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Manuel Solimano

Publications and source records attributed to Manuel Solimano.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

An extreme ram-pressure stripping event in a protocluster at redshift 4.3

In the nearby Universe, the environment plays a crucial role in suppressing star formation in dense regions. In particular, ram-pressure stripping (RPS) is a major mechanism for removing gas from galaxies in clusters, occurring when galaxies travel through a dense hot atmosphere and leave trailing gaseous wakes. By depleting the cold gas reservoir, RPS can drive outside-in quenching and is therefore thought to be an important route for transforming cluster galaxies. At earlier times, however, the hot atmosphere in protoclusters is expected to be immature, so environmental effects are commonly assumed to be dominated by gravitational interactions. Here we report ALMA and JWST observations of SPT2349$-$56-C26 (hereafter C26), a massive galaxy experiencing an extreme RPS event in the SPT2349$-$56 protocluster at $z\,{=}\,4.3$. More than half of the [CII]-traced cold gas lies outside its stellar body, with the emission peak offset by 6 kpc. These observations show that RPS can remove most of the cold gas from massive galaxies in dense protocluster cores as early as $z\,{=}\,4.3$, providing a direct hydrodynamic pathway for environmental quenching at $z\,{>}\,4$.

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arXiv2026

A large overdensity of LRD-like galaxies discovered by JWST in the SPT2349-56 protocluster at z=4.30

We present 11 newly identified ultra-red galaxies selected with JWST/NIRCam in the core of the z=4.3 protocluster SPT2349-56. Although these sources are not yet spectroscopically confirmed, their extremely red colours (m200-m444 > 2.0 mag), strong spatial concentration, and number density - at least 2000 times that of comparable field populations - make a chance projected association unlikely. Their colours overlap those used to select the widely studied ``little red dot'' (LRD) population, although most of the sources are spatially resolved and are therefore better described as extended red dots (ERDs). The resolved morphologies disfavour continuum emission dominated by an unresolved active nucleus and imply a substantial stellar contribution. Deep ALMA observations put strong limits on obscured star formation, and the ERD population mostly lies significantly below the star-forming main sequence. One object, ERD1/Q1, is substantially brighter and more massive, lying far below the main sequence, making it a strong candidate for a massive quiescent galaxy. These JWST-selected red galaxies reveal a previously inaccessible population extending to lower luminosities and stellar masses than the Dusty Star Forming Galaxy (DSFG) population which characterizes the dense protocluster core. SPT2349-56 may therefore capture an early phase of cluster assembly in which extreme starbursts coexist with galaxies already transitioning toward the passive galaxies characteristic of mature cluster cores.

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arXiv2026

ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) survey: an overview -- extending dust and gas inference to low metallicities at cosmic noon

The baryon cycle governs the exchange of gas, metals, and dust between galaxies and their environments, but simultaneous constraints on these constituents remain scarce beyond z~1. The ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) survey is a Cycle 11 ALMA Large Program designed to address this by studying the molecular gas, dust, and metal content of sub-solar metallicity at cosmic noon. ACE consists of CO(3-2) and dust continuum observations of 25 galaxies at z=2.0-2.5 with robust gas-phase metallicity measurements spanning ~35% to 83% of solar metallicity. The survey approximately doubles the number of unlensed main-sequence galaxies at z>1 with CO, dust-continuum and metallicity measurements and extends such studies to almost an order of magnitude lower stellar masses and metallicities than previous surveys. The ACE observations yield 17 CO detections and 17 Band 7 continuum (rest-frame ~270um) detections. CO detectability correlates most strongly with metallicity and stellar mass, while dust continuum detectability is more closely linked to star formation rate (SFR) and infrared luminosity. Using the ACE measurements, we derive a new empirical scaling relation linking CO(3-2) luminosity to stellar mass, SFR, and metallicity, providing a practical benchmark for estimating molecular gas content in low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies. The survey reveals several particularly intriguing systems, including some of the lowest-metallicity CO and dust detections currently known at z>1, galaxies with extreme gas and dust fractions, and systems exhibiting offsets between stellar, dust, and molecular gas emission. ACE provides the first comprehensive view of the interplay between molecular gas, dust, metals, and star formation in sub-solar metallicity galaxies at cosmic noon, enabling direct tests of models for baryon cycling, chemical enrichment, and dust evolution during the peak epoch of galaxy assembly.

