Far-infrared-detected Lyman-break galaxies at z ~ 3. Dust attenuation and dust correction factors at high redshift

Abstract

Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) represent one of the kinds of star-forming galaxies that are found in the high-redshift universe. The detection of LBGs in the far-infrared (FIR) domain can provide very important clues on their dust attenuation and total star-formation rate (SFR), allowing a more detailed study than has been performed so far. In this work we explore the FIR emission of a sample of 16 LBGs at z ~ 3 in the GOODS-North and GOODS-South fields that are individually detected in PACS-100 μm or PACS-160 μm. These detections demonstrate the possibility of measuring the dust emission of LBGs at high redshift. We find that PACS-detected LBGs at z ~ 3 are highly obscured galaxies which belong to the ultra-luminous or hyper-luminous IR galaxy class. Their total SFR cannot be recovered with the dust attenuation factors obtained from their UV continuum slope or their SED-derived dust attenuation employing Bruzual & Charlot (2003) templates. Both methods underestimate the results for most of the galaxies. Comparing with a sample of PACS-detected LBGs at z ~ 1, we find evidence that the FIR emission of LBGs might have changed with redshift, in the sense that the dustiest LBGs found at z ~ 3 have more prominent FIR emission, are dustier for a given UV slope, and have higher SFR for a given stellar mass than the dustiest LBGs found at z ~ 1.

Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org