The Advance Large Homogeneous Area Medium-Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey has observed eight different regions of the sky, including sections of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), DEEP2, European Large-Area Infrared Space Observatory Survey (ELAIS), Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North (GOODS-N), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Groth fields using a new photometric system with 20 optical, contiguous ~300{AA} filters plus the JHKs bands. The filter system is designed to optimize the effective photometric redshift depth of the survey, while having enough wavelength resolution for the identification of faint emission lines. The observations, carried out with the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope using the wide-field optical camera Large Area Imager for Calar Alto (LAICA) and the near-infrared (NIR) instrument Omega-2000, represent a total of ~700h of on-target science images. Here we present multicolour point-spread function (PSF) corrected photometry and photometric redshifts for ~438000 galaxies, detected in synthetic F814W images. The catalogues are complete down to a magnitude I~24.5AB and cover an effective area of 2.79deg^2^. Photometric zero-points were calibrated using stellar transformation equations and refined internally, using a new technique based on the highly robust photometric redshifts measured for emission-line galaxies. We calculate Bayesian photometric redshifts with the Bayesian Photometric Redshift (bpz)2.0 code, obtaining a precision of {delta}z/(1+z_s_)=1 per cent for I<22.5 and {delta}z/(1+z_s_)=1.4 per cent for 22.5<I<24.5. The global n(z) distribution shows a mean redshift <z>=0.56 for I<22.5AB and <z>=0.86 for I<24.5AB. Given its depth and small cosmic variance, ALHAMBRA is a unique data set for galaxy evolution studies.
Advanced Large Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) is photometric survey designed to trace the cosmic evolution and cosmic variance. It covers a large area of ~4deg^2^ in eight fields, where seven fields overlap with other surveys, allowing us to have complementary data in other wavelengths. All observations were carried out in 20 continuous, medium band (30nm width) optical and 3 near-infrared (JHK) bands, providing the precise measurements of photometric redshifts. In addition, morphological classification of galaxies is crucial for any kind of galaxy formation and cosmic evolution studies, providing the information about star formation histories, their environment and interactions, internal perturbations, etc. We present a morphological classification of >40000 galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. We associate to every galaxy a probability to be early type using the automated Bayesian code galsvm. Despite of the spatial resolution of the ALHAMBRA images (~1arcsec), for 22051 galaxies, we obtained the contamination by other type of less than 10 percent. Of those, 1640 and 10322 galaxies are classified as early- (down to redshifts ~0.5) and late-type (down to redshifts ~1.0), respectively, with magnitudes F_613W_<=22.0. In addition, for magnitude range 22.0<F_613W_<=23.0, we classified other 10089 late-type galaxies with redshifts <=1.3. We show that the classified objects populate the expected regions in the colour-mass and colour-magnitude planes. The presented data set is especially attractive given the homogeneous multiwavelength coverage available in the ALHAMBRA fields, and is intended to be used in a variety of scientific applications. The low-contamination catalogue (<10 percent) is made publicly available with this paper.
We present the final data release of the APEX low-redshift legacy survey for molecular gas (ALLSMOG), comprising CO(2-1) emission line observations of 88 nearby, low-mass (10^8.5^<M_*_[M_{sun}_]<10^10^) star-forming galaxies carried out with the 230GHz APEX-1 receiver on the APEX telescope. The main goal of ALLSMOG is to probe the molecular gas content of more typical and lower stellar mass galaxies than have been studied by previous CO surveys. We also present IRAM 30m observations of the CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) emission lines in nine galaxies aimed at increasing the M_*_<10^9^M_{sun}_ sample size.In this paper we describe the observations, data reduction and analysis methods and we present the final CO spectra together with archival HI 21cm line observations for the entire sample of 97 galaxies. At the sensitivity limit of ALLSMOG, we register a total CO detection rate of 47%. Galaxies with higher M_*_, SFR, nebular extinction (A_V_), gas-phase metallicity (O/H), and HI gas mass have systematically higher CO detection rates.In particular, the parameter according to which CO detections and non-detections show the strongest statistical differences is the gas-phase metallicity, for any of the five metallicity calibrations examined in this work. We investigate scaling relations between the CO(1-0) line luminosity (L'_CO(1-0)_) and galaxy-averaged properties using ALLSMOG and a sub-sample of COLD GASS for a total of 185 sources that probe the local main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies and its +/-0.3dex intrinsic scatter from M_*_=10^8.5^M_{sun}_ to M_*_=10^11^M_{sun}_. L'_CO(1-0)_ is most strongly correlated with the SFR, but the correlation with M_*_ is closer to linear and almost comparably tight. The relation between L'_CO(1-0)_ and metallicity is the steepest one, although deeper CO observations of galaxies with A_V_<0.5mag may reveal an as much steep correlation with A_V_. Our results suggest that star-forming galaxies across more than two orders of magnitude in M_*_ obey similar scaling relations between CO luminosity and the galaxy properties examined in this work. Besides SFR, the CO luminosity is likely most fundamentally linked to M_*_, although we note that stellar mass alone cannot explain all of the variation in CO emission observed as a function of O/H and M_HI_.
