We analyse the physical properties of a large, homogeneously selected sample of ALMA-located sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) detected in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey 850-µm map of the UKIDSS/UDS field. This survey, AS2UDS, identified 707 SMGs across the ∼ 1 deg 2 field, including ∼17 per cent which are undetected in the optical/near-infrared to K 25.7 mag. We interpret the UV-to-radio data of these systems using a physically motivated model, magphys and determine a median photometric redshift of z = 2.61±0.08, with a 68 th percentile range of z = 1.8-3.4, with just ∼ 6 per cent at z > 4. The redshift distribution is well fit by a model combining evolution of the gas fraction in halos with the growth of halo mass past a critical threshold of ∼4×10 12 M , thus SMGs may represent the highly efficient collapse of gasrich massive halos. Our survey provides a sample of the most massive, dusty galaxies at z 1, with median dust and stellar masses of M d = (6.8±0.3) × 10 8 M (thus, gas masses of ∼ 10 11 M ) and M * = (1.26±0.05) × 10 11 M . These galaxies have gas fractions of f gas = 0.41±0.02 with depletion timescales of ∼ 150 Myr. The gas mass function evolution of our sample at high masses is consistent with constraints at lower masses from blind CO-surveys, with an increase to z ∼ 2-3 and then a decline at higher redshifts. The space density and masses of SMGs suggests that almost all galaxies with M * 2 × 10 11 M have passed through an SMG-like phase. We find no evolution in dust temperature at a constant far-infrared luminosity across z ∼ 1.5-4. We exploit dust continuum sizes to show that SMGs appear to behave as simple homologous systems in the far-infrared, having properties consistent with a centrally illuminated starburst. Our study provides strong support for an evolutionary link between the active, gas-rich SMG population at z > 1 and the formation of massive, bulge-dominated galaxies across the history of the Universe.

We present the catalogue and properties of sources in AS2UDS, an 870-µm continuum survey with the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) of 716 single-dish sub-millimetre sources detected in the UKIDSS/UDS field by the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey. In our sensitive ALMA follow-up observations we detect 708 sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) at > 4.3σ significance across the ∼ 1-degree diameter field. We combine our precise ALMA positions with the extensive multi-wavelength coverage in the UDS field to fit the spectral energy distributions of our SMGs to derive a median redshift of z phot = 2.61±0.09. This large sample reveals a statistically significant trend of increasing sub-millimetre flux with redshift suggestive of galaxy downsizing. 101 ALMA maps do not show a > 4.3σ SMG, but we demonstrate from stacking Herschel SPIRE observations at these positions, that the vast majority of these blank maps correspond to real single-dish sub-millimetre sources. We further show that these blank maps contain an excess of galaxies at z phot = 1.5-4 compared to random fields, similar to the redshift range of the ALMA-detected SMGs. In addition, we combine X-ray and mid-infrared active galaxy nuclei activity (AGN) indicators to yield a likely range for the AGN fraction of 8-28 % in our sample. Finally, we compare the redshifts of this population of high-redshift, strongly star-forming galaxies with the inferred formation redshifts of massive, passive galaxies being found out to z ∼ 2, finding reasonable agreement -in support of an evolutionary connection between these two classes of massive galaxy.

