First Identification of 10 kpc [C ii] 158 μm Halos around Star-forming Galaxies at z = 5–7

Abstract

Abstract We report the discovery of 10 kpc [C ii] 158 μm halos surrounding star-forming galaxies in the early universe. We choose deep Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data for 18 galaxies, each with a star formation rate of ≃10–70 M ⊙ with no signature of an active galactic nucleus whose [C ii] lines are individually detected at z = 5.153–7.142, and we conduct stacking of the [C ii] lines and dust continuum in the uv-visibility plane. The radial profiles of the surface brightnesses show a 10 kpc scale [C ii] halo at the 9.2σ level, significantly more extended than the Hubble Space Telescope stellar continuum data by a factor of ∼5 on the exponential-profile basis, as well as the dust continuum. We compare the radial profiles of [C ii] and Lyα halos universally found in star-forming galaxies at this epoch, and we find that the scale lengths agree within the 1σ level. While two independent hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations match the dust and stellar continuum properties, the simulations cannot reproduce the extended [C ii] line emission. The existence of the extended [C ii] halo is evidence of outflow remnants in the early galaxies and suggests that the outflows may be dominated by cold-mode outflows expelling the neutral gas.