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arXiv2026

ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) Survey: Molecular gas properties of low-mass, low-metallicity galaxies at cosmic noon

Molecular gas plays a central role in regulating star formation and galaxy evolution, yet observational constraints at cosmic noon remain biased toward massive, metal-rich systems. We present ALMA Band 3 observations of the CO J=3-2 transition in 26 unlensed star-forming galaxies from the ALMA Chemical Evolution (ACE) Large Program at z~2-2.5, probing stellar masses of $10^{9} < M_\star < 10^{10.5}\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and sub-solar metallicities (8.2 < 12 + log(O/H) < 8.6). We derived molecular gas masses using a metallicity-dependent CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor and alongside analysed stacking measurements and a homogenized literature compilation spanning both local and high-redshift galaxies. We find that the ACE galaxies extend established molecular-gas scaling relations to an order of magnitude lower stellar masses than previously explored at cosmic noon. The molecular gas mass ($M_{\rm mol}$) correlates tightly with star formation rate (SFR), while molecular gas fractions show a strong dependence on specific star formation rate (sSFR) and offset from the star-forming main sequence. In contrast, molecular gas fractions show only weak trends with stellar mass and no significant dependence on metallicity. Molecular gas depletion times are ~1 Gyr and vary little with stellar mass or metallicity, and weakly with sSFR and offset from the star-forming main sequence. Together this further reinforces that the availability of molecular gas is the primary driver of the SFR in galaxies, with changes in star-formation efficiency playing a secondary role. Leveraging the expanded parameter space probed by the ACE and literature samples, we derive a new empirical prescription for predicting $M_{\rm mol}$ as a function of SFR and sSFR. The persistence of the observed scaling relations suggests a largely universal framework governing the molecular gas-star formation cycle across cosmic time.

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arXiv2026

Tracing Lyman alpha escape in the CRISTAL-02 galaxy at z~5.3

We investigate the mechanisms regulating Lyman-alpha (Ly$α$) escape in the star-forming galaxy CRISTAL-02 at z~5.3. The galaxy has clumpy morphology, suggestive that it may be interacting with other system(s). Two clumps (A and B, hereafter) are suggested as a site for intense star-formation or potential AGN candidates. We investigate how the local gas, dust, and feedback shape the escape of Ly$α$ photons around these clumps. Using VLT/MUSE and JWST/NIRSpec IFU observations, complemented by NIRCam UV imaging, we constructed spatially matched emission-line maps. We derived flux, line-ratio, and extinction maps, together with spatially resolved Ly$α$ escape fractions and ionizing photon production efficiencies. We find that Ly$α$ is significantly more extended than H$α$ and UV, reaching ~33 kpc and preferentially extending along the cold molecular gas outflow traced by [C II] emission. Clumps A and B show contrasting Ly$α$ properties: Clump A has lower dust attenuation and enhanced Ly$α$/H$α$ ratios and escape fraction, whereas Clump B is brighter in H$α$ and UV but has suppressed Ly-$α$ despite a higher ionizing photon production efficiency. These results indicate that Ly$α$ escape is strongly influenced by the local H I geometry, dust, and outflows and cannot be explained by ionizing photon production alone. The observed Ly$α$ morphology and zELDA radiative transfer modeling favor an outflow-driven escape scenario, while the available data cannot uniquely distinguish between AGN and star formation-driven feedback.

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arXiv2026

Resolving the black hole sphere of influence in a hyper-luminous obscured quasar at redshift 4.6

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) imprint gravitational signatures on the matter within their sphere of influence (SoI). Nuclear gas dynamics can hence be used to accurately measure the mass of an SMBH, yet such measurements remain elusive in the early Universe. We report the first dynamical measurement of an SMBH mass at $z >$ 2, based on high spatial resolution observations of the [C II]157.7um and CO (12-11) 216.93um emission lines that resolve the SoI in an obscured quasar at $z$ = 4.6. The radial profile of the velocity dispersion reveals a clear Keplerian rise, requiring the presence of an approximately 6 $\times$ 10$^9~\rm M_{\odot}$ SMBH. We propose that obscured quasarsallow tracers like [C II] to survive in the inner regions, and may be ideal targets for increasing dynamical SMBH mass estimates in the early Universe.

