The environment and characteristics of low-redshift galaxies detected by the Herschel-ATLAS
Rodighiero, G.; Ivison, R. J.; Clements, D. L.; Scott, D.; Fritz, J.; Cooray, A.; Auld, R.; Baes, M.; Cava, A.; Dariush, A.; Dunne, L.; Dye, S.; Eales, S.; Hopwood, R.; Jarvis, M. J.; Maddox, S.; Michałowski, M. J.; Cortese, L.; Pohlen, M.; Smith, M. W. L.; Gomez, H. L.; van der Werf, P. P.; Pascale, E.; Prescott, M.; Buttiglione, S.; Jones, D. H.; Loveday, J.; Norberg, P.; Smith, D. J. B.; Temi, P.; Tuffs, R. J.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Phillipps, S.; Rigby, E.; Madore, B. F.; Khosroshahi, H. G.; Hopkins, A.; Dezotti, G.; Driver, S.; Kelvin, L.; Liske, J.; Popescu, C. C.; Robotham, A.; Seibert, M.
United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Belgium, Australia, Italy, Spain, United States, South Africa, Iran, Netherlands
Abstract
We investigate the ultraviolet and optical properties and environment of low-redshift galaxies detected in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) science demonstration data. We use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey seventh release and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly data base to select galaxies with ? mag in the redshift range 0.02 ≤ z ≤ 0.2 and look for their submillimetre counterparts in H-ATLAS. Our results show that at low redshift, H-ATLAS detects mainly blue/star-forming galaxies with a minor contribution from red systems which are highly obscured by dust. In addition we find that the colour of a galaxy rather than the local density of its environment determines whether it is detectable by H-ATLAS. The average dust temperature of galaxies that are simultaneously detected by both PACS and SPIRE is 25 ± 4 K, independent of environment. This analysis provides a glimpse of the potential of the H-ATLAS data to investigate the submillimetre properties of galaxies in the local universe.