In situ spheroid formation in distant submillimetre-bright galaxies

Qing-Hua Tan (), Emanuele Daddi (), Benjamin Magnelli, Camila A. Correa, Frédéric Bournaud, Sylvia Adscheid, Shao-Bo Zhang, David Elbaz, Carlos Gómez-Guijarro, Boris S. Kalita, Daizhong Liu, Zhaoxuan Liu, Jérôme Pety, Annagrazia Puglisi, Eva Schinnerer, John D. Silverman and Francesco Valentino
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Qing-Hua Tan: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Emanuele Daddi: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Benjamin Magnelli: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Camila A. Correa: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Frédéric Bournaud: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Sylvia Adscheid: Universität Bonn
Shao-Bo Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
David Elbaz: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Carlos Gómez-Guijarro: Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM
Boris S. Kalita: The University of Tokyo
Daizhong Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhaoxuan Liu: The University of Tokyo
Jérôme Pety: Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique
Annagrazia Puglisi: University of Southampton
Eva Schinnerer: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
John D. Silverman: The University of Tokyo
Francesco Valentino: European Southern Observatory

Nature, 2024, vol. 636, issue 8041, 69-74

Abstract: Abstract Most stars in today’s Universe reside within spheroids, which are bulges of spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies1,2. Their formation is still an unsolved problem3–5. Infrared/submillimetre-bright galaxies at high redshifts6 have long been suspected to be related to spheroid formation7–12. Proving this connection has been hampered so far by heavy dust obscuration when focusing on their stellar emission13–15 or by methodologies and limited signal-to-noise ratios when looking at submillimetre wavelengths16,17. Here we show that spheroids are directly generated by star formation within the cores of highly luminous starburst galaxies in the distant Universe. This follows from the ALMA submillimetre surface brightness profiles, which deviate substantially from those of exponential disks, and from the skewed-high axis-ratio distribution. Most of these galaxies are fully triaxial rather than flat disks: the ratio of the shortest to the longest of their three axes is half, on average, and increases with spatial compactness. These observations, supported by simulations, reveal a cosmologically relevant pathway for in situ spheroid formation through starbursts that is probably preferentially triggered by interactions (and mergers) acting on galaxies fed by non-coplanar gas accretion streams.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08201-6

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