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arXiv2026

JWST's PEARLS: A clumpy ring galaxy at $z = 4.0148$

Ring galaxies are an uncommon class of galaxies whose morphology is closely related to dynamical processes that govern galaxy evolution. Some ring galaxies, known as "collisional ring galaxies", are thought to form as a consequence of head-on collisions between galaxies, and a number of high-redshift collisional ring galaxies have been discovered and/or studied in the era of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In this paper, we present HST/ACS, JWST/NIRCam, and JWST/NIRSpec observations of a candidate ring galaxy at $z_{\rm spec} = 4.0148$, previously identified as a potential gravitational lens. The galaxy exhibits a complex morphology, including three bright clumps along an apparent ring with radius $\approx 0.25$" $\simeq 1.8$ kpc. It has a total SFR $= 140^{+20}_{-30}$ ${\rm M}_{\rm \odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ and $\log(M_\ast/{\rm M}_\odot) = 10.41^{+0.11}_{-0.13}$, making it similar to other high-redshift collisional ring galaxies. Although we argue strongly in favor of the collisional ring explanation, we cannot entirely rule out a galaxy-galaxy strong lensing explanation for the system's morphology, in which a foreground galaxy at $z \simeq 1.7$ lenses a galaxy at $z \simeq 4.0$ into an Einstein ring-like configuration; to confirm the nature of this source, we require kinematic information via high spectral resolution observations. We suggest that current and future gravitational lens surveys should consider high-redshift ring galaxies as possible but significant contaminants.

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arXiv2026

A census of star-formation and gas mass tracers in two lensed $z \sim 4$ dusty star-forming galaxies

We present new and archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of two strongly lensed dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) selected from the South Pole Telescope survey, SPT0418-47 $(z = 4.225)$ and SPT2147-50 $(z = 3.760)$. We study the [C II], CO(7-6), [C I](2-1), and, in SPT0418-47, $p$-H$_2$O emission, which along with the underlying continuum (rest-frame 160 $μ$m and 380 $μ$m) are routinely used as tracers of gas mass and/or star-formation rate (SFR). We perform a pixel-by-pixel analysis of both sources in the image plane to study the resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, finding generally good agreement between the slopes of the SFR versus gas mass surface density using the different tracers. Using lens modeling methods, we find that the dust emission is more compact than the line emission in both sources, with CO(7-6) and [C I](2-1) similar in extent and [C II] the most extended, reminiscent of recent findings of extended [C II] spatial distributions in galaxies at similar cosmic epochs. We develop the [C I](2-1) / CO(7-6) flux density ratio as an observable proxy for gas depletion timescale ($τ_{\rm dep}$), which can be applied to large samples of DSFGs, in lieu of more detailed inferences of this timescale which require analysis of observations at multiple wavelengths. Furthermore, the extended [C II] emission in both sources, compared to the total continuum and line emission, suggests that [C II], used in recent years as a molecular gas mass and SFR tracer in high-$z$ galaxies, may not always be a suitable tracer of these physical quantities.

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arXiv2025

Hiding behind a curtain of dust: Gas and dust properties of an ultra-luminous strongly-lensed z = 3.75 galaxy behind the Milky Way disk

