SOFIA/HAWC+ Detection of a Gravitationally Lensed Starburst Galaxy at z = 1.03

Ma, J.; Brown, Arianna; Cooray, Asantha; Nayyeri, Hooshang; Messias, Hugo; Timmons, Nicholas; Staguhn, Johannes; Temi, Pasquale; Dowell, C. Darren; Wardlow, Julie; Fadda, Dario; Kovacs, Attila; Riechers, Dominik; Oteo, Ivan; Wilson, Derek; Perez-Fournon, I.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 864, Issue 1, article id. 60, 8 pp. (2018).

Advertised on:
9
2018
Number of authors
16
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
3
Refereed citations
2
Description
We present the detection at 89 μm (observed frame) of the Herschel-selected gravitationally lensed starburst galaxy HATLAS J1429-0028 (also known as G15v2.19) in 15 minutes with the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-plus (HAWC+) onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The spectacular lensing system consists of an edge-on foreground disk galaxy at z = 0.22 and a nearly complete Einstein ring of an intrinsic ultra-luminous infrared (IR) galaxy at z = 1.03. Is this high IR luminosity powered by pure star formation (SF) or also an active galactic nucleus (AGN)? Previous nebular line diagnostics indicate that it is star formation dominated. We perform a 27-band multiwavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling including the new SOFIA/HAWC+ data to constrain the fractional AGN contribution to the total IR luminosity. The AGN fraction in the IR turns out to be negligible. In addition, J1429-0028 serves as a testbed for comparing SED results from different models/templates and SED codes (MAGPHYS, SED3FIT, and CIGALE). We stress that star formation history is the dominant source of uncertainty in the derived stellar mass (as high as a factor of ∼10) even in the case of extensive photometric coverage. Furthermore, the detection of a source at z ∼ 1 with SOFIA/HAWC+ demonstrates the potential of utilizing this facility for distant galaxy studies including the decomposition of SF/AGN components, which cannot be accomplished with other current facilities.
Related projects
Project Image
Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Observations in Infrared and other Wavelengths

This IAC research group carries out several extragalactic projects in different spectral ranges, using space as well as ground-based telescopes, to study the cosmological evolution of galaxies and the origin of nuclear activity in active galaxies. The group is a member of the international consortium which built the SPIRE instrument for the

Ismael
Pérez Fournon