A Population of z>2 Far-Infrared Herschel-SPIRE selected Starbursts

Journal article

We present spectroscopic observations for a sample of 36 Herschel-SPIRE 250-500um selected galaxies (HSGs) at 22 HyLIRGs in the literature which are detected serendipitously or via tailored surveys searching only for high-z HyLIRGs; therefore, we can place lower limits on the contribution of HSGs to the cosmic star formation rate density at (7+-2)x10^(-3)Msun/yr h^3Mpc^(-3) at z~2.5, which is >10% of the estimated total star formation rate density (SFRD) of the Universe from optical surveys. The contribution at z~4 has a lower limit of 3x10^(-3)Msun/yr h^3 Mpc^(-3), ~>20% of the estimated total SFRD. This highlights the importance of extremely infrared-luminous galaxies with high star formation rates to the build-up of stellar mass, even at the earliest epochs.

Authors: Casey, C; Berta, S; Béthermin, M; Bock, J; Bridge, C

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
• Volume: 761
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 139-139
• Publication date: 2012-10-17
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/761/2/139
• EISSN: 1538-4357
• ISSN: 0004-637X
• Language: English
• Keywords: astro-ph.CO