We present a detailed analysis of J154506, a strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy behind the Lupus-I molecular cloud, and characterisation of its physical properties using a combination of new and archival data, including VLT/MUSE and FORS2 optical data. We identify two high-significance (SNR>5) emission lines at 97.0 and 145.5 GHz, corresponding to CO(4-3) and CO(6-5), respectively, in the spectral scans from the Atacama Compact Array and the Large Millimetre Telescope and the [CII] 158~$μ$m fine-structure line at 400~GHz using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. These detections yield a spectroscopic redshift of $z_{\rm{spec}}=3.7515\pm0.0005$. We also report the detection of [CI], HCN(4-3), and two H$_2\rm{O}^+$ transitions, further confirming the redshift and providing insights into J154506's physical properties. By modeling sub-arcsecond resolution (0.75) ALMA Band 6 and 7 continuum data in the uv-plane, we derive an average magnification factor of $6.0\pm0.4$ and our analysis reveals a relatively cold dust (38K) in a starburst ($\sim900~\rm{M}_{\odot}yr^{-1}$) galaxy with a high intrinsic dust mass ($\sim2.5\times10^{9}~\rm{M}_{\odot}$) and infrared (IR) luminosity ($\sim6\times10^{12}~\rm{L}_{\odot}$). The non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer modelling of the joint dust SED and CO line excitation suggests the dust continuum emission is primarily associated with relatively diffuse regions with molecular gas densities of $10^2-10^4\rm{cm}^{-3}$, rather than compact, high-pressure environments typical of extreme starbursts or AGNs. This is supported by the close-to-unity ratio between the dust and gas kinetic temperatures, which argues against highly energetic heating mechanisms. The CO excitation ladder peaks close to CO(5-4) and is dominated by slightly denser molecular gas.

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arXiv2025

An Overabundance of Radio-AGN in the SPT2349-56 Protocluster: Preheating the Intra-Cluster Medium

Following the detection of a radio-loud Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) in the z=4.3 protocluster SPT2349-56, we have obtained additional observations with MeerKAT in S-band (2.4 GHz) with the aim of further characterizing radio emission from amongst the ~30 submillimeter (submm) galaxies (SMGs) identified in the structure. We newly identify three of the protocluster SMGs individually at 2.4GHz as having a radio-excess, two of which are now known to be X-ray luminous AGN. Two additional members are also detected with radio emission consistent with their star formation rate (SFR). Archival MeerKAT UHF (816 MHz) observations further constrain luminosities and radio spectral indices of these five galaxies. The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) is used to detect and resolve the central two sources at 5.5 and 9.0 GHz finding elongated, jet-like morphologies. The excess radio luminosities range from L1.4,rest = (1-20)x10^25 W/Hz, ~10-100x higher than expected from the SFRs, assuming the usual far-infrared-radio correlation. Of the known cluster members, only the SMG `N1' shows signs of AGN in any other diagnostics, namely a large and compact excess in CO(11-10) line emission. We compare these results to field samples of radio sources and SMGs. The overdensity of radio-loud AGN in the compact core region of the cluster may be providing significant heating to the recently discovered nascent intra-cluster medium (ICM) in SPT2349-56.

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arXiv2025

The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey: Stellar and nebular dust attenuation of main-sequence galaxies at z~4-6

Characterizing dust attenuation is crucial for revealing the intrinsic physical properties of galaxies. We present an analysis of dust attenuation in 18 spectroscopically confirmed star-forming main-sequence galaxies at $z = 4.4-5.7$ observed with JWST/NIRSpec IFU and NIRCam, selected from the ALPINE and CRISTAL ALMA large programs. We fit the emission line fluxes from NIRSpec and the broad-band photometry from NIRCam with Prospector, using both spatially integrated emission and $\sim0.6$ kpc pixel-by-pixel measurements. We derive the stellar-to-nebular dust attenuation ratio ($f=E(B-V)_{\mathrm{star}}/E(B-V)_{\mathrm{neb}}$) from the SED fits and the Balmer decrement with H$α$ and H$β$. Although individual galaxies show large scatter, the best-fit value is $f = 0.51^{+0.04}_{-0.03}$, slightly higher than that measured for local starburst galaxies. We find weak correlations of $f$ with galaxy properties, increasing with higher specific star-formation rates, younger stellar ages, and more recent star-formation. For the range of $E(B-V)_{\mathrm{star}} = 0.009-0.15$ mag for in our sample, assuming $f = 1$ (often adopted in high-redshift studies) instead of $f = 0.51$ underestimate line luminosities and ionizing photon production efficiency $ξ_\text{ion}$ by $\sim3-36\%$ and $\sim4-46\%$, respectively. We also find that the total stellar masses estimated from spatially-integrated SED fits with a delayed-$τ$ star-formation histories are systematically smaller than the sum of pixel-by-pixel SED fits, with a median offset of $\sim 0.26$ dex, likely because the integrated fits are biased toward luminous young stellar populations.

