Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Herschel-ATLAS: the surprising diversity of dust-selected galaxies in the local submillimetre universe

Clark, C. J. R., Dunne, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9880-2543, Gomez, H. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3398-0052, Maddox, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5549-195X, De Vis, P., Smith, M. W. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-6970, Eales, S. A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7394-426X, Baes, M., Bendo, G. J., Bourne, N., Driver, S. P., Dye, S., Furlanetto, C., Grootes, M. W., Ivison, R. J., Schofield, S. P., Robotham, A. S. G., Rowlands, K., Valiante, E., Vlahakis, C., van der Werf, P., Wright, A. H. and de Zotti, G. 2015. Herschel-ATLAS: the surprising diversity of dust-selected galaxies in the local submillimetre universe. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 452 (1) , pp. 397-430. 10.1093/mnras/stv1276

[thumbnail of HAPLESS_Paper.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version
Download (18MB) | Preview

Abstract

We present the properties of the first 250 μm blind sample of nearby galaxies (15 < D < 46 Mpc) containing 42 objects from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. Herschel's sensitivity probes the faint end of the dust luminosity function for the first time, spanning a range of stellar mass (7.4 < M⋆ < 11.3 log10 M⊙), star formation activity (−11.8 < SSFR < −8.9 log10 yr−1), gas fraction (3–96 per cent), and colour (0.6 < FUV–KS < 7.0 mag). The median cold dust temperature is 14.6 K, colder than in the Herschel Reference Survey (18.5 K) and Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (17.7 K). The mean dust-to-stellar mass ratio in our sample is higher than these surveys by factors of 3.7 and 1.8, with a dust mass volume density of (3.7 ± 0.7) × 105 M⊙ Mpc−3. Counter-intuitively, we find that the more dust rich a galaxy, the lower its UV attenuation. Over half of our dust-selected sample are very blue in FUV–KS colour, with irregular and/or highly flocculent morphology; these galaxies account for only 6 per cent of the sample's stellar mass but contain over 35 per cent of the dust mass. They are the most actively star-forming galaxies in the sample, with the highest gas fractions and lowest UV attenuation. They also appear to be in an early stage of converting their gas into stars, providing valuable insights into the chemical evolution of young galaxies.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Physics and Astronomy
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISSN: 0035-8711
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance: 4 June 2015
Last Modified: 28 Mar 2024 16:42
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/77738

Citation Data

Cited 54 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics