Abstract We present the analysis of over 3000 red-Herschel sources ($S_{\mathrm{250\, \mu m}}<S_{\mathrm{350\, \mu m}}<S_{\mathrm{500\, \mu m} }$) using public data from the ALMA archive and the Herschel-ATLAS survey. This represents the largest sample of red-Herschel sources with interferometric follow-up observations to date. The high ALMA angular resolution and sensitivity (θFWHM ∼1 arcsecond; σ1.3 mm ∼ 0.17 mJy beam−1) allow us to classify the sample into individual sources, multiple systems, and potential lenses and/or close mergers. Interestingly, even at this high angular resolution, 73 per cent of our detections are single systems, suggesting that most of these galaxies are isolated and/or post-merger galaxies. For the remaining detections, 20 per cent are classified as multiple systems, 5 per cent as lenses and/or mergers, and 2 per cent as low-z galaxies or Active Galactic Nuclei. Combining the Herschel/SPIRE and ALMA photometry, these galaxies are found to be extreme and massive systems with a median star formation rate of ∼1500 M⊙ yr−1 and molecular gas mass of Mgas ∼ 1011 M⊙. The median redshift of individual sources is z ≈ 2.8, while the likely lensed systems are at z ≈ 3.3, with redshift distributions extending to z ∼ 6. Our results suggest a common star-formation mode for extreme galaxies across cosmic time, likely triggered by close interactions or disk-instabilities, and with short depletion times consistent with the starburst-type population. Moreover, all galaxies with S1.3mm ≥ 13 mJy are gravitationally amplified which, similar to the established $S_{500\mathrm{ \, \mu m}}>100$ mJy threshold, can be used as a simple criterion to identify gravitationally lensed galaxies.
Read full abstract