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arXiv2025

Ly-alpha emission reveals two satellite halos around massive groups at z ~ 3: the puzzling case of a quiescent central galaxy

We present the discovery and characterisation of two Ly$α$ nebulae (LANs), RO-1001-Sat and RO-0959-Sat, as satellite structures of two giant LANs at $z=2.920$ and 3.092. They are found neighbouring two out of four known giant LANs at $z\sim3$ in our MUSE follow-up observations, reinforcing the idea that Ly$α$ emission can be used to trace massive dark matter halos at high-$z$. This high occurrence of massive satellite halos agrees with simulations. With sizes of $\simeq80\times160$ and $80\times100~\mathrm{pkpc}^2$, the two nebulae are both $\sim$300pkpc from the main LANs. The Ly$α$ emission is only shifted by $\simeq100-300$ km s$^{-1}$ between each of the two pairs, suggesting connections via large-scale structure. RO-1001-Sat and RO-0959-Sat are estimated to have log$(M_\mathrm{h}/M_\odot)\simeq13.2\pm0.3$ and $12.8\pm0.3$, putting them potentially close to the regime of cold-mode accretion. The central brightest galaxies in the two halos are morphologically distinct despite having similar stellar mass $\sim10^{11}M_\odot$, one being an elliptical quiescent galaxy in RO-1001-Sat and the other being a dusty star-forming spiral in RO-0959-Sat. Intriguingly, the quiescent galaxy aligns well with the peak of the LAN as well as the potential well of the host halo, making it the first clear-cut case where the cold gas ought to be accreting onto the galaxy but with no observable star formation, either due to morphological quenching or, more likely, radio-mode feedback from an active galactic nucleus. Finally, we show a tentative detection of a Ly$α$ filament connecting RO-1001 and RO-1001-Sat. This work shows how panoramic MUSE (and in the future, BlueMUSE) observations of massive halo seeds can be used to efficiently search for additional halos, unveiling their large-scale structure and enabling the study of Ly$α$-selected galaxy groups.

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arXiv2025

The ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey: Revealing Less Massive Black Holes in High-Redshift Galaxies

We present a systematic search for broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST sample of 18 star-forming galaxies ($M_\star>10^{9.5}~M_{\odot}$) at redshifts $z=4.4-5.7$. Using JWST/NIRSpec IFU, we identify 7 AGN candidates through the detection of broad \Ha\ emission lines from 33 aperture spectra centred on photometric peaks. These candidates include one highly robust AGN detection with FWHM $\sim$ 2800 \kms\ and six showing broad components with FWHM $\sim 600-1600$ \kms, with two in a merger system. We highlight that only broad-line detection is effective since these candidates uniformly lie within narrow emission-line ratio diagnostic diagrams where star-forming galaxies and AGNs overlap. The broad-line AGN fraction ranges from 5.9\% to 33\%, depending on the robustness of the candidates. Assuming that the majority are AGNs, the relatively high AGN fraction is likely due to targeting high-mass galaxies, where simulations demonstrate that broad-line detection is more feasible. Their black hole masses range from $10^6$ to $10^{7.5}~M_{\odot}$ with $0.1 \lesssim L_{\rm bol}/L_{\rm Edd}\lesssim 1$. Counter to previous JWST studies at high redshift that found overmassive black holes relative to their host galaxies, our candidates lie close to or below the local $M_{\rm BH}-M_\star$ scaling relations, thus demonstrating the effect of selection biases. This study provides new insights into AGN-host galaxy co-evolution at high redshift by identifying faint broad-line AGNs in galaxy samples, highlighting the importance of considering mass-dependent selection biases and the likelihood of a large population of AGNs being undermassive and just now being tapped by JWST.

