We present wide-field mapping at 850 μm and 450 μm of the z = 2.85 protocluster in the HS 1549+19 field using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2. Spectroscopic follow-up of 18 bright sources selected at 850 μm, using the Northern Extended Millimeter Array and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, confirms that the majority lie near z ≃ 2.85 and are likely members of the structure. Interpreting the spectroscopic redshifts as distance measurements, we find that the submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) span 123 pMpc2 in the plane of the sky and demarcate a 3600 pMpc3 "pancake"-shaped structure in three dimensions. We find that the high star formation rates of these SMGs result in a total star formation rate of 20,000 M⊙ yr−1 from just the brightest galaxies in the protocluster. These rapidly star-forming SMGs can be interpreted as massive galaxies growing rapidly at large clustercentric distances before collapsing into a virialized structure. We find that the SMGs trace the Lyα surface density profile. Comparison with simulations suggests that HS 1549+19 could be building a structure comparable to the most massive clusters in the present-day Universe.
A 100 Mpc² Structure Traced by Hyperluminous Galaxies around a Massive z = 2.85 Protocluster
Creators
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1.
University of British Columbia
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2.
Dalhousie University
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Eureka Scientific
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National Research Council Canada
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Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
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University of Bonn
- 7. Flatiron Institute
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National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
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The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI
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Durham University
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California Institute of Technology
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2019.1.00403.S; PI: S. Kikuta. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. G.W., S.C., and D.S., gratefully acknowledge support for this research from NSERC. Part of the analysis in this work was made possible by SciNet and the Niagara supercomputing cluster. D.R. is supported by the Simons Foundation. I.R.S. acknowledges support from STFC (ST/X001075/1).
Facilities
JCMT - James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (SCUBA-2), NOEMA - (Band 1 and 3), ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Band 6).
Software References
aplpy (T. Robitaille 2019), astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018, 2022), LineSeeker (J. González-López et al. 2017), matplotlib (J. D. Hunter 2007), numpy (C. R. Harris et al. 2020), scipy (P. Virtanen et al. 2020).
Files
Wang_2025_ApJ_983_69.pdf
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Additional details
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:2406.16637 (arXiv)
Funding
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Simons Foundation
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- ST/X001075/1
Dates
- Accepted
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2025-02-13
- Available
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2025-04-07Published