In external galaxies, molecular composition may be influenced by extreme environments such as starbursts and galaxy mergers. To study such molecular chemistry, we observed the luminous infrared galaxy and merger NGC 3256 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We covered most of the 3 and 1.3mm bands for a multispecies, multitransition analysis. We first analyzed intensity ratio maps of selected lines such as HCN/HCO^+^, which shows no enhancement at an active galactic nucleus. We then compared the chemical compositions within NGC 3256 at the two nuclei, tidal arms, and positions with influence from galactic outflows. We found the largest variation in SiO and CH_3_OH, species that are likely to be enhanced by shocks. Next, we compared the chemical compositions in the nuclei of NGC 3256, NGC 253, and Arp 220; these galactic nuclei have varying star formation efficiencies. Arp 220 shows higher abundances of SiO and HC_3_N than NGC 3256 and NGC 253. Abundances of most species do not show a strong correlation with star formation efficiencies, although the CH_3_CCH abundance seems to have a weak positive correlation with the star formation efficiency. Lastly, the chemistry of spiral arm positions in NGC 3256 is compared with that of W51, a Galactic molecular cloud complex in a spiral arm. We found higher fractional abundances of shock tracers, and possibly also a higher dense gas fraction in NGC 3256 compared with W51.
We present a catalogue of ALMA flux density measurements of 754 calibrators, obtained during the majority of the ALMA science observations between 2012 August and 2017 September, for a total of 16263 observations in different bands and epochs. The flux densities were measured by reprocessing the ALMA images generated in the framework of the ALMACAL project, with a new code developed by the Italian node of the European ALMA Regional Centre. A search in the online data bases yielded redshift measurements for 589 sources (about 78 per cent of the total). Almost all sources are flat spectrum, based on their low-frequency spectral index, and have properties consistent with being blazars of different types.
The nearby system 4C12.50, also known as IRAS 13451+1217 and PKS 1345+12, is a merger of gas-rich galaxies with infrared and radio activity. It has a perturbed interstellar medium (ISM) and a dense configuration of gas and dust around the nucleus. The radio emission at small (~100pc) and large (~100kpc) scales, as well as the large X-ray cavity in which the system is embedded, are indicative of a jet that could have affected the ISM. We carried out observations of the CO(1-0), (3-2), and (4-3) lines with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to determine basic properties (i.e., extent, mass, and excitation) of the cold molecular gas in this system, including its already-known wind. The CO emission reveals the presence of gaseous streams related to the merger, which result in a small (4kpc-wide) disk around the western nucleus. The disk reaches a rotational velocity of 200km/s, and has a mass of 3.8(+/-0.4)10^9^M_{sun}_. It is truncated at a gaseous ridge north of the nucleus that is bright in [OIII]. Regions with high-velocity CO emission are seen at signal-to-noise ratios of between 3 and 5 along filaments that radially extend from the nucleus to the ridge and that are bright in [O iii] and stellar emission. A tentative wind detection is also reported in the nucleus and in the disk. The molecular gas speed could be as high as 2200km/s and the total wind mass could be as high as 1.5(+/-0.1)10^9^M_{sun}_. Energetically, it is possible that the jet, assisted by the radiation pressure of the active nucleus or the stars, accelerated clouds inside an expanding bubble.
Tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) are gravitationally bound condensations of gas and stars that formed during galaxy interactions. Here we present multi-configuration ALMA observations of J1023+1952, a TDG in the interacting system Arp 94, where we resolved CO(2-1) emission down to giant molecular clouds (GMCs) at 0.64" ~45pc resolution. We find a remarkably high fraction of extended molecular emission (~80-90%), which is filtered out by the interferometer and likely traces diffuse gas. We detect 111 GMCs that give a similar mass spectrum as those in the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies (a truncated power law with a slope of -1.76+/-0.13). We also study Larson's laws over the available dynamic range of GMC properties (~2dex in mass and ~1dex in size): GMCs follow the size-mass relation of the Milky Way, but their velocity dispersion is higher such that the size-linewidth and virial relations appear super-linear, deviating from the canonical values. The global molecular-to-atomic gas ratio is very high (~1) while the CO(2-1)/CO(1-0) ratio is quite low (~0.5), and both quantities vary from north to south. Star formation predominantly takes place in the south of the TDG, where we observe projected offsets between GMCs and young stellar clusters ranging from ~50pc to ~200pc; the largest offsets correspond to the oldest knots, as seen in other galaxies. In the quiescent north, we find more molecular clouds and a higher molecular-to-atomic gas ratio (~1.5); atomic and diffuse molecular gas also have a higher velocity dispersion there. Overall, the organisation of the molecular interstellar medium in this TDG is quite different from other types of galaxies on large scales, but the properties of GMCs seem fairly similar, pointing to near universality of the star-formation process on small scales.