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arXiv2025

Bright [CII]158$μ$m Streamers as a Beacon for Giant Galaxy Formation in SPT2349$-$56 at $z=4.3$

Observations of extreme starbursts, often located in the cores of protoclusters, challenge the classical bottom-up galaxy formation paradigm. Giant elliptical galaxies at $z=0$ must have assembled rapidly, possibly within few 100 Myr through an extreme growth phase at high-redshift, characterized by elevated star-formation rates of several thousand solar masses per year distributed over concurrent, gas-rich mergers. We present a novel view of the $z=4.3$ protocluster core SPT2349$-$56 from sensitive multi-cycle ALMA dust continuum and [CII]158$μ$m line observations. Distributed across 60 kpc, a highly structured gas reservoir with a line luminosity of $L_\mathrm{[CII]}=3.0\pm0.2\times10^9$ $L_\odot$ and an inferred cold gas mass of $M_{gas}= 8.9\pm0.7\times10^{9}$ $M_\odot$ is found surrounding the central massive galaxy triplet. Like ``beads on a string'', the newly-discovered [CII] streamers fragment into a few kpc-spaced and turbulent clumps that have a similar column density as local Universe spiral galaxy arms at $Σ_{gas}=20$--$60$ $M_\odot$ pc$^{-2}$. For a dust temperature of 30 K, the [CII] emission from the ejected clumps carry $\gtrsim$3% of the FIR luminosity, translating into an exceptionally low mass-to-light ratio of $α_\mathrm{[CII]}=2.95\pm0.3$ $M_\odot$ $L_\odot^{-1}$, indicative of shock-heated molecular gas. In phase space, about half of the galaxies in the protocluster core populate the same caustic as the [CII] streamers ($r/r_{vir}\times|Δv|/σ_{vir}\approx0.1$), suggesting angular momentum dissipation via tidal ejection while the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is assembling. Our findings provide new evidence for the importance of tidal ejections of [CII]-bright, shocked material following multiple major mergers that might represent a landmark phase in the $z\gtrsim4$ co-evolution of BCGs with their hot, metal enriched atmospheres.

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arXiv2025

A large thermal energy reservoir in the nascent intracluster medium at a redshift of 4.3

Most baryons in present-day galaxy clusters exist as hot gas ($\boldsymbol{\gtrsim10^7\,\rm}\mathrm{K}$), forming the intracluster medium (ICM). Cosmological simulations predict that the mass and temperature of the ICM rapidly decrease with increasing cosmological redshift, as intracluster gas in younger clusters is still accumulating and being heated. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) effect arises when cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons are scattered to higher energies through interactions with energetic electrons in hot ICM, leaving a localized decrement in the CMB at a long wavelength. The depth of this decrement is a measure of the thermal energy and pressure of the gas. To date, the effect has been detected in only three systems at or above $z\sim2$, when the Universe was 4 billion years old, making the time and mechanism of ICM assembly uncertain. Here, we report observations of this effect in the protocluster SPT2349$-$56 with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). SPT2349$-$56 contains a large molecular gas reservoir, with at least 30 dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and three radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) in a 100-kpc region at $z=4.3$, corresponding to 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. The observed tSZ signal implies a thermal energy of $\mathbf{\sim 10^{61}\,\mathrm{erg}}$, exceeding the possible energy of a virialized ICM by an order of magnitude. Contrary to current theoretical expectations, the strong tSZ decrement in SPT2349$-$56 demonstrates that substantial heating can occur and deposit a large amount of thermal energy within growing galaxy clusters, overheating the nascent ICM in unrelaxed structures, two billion years before the first mature clusters emerged at $\mathbf{z \sim 2}$.

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arXiv2025

The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Resolved kinematic studies of main sequence star-forming galaxies at 4<z<6

