We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations from the 2014 Long Baseline Campaign in dust continuum and spectral line emission from the HL Tau region. The continuum images at wavelengths of 2.9, 1.3, and 0.87 mm have unprecedented angular resolutions of 0″. 075 (10 AU) to 0″. 025 (3.5 AU), revealing an astonishing level of detail in the circumstellar disk surrounding the young solar analog HL Tau, with a pattern of bright and dark rings observed at all wavelengths. By fitting ellipses to the most distinct rings, we measure precise values for the disk inclination (46 .72 0 .05 ± • •) and position angle (138 .02 0 .07).
We report deep ALMA observations complemented with associated HST imaging for a luminous (m UV = 25) galaxy, 'Himiko', at a redshift z=6.595. The galaxy is remarkable for its high star formation rate, 100M ⊙ yr −1 , securely estimated from our deep HST and Spitzer photometry, and the absence of any evidence for strong AGN activity or gravitational lensing magnification. Our ALMA observations probe an order of magnitude deeper than previous IRAM observations, yet fail to detect a 1.2mm dust continuum, indicating a flux < 52µJy comparable with or weaker than that of local dwarf irregulars with much lower star formation rates. We likewise provide a strong upper limit for the flux of [Cii] 158µm, L [CII] < 5.4 × 10 7 L ⊙ , a diagnostic of the hot interstellar gas often described as a valuable probe for early galaxies. In fact, our observations indicate Himiko lies off the local L [CII] -star formation rate scaling relation by a factor of more than 30. Both aspects of our ALMA observations suggest Himiko is an unique object with a very low dust content and perhaps nearly primordial interstellar gas. Our HST images provide unique insight into the morphology of this remarkable source, highlighting an extremely blue core of activity and two less extreme associated clumps. Himiko is undergoing a triple major merger event whose extensive ionized nebula of Lyman alpha emitting gas, discovered in our earlier work with Subaru, is powered by star formation and the dense circum-galactic gas. We are likely witnessing an early massive galaxy during a key period of its mass assembly close to the end of the reionization era.
We report the source size distribution, as measured by ALMA millimetric continuum imaging, of a sample of 13 AzTEC-selected submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z 3 phot ~-6. Their infrared luminosities and star formation rates (SFRs) are L IR ~2-6 10 12 ´L and ∼200-600 M yr −1 , respectively. The sizes of these SMGs range from 0″. 10 to 0″. 38, with a median of 0″. 20 0. 05to that seen in local merger-driven (U)LIRGs rather than in extended disk galaxies at low and high redshifts. The discovery of compact starbursts in z 3 SMGs strongly supports a massive galaxy formation scenario wherein z 3 ~-6 SMGs evolve into the compact stellar components of z 2 ~cQGs. These cQGs are then thought to evolve into the most massive ellipticals in the local universe, mostly via dry mergers. Our results thus suggest that z 3 SMGs are the likely progenitors of massive local ellipticals, via cQGs, meaning that we can now trace the evolutionary path of the most massive galaxies over a period encompassing ∼90% of the age of the universe.
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