We present the first spatially resolved observations of molecular gas in a sample of cluster galaxies beyond z > 0.1. Using ALMA, we detect CO (2-1) in eight z ∼ 1.6 cluster galaxies, all within a single 70″ primary beam. The cluster, SpARCS-J0225, was discovered by the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey, and is replete with gas-rich galaxies in close proximity, thus affording an efficient multiplexing strategy to amass the first sample of resolved CO in distant clusters. Mapping out the kinematic structure and morphology of molecular gas on ∼3.5 kpc scales reveals rotating gas disks in the majority of the galaxies, and some kinematic peculiarities, including a central gas void, a merger, and one-sided gas tails. We find that the extent of the molecular gas is slightly smaller than that of the optical HST stellar component; this is even more pronounced in low-redshift Virgo cluster galaxies. However, limited by small sample sizes of spatially resolved CO, we are unable to differentiate the distribution of stellar-to-gas radii between cluster and field environments at high redshift. Thus, at first glance, while the cluster galaxies generally look like galaxies infalling from the field, with typical main-sequence star formation rates and massive molecular gas reservoirs situated in rotating disks, they have potentially remarkable attributes, including elevated gas fractions, slightly smaller CO disks, and asymmetric gas tails. Taken in tandem, these signatures are tentative evidence for gas stripping in the z ∼ 1.6 cluster, though verification of these trends will require larger samples.

We present ALMA CO (2-1) detections in 11 gas-rich cluster galaxies at z ∼ 1.6, constituting the largest sample of molecular gas measurements in z > 1.5 clusters to date. The observations span three galaxy clusters, derived from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey. We augment the >5σ detections of the CO (2-1) fluxes with multi-band photometry, yielding stellar masses and infrared-derived star formation rates, to place some of the first constraints on molecular gas properties in z ∼ 1.6 cluster environments. We measure sizable gas reservoirs of 0.5-2 × 1011 M in these objects, with high gas fractions (f gas) and long depletion timescales (τ), averaging 62% and 1.4 Gyr, respectively. We compare our cluster galaxies to the scaling relations of the coeval field, in the context of how gas fractions and depletion timescales vary with respect to the star-forming main sequence. We find that our cluster galaxies lie systematically off the field scaling relations at z = 1.6 toward enhanced gas fractions, at a level of ∼4σ, but have consistent depletion timescales. Exploiting CO detections in lower-redshift clusters from the literature, we investigate the evolution of the gas fraction in cluster galaxies, finding it to mimic the strong rise with redshift in the field. We emphasize the utility of detecting abundant gas-rich galaxies in high-redshift clusters, deeming them as crucial laboratories for future statistical studies.

Abstract: We investigate the resolved kinematics of the molecular gas, as traced by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in CO (2−1), of 25 cluster member galaxies across three different clusters at a redshift of z ∼ 1.6. This is the first large-scale analysis of the molecular gas kinematics of cluster galaxies at this redshift. By separately estimating the rotation curve of the approaching and receding sides of each galaxy via kinematic modeling, we quantify the difference in total circular velocity to characterize the overall kinematic asymmetry of each galaxy. 3/14 of the galaxies in our sample that we are able to model have similar degrees of asymmetry as that observed in galaxies in the field at similar redshift based on observations of mainly ionized gas. However, this leaves 11/14 galaxies in our sample with significantly higher asymmetry, and some of these galaxies have degrees of asymmetry of up to ∼50 times higher than field galaxies observed at similar redshift. Some of these extreme cases also have one-sided tail-like morphology seen in the molecular gas, supporting a scenario of tidal and/or ram pressure interaction. Such stark differences in the kinematic asymmetry in clusters versus the field suggest the evolutionary influence of dense environments, established as being a major driver of galaxy evolution at low redshift, is also active in the high-redshift universe.

We compile a sample of spectroscopically and photometrically selected cluster galaxies from four high-redshift galaxy clusters (1.59 < z < 1.71) from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS), and a comparison field sample selected from the UKIDSS Deep Survey. Using near-infrared imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, we classify potential mergers involving massive (M∗ ≥ 3 × 1010M⊙) cluster members by eye, based on morphological properties such as tidal distortions, double nuclei, and projected near neighbors within 20 kpc. With a catalog of 23 spectroscopic and 32 photometric massive cluster members across the four clusters and 65 spectroscopic and 26 photometric comparable field galaxies, we find that after taking into account contamination from interlopers, 11+7.0-5.6% of the cluster members are involved in potential mergers, compared to 24.7+5.3-4.6% of the field galaxies. We see no evidence of merger enhancement in the central cluster environment with respect to the field, suggesting that galaxy-galaxy merging is not a stronger source of galaxy evolution in cluster environments compared to the field at these redshifts.

We present a study of the infrared properties for a sample of seven spectroscopically confirmed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