We present a detailed kinematic study of a sample of 32 massive ($9.5\leqslant\log(M_*/{\rm M_{\odot}})\leqslant10.9$) main-sequence star-forming galaxies (MS SFGs) at $4<z<6$ from the ALMA-CRISTAL program. The data consist of deep (up to 15hr observing time per target), high-resolution ($\sim1$kpc) ALMA observations of the [CII]158$μ$m line emission. This data set enables the first systematic kpc-scale characterisation of the kinematics nature of typical massive SFGs at these epochs. We find that $\sim50\%$ of the sample are disk-like, with a number of galaxies located in systems of multiple components. Kinematic modelling reveals these main sequence disks exhibit high-velocity dispersions ($σ_0$), with a median disk velocity dispersion of $\sim70{\rm kms^{-1}}$ and $V_{\rm rot}/σ_0\sim2$, and consistent with dominant gravity driving. The elevated disk dispersions are in line with the predicted evolution based on Toomre theory and the extrapolated trends from $z\sim0$-$2.5$ MS star-forming disks. The inferred dark matter (DM) mass fraction within the effective radius $f_{\rm DM}(<R_{\rm e})$ for the disk systems decreases with the central baryonic mass surface density, and is consistent with the trend reported by kinematic studies at $z\lesssim3$; roughly half the disks have $f_{\rm DM}(<R_{\rm e})\lesssim30\%$. The CRISTAL sample of massive MS SFGs provides a reference of the kinematics of a representative population and extends the view onto typical galaxies beyond previous kpc-scale studies at $z\lesssim3$.

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arXiv2025

The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: weak evidence for star-formation driven outflows in $z\sim5$ main-sequence galaxies

There is a broad consensus from theory that stellar feedback in galaxies at high redshifts is essential to their evolution, alongside conflicting evidence in the observational literature about its prevalence and efficacy. To this end, we utilize deep, high-resolution [CII] emission line data taken as part of the [CII] resolved ISM in star-forming galaxies with ALMA (CRISTAL) survey. Excluding sources with kinematic evidence for gravitational interactions, we perform a rigorous stacking analysis of the remaining 15 galaxies to search for broad emission features that are too weak to detect in the individual spectra, finding only weak evidence that a broad component is needed to explain the composite spectrum. Additionally, such evidence is mostly driven by CRISTAL-02, which is already known to exhibit strong outflows in multiple ISM phases. Interpreting modest residuals in the stack at $v\sim300$kms$^{-1}$ as an outflow, we derive a mass outflow rate of $\dot{M}_{\rm out}=26\pm11$M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$ and a cold outflow mass-loading factor of $η_m=0.49\pm0.20$. This result holds for the subsample with the highest star-formation rate surface density $(Σ_{\rm{SFR}}>1.93$M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$kpc$^{-2}$) but no such broad component is present in the composite of the lower-star-formation rate density subsample. Our results imply that the process of star-formation-driven feedback may already be in place in typical galaxies at $z=5$, but on average not strong enough to completely quench ongoing star formation.

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arXiv2025

A Large Molecular Gas Reservoir in the Protocluster SPT2349$-$56 at $z\,{=}\,4.3$

We present Atacama Compact Array (ACA) Band-3 observations of the protocluster SPT2349$-$56, an extreme system hosting ${\gtrsim}\,12$ submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at $z\,{=}\,4.3$, to study its integrated molecular gas content via CO(4-3) and long-wavelength dust continuum. The $\sim$30-hour integration represents one of the longest exposures yet taken on a single pointing with the ACA 7-m. The low-resolution ACA data ($21.0''\,{\times}\,12.2''$) reveal a 75% excess CO(4-3) flux compared to the sum of individual sources detected in higher-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) data ($1.0''\,{\times}\,0.8''$). Our work also reveals a similar result by tapering the ALMA data to $10''$. In contrast, the 3.2mm dust continuum shows little discrepancy between ACA and ALMA. A single-dish [CII] spectrum obtained by APEX/FLASH supports the ACA CO(4-3) result, revealing a large excess in [CII] emission relative to ALMA. The missing flux is unlikely due to undetected faint sources but instead suggests that high-resolution ALMA observations might miss extended and low-surface-brightness gas. Such emission could originate from the circum-galactic medium (CGM) or the pre-heated proto-intracluster medium (proto-ICM). If this molecular gas reservoir replenishes the star formation fuel, the overall depletion timescale will exceed 400Myr, reducing the requirement for the simultaneous SMG activity in SPT2349$-$56. Our results highlight the role of an extended gas reservoir in sustaining a high star formation rate (SFR) in SPT2349$-$56, and potentially establishing the ICM during the transition phase to a mature cluster.

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