University of Leicester
Browse

Discovery of "Warm Dust" Galaxies in Clusters at z similar to 0.3: Evidence for Stripping of Cool Dust in the Dense Environment?

Download (896.8 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2017-11-09, 12:02 authored by TD Rawle, M Rex, E Egami, SM Chung, PG Perez-Gonzalez, I Smail, G Walth, B Altieri, P Appleton, AB Alba, Andrew W. Blain, M Dessauges-Zavadsky, D Fadda, AH Gonzalez, MJ Pereira, I Valtchanov, PP van der Werf, M Zemcov
Using far-infrared imaging from the "Herschel Lensing Survey," we derive dust properties of spectroscopically confirmed cluster member galaxies within two massive systems at z ~ 0.3: the merging Bullet Cluster and the more relaxed MS2137.3-2353. Most star-forming cluster sources (~90%) have characteristic dust temperatures similar to local field galaxies of comparable infrared (IR) luminosity (T dust ~ 30 K). Several sub-luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG; L IR < 1011 L ☉) Bullet Cluster members are much warmer (T dust > 37 K) with far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) shapes resembling LIRG-type local templates. X-ray and mid-infrared data suggest that obscured active galactic nuclei do not contribute significantly to the infrared flux of these "warm dust" galaxies. Sources of comparable IR luminosity and dust temperature are not observed in the relaxed cluster MS2137, although the significance is too low to speculate on an origin involving recent cluster merging. "Warm dust" galaxies are, however, statistically rarer in field samples (>3σ), indicating that the responsible mechanism may relate to the dense environment. The spatial distribution of these sources is similar to the whole far-infrared bright population, i.e., preferentially located in the cluster periphery, although the galaxy hosts tend toward lower stellar masses (M * < 1010 M ☉). We propose dust stripping and heating processes which could be responsible for the unusually warm characteristic dust temperatures. A normal star-forming galaxy would need 30%-50% of its dust removed (preferentially stripped from the outer reaches, where dust is typically cooler) to recover an SED similar to a "warm dust" galaxy. These progenitors would not require a higher IR luminosity or dust mass than the currently observed normal star-forming population.

History

Citation

The Astrophysical Journal, 2012, 756:106 (2), (14pp)

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

The Astrophysical Journal

Publisher

IOP Publishing Ltd

issn

0004-637X

eissn

1538-4357

Acceptance date

2012-07-05

Copyright date

2012

Available date

2017-11-09

Publisher version

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/106/meta

Language

en