We present an analysis of the morphology and profiles of the dust continuum emission in 153 bright sub-millimetre galaxies (SMGs) detected with ALMA at signal to noise ratios of > 8 in high-resolution 0. 18 (∼ 1 kpc) 870 µm maps. We measure sizes, shapes and light profiles for the rest-frame far-infrared emission from these luminous starforming systems and derive a median effective radius (R e ) of 0. 10 ± 0. 04 for our sample with a median flux of S 870 = 5.6 ± 0.2 mJy. We find that the apparent axial ratio (b/a) distribution of the SMGs peaks at b/a ∼ 0.63 ± 0.02 and is best described by triaxial morphologies, while their emission profiles are best fit by a Sérsic model with n 1.0 ± 0.1, similar to exponential discs. This combination of triaxiality and n ∼ 1 Sérsic index are characteristic of bars and we suggest that the bulk of the 870 µm dust continuum emission in the central ∼ 2 kpc of these galaxies arises from bar-like structures. As such we caution against using the orientation of shape of the bright dust continuum emission at resolution to assess either the orientation of any disc on the sky or tits inclination. By stacking our 870 µm maps we recover faint extended dust continuum emission on ∼ 4 kpc scales which contributes 13 ± 1% of the total 870 µm emission. The scale of this extended emission is similar to that seen for the molecular gas and rest-frame optical light in these systems, suggesting that it represents an extended dust and gas disc at radii larger than the more active bar component. Including this component in our estimated size of the sources we derive a typical effective radius of 0. 15 ± 0. 05 or 1.2 ± 0.4 kpc. Our results suggest that kpc-scale bars are ubiquitous features of high star-formation rate systems at z 1, while these systems also contain fainter and more extended gas and stellar envelopes. We suggest that these features, seen some 10-12 Gyrs ago, represent the formation phase of the earliest galactic-scale components: stellar bulges.

We have used ALMA and NOEMA to study the molecular gas reservoirs in 61 ALMA-identified submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) in the COSMOS, UDS, and ECDFS fields. We detect 12CO ($J_{\rm up} =$ 2–5) emission lines in 50 sources, and [C i](3P1 − 3P0) emission in eight, at $z =$ 1.2–4.8 and with a median redshift of 2.9 ± 0.2. By supplementing our data with literature sources, we construct a statistical CO spectral line energy distribution and find that the 12CO line luminosities in SMGs peak at Jup ∼ 6, consistent with similar studies. We also test the correlations of the CO, [C i], and dust as tracers of the gas mass, finding the three to correlate well, although the CO and dust mass as estimated from the 3-mm continuum are preferable. We estimate that SMGs lie mostly on or just above the star-forming main sequence, with a median gas depletion timescale, tdep = Mgas/SFR, of 210 ± 40 Myr for our sample. Additionally, tdep declines with redshift across z ∼ 1–5, while the molecular gas fraction, μgas = Mgas/M*, increases across the same redshift range. Finally, we demonstrate that the distribution of total baryonic mass and dynamical line width, Mbaryon–σ, for our SMGs is consistent with that followed by early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster, providing strong support to the suggestion that SMGs are progenitors of massive local spheroidal galaxies. On the basis of this, we suggest that the SMG populations above and below an 870-μm flux limit of S870 ∼ 5 mJy may correspond to the division between slow and fast rotators seen in local early-type galaxies.

We make use of sensitive (9.3 μJy beam −1 rms) 1.2 mm continuum observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (ASPECS) large program to probe dust-enshrouded star formation from 1362 Lyman-break galaxies spanning the redshift range z=1.5-10 (to ∼7-28 M e yr −1 at 4σ over the entire range). We find that the fraction of ALMA-detected galaxies in our z=1.5-10 samples increases steeply with stellar mass, with the detection fraction rising from 0% at 10 9.0 M e to-+ 85 18 9 % at >10 10 M e. Moreover, on stacking all 1253 low-mass (<10 9.25 M e) galaxies over the ASPECS footprint, we find a mean continuum flux of −0.1±0.4 μJy beam −1 , implying a hard upper limit on the obscured star formation rate of <0.6 M e yr −1 (4σ) in a typical low-mass galaxy. The correlation between the infrared excess (IRX) of UV-selected galaxies (L IR /L UV) and the UV-continuum slope is also seen in our ASPECS data and shows consistency with a Calzetti-like relation at >  M 10 9.5 and an SMC-like relation at lower masses. Using stellar mass and β measurements for z∼2 galaxies over the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey, we derive a new empirical relation between β and stellar mass and then use this correlation to show that our IRX-β and IRX-stellar mass relations are consistent with each other. We then use these constraints to express the IRX as a bivariate function of β and stellar mass. Finally, we present updated estimates of star formation rate density determinations at z>3, leveraging present improvements in the measured IRX and recent probes of ultraluminous far-IR galaxies at z>2. Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Lyman-break galaxies (979); Infrared excess (788); High-redshift galaxies (734); Dust continuum emission (412); Far infrared astronomy (529)