A SCUBA Galaxy in the Protocluster around 53W002 at z=2.4

Abstract

We analyze an 850 μm Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) map of the environment of the z=2.39 radio galaxy 53W002, which has been shown to reside in an overdensity of Lyα-detected galaxies. We identify four luminous submillimeter sources within a 2.3‧ (1.2 Mpc at z=2.39) diameter area around the radio galaxy (which itself is a weak submillimeter source). We employ a 1.4 GHz map to accurately locate the counterpart of one of these sources, SMM J17142+5016, and identify this source with a narrow-line active galactic nucleus with an extended Lyα halo at z=2.390 that is a member of the structure around 53W002. Hence, SMM J17142+5016 is the first spectroscopically confirmed submillimeter-selected companion to a high-redshift radio galaxy. We discuss the OH-Airglow Suppression Spectrograph JHK spectrum of this galaxy and in addition present five new constraints on its spectral energy distribution longward of 1 μm, using these to estimate its bolometric luminosity as ~8×10¹² L_solar, or a star formation rate of ~10³ M_solar yr^-1 if young stars provide the bulk of the luminosity. This result provides direct support for the statistical detection of overdensities of SCUBA galaxies around high-redshift radio galaxies and confirms theoretical predictions that SCUBA galaxies, as the progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies, should be strongly clustered in the highest density regions of the distant universe.