A 2.8 Millimeter Survey of the Hubble Deep Field

Abstract

We present a continuum survey of the Hubble Deep Field at a wavelength of 2.8 mm made with the BIMA array. A mosaic of seven pointings was constructed to span the entire 47 × 47 area observed by the Hubble Space Telescope with 47 resolution and a nearly uniform 0.71 mJy rms sensitivity. No significant sources of emission were found (>5 σ). We use these observations to place limits on the presence of far-infrared emission from dusty star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. The most stringent limits apply for a critically closed universe (Ω -->0=1), dust temperatures typical of nearby starbursts (40 K), and long-wavelength dust emissivity power-law index β=1. For these parameters, the data rule out systems at z>5 with far-infrared luminosities in excess of 1.3×10 -->13 L☉. The lack of a large population of such luminous systems supports the view that galaxies are assembled in a hierarchical fashion instead of forming the bulk of their stars in single bursts of short duration. For an open universe and/or substantially higher dust temperatures, the limits are higher by an order of magnitude or more and allow for undetected massive starbursts.