, Rebecca A. A. Bowler, Ryan Endsley, Andrea Ferrara
and 18 more authors
Pascal Oesch, Daniel Stark, Manuel Aravena, Laia Barrufet, Elisabete da Cunha, Pratika Dayal, Ilse De Looze, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Valentino Gonzalez, Luca Graziani, Jacqueline A. Hodge, Alexander P. S. Hygate, Themiya Nanayakkara, Andrea Pallottini, Dominik A. Riechers, Raffaella Schneider, Michael Topping, Paul van der Werf
/ Abstract
We report 18 dust continuum detections ($\geq 3.3σ$) at $\sim88{\rm μm}$ and $158{\rm μm}$ out of 49 ultraviolet(UV)-bright galaxies ($M_{\rm UV} < -21.3$ mag) at $z>6.5$, observed by the Cycle-7 ALMA Large Program, REBELS and its pilot programs. This has more than tripled the number of dust continuum detections known at $z>6.5$. Out of these 18 detections, 12 are reported for the first time as part of REBELS. In addition, 15 of the dust continuum detected galaxies also show a [CII]$_{\rm 158{\rm μm}}$ emission line, providing us with accurate redshifts. We anticipate more line emission detections from six targets (including three continuum detected targets) where observations are still ongoing. The dust continuum detected sources in our sample tend to have a redder UV spectral slope than the ones without a dust continuum detection. We estimate that all of the sources have an infrared (IR) luminosity ($L_{\rm IR}$) in a range of $3-8 \times 10^{11} L_\odot$, except for one with $L_{\rm IR} = 1.5^{+0.8}_{-0.5} \times 10^{12}\,L_{\odot}$. Their fraction of obscured star formation is significant at $\gtrsim 50\%$. Some of the dust continuum detected galaxies show spatial offsets ($\sim 0.5-1.5''$) between the rest-UV and far-IR emission peaks. These separations appear to have an increasing trend against an indicator that suggests spatially decoupled phases of obscured and unobscured star formation. REBELS offers the best available statistical constraints on obscured star formation in UV-bright, massive galaxies at $z > 6.5$.