We investigated the influence of the random velocity of molecular gas on star-formation activities of 6 nearby galaxies. The physical properties of a molecular cloud, such as temperature and density, influence star-formation activities in the cloud. Additionally, local and turbulent motions of molecules in a cloud may exert substantial pressure against gravitational collapse and thus prevent or reduce star formation in the cloud. However, the influence of gas motion on star-formation activities remains poorly understood. We used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to obtain ^12^CO(J=1-0) flux and velocity dispersion. We then combined these data with 3.6 and 8 micron midinfrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to evaluate the effects of gas motion on star-formation activities in several nearby galaxies. We discovered that relatively high velocity dispersion in molecular clouds corresponded with relatively low star-formation activity. Considering the velocity dispersion as an additional parameter, we derived a modified Kennicutt-Schmidt law with a gas surface density power index 0.84 and velocity dispersion power index -0.61.
A new analysis of high-resolution data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array for five luminous or ultraluminous infrared galaxies gives a slope for the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relation equal to 1.74_-0.07_^+0.09^ for gas surface densities {Sigma}_mol_>10^3^M_{sun}_/pc^2^ and an assumed constant CO-to-H2 conversion factor. The velocity dispersion of the CO line, {sigma}_v_, scales approximately as the inverse square root of {Sigma}_mol_, making the empirical gas scale height determined from H~0.5{sigma}^2^/({pi}G{Sigma}_mol_) nearly constant, 150-190pc, over 1.5 orders of magnitude in {Sigma}_mol_. This constancy of H implies that the average midplane density, which is presumably dominated by CO-emitting gas for these extreme star-forming galaxies, scales linearly with the gas surface density, which in turn implies that the gas dynamical rate (the inverse of the freefall time) varies with {Sigma}_mol_^1/2^, thereby explaining most of the super-linear slope in the KS relation. Consistent with these relations, we also find that the mean efficiency of star formation per freefall time is roughly constant, 5%-7%, and the gas depletion time decreases at high {Sigma}_mol_, reaching only ~16Myr at {Sigma}_mol_~10^4^M_{sun}_/pc^2^. The variation of {sigma}_v_ with {Sigma}_mol_ and the constancy of H are in tension with some feedback-driven models, which predict {sigma}_v_ to be more constant and H to be more variable. However, these results are consistent with simulations in which large-scale gravity drives turbulence through a feedback process that maintains an approximately constant Toomre Q instability parameter.
Dusty star-forming galaxies are among the most prodigious systems at high redshift (z>1), characterized by high star-formation rates and huge dust reservoirs. The bright end of this population has been well characterized in recent years, but considerable uncertainties remain for fainter dusty star-forming galaxies, which are responsible for the bulk of star formation at high redshift and thus play a key role in galaxy growth and evolution. In this first paper of our series, we describe our methods for finding high redshift faint dusty galaxies using millimeter observations with ALMA. We obtained ALMA 1.1mm mosaic images for three strong-lensing galaxy clusters from the Frontier Fields Survey, which constitute some of the best studied gravitational lenses to date. The ~2'x2' mosaics overlap with the deep HST WFC3/IR footprints and encompass the high magnification regions of each cluster for maximum intrinsic source sensitivity. The combination of extremely high ALMA sensitivity and the magnification power of these clusters allows us to systematically probe the sub-mJy population of dusty star-forming galaxies over a large surveyed area. We present a description of the reduction and analysis of the ALMA continuum observations for the galaxy clusters Abell 2744 (z=0.308), MACS J0416.1-2403 (z=0.396) and MACS J1149.5+2223 (z=0.543), for which we reach observed rms sensitivities of 55, 59 and 71uJy/beam respectively. We detect 12 dusty star-forming galaxies at S/N>=5.0 across the three clusters, all of them presenting coincidence with near-infrared detected counterparts in the HST images. None of the sources fall close to the lensing caustics, thus they are not strongly lensed. The observed 1.1mm flux densities for the total sample of galaxies range from 0.41 to 2.82mJy, with observed effective radii spanning <~0.05" to 0.37"+/-0.21". The lensing-corrected sizes of the detected sources appear to be in the same range as those measured in brighter samples, albeit with possibly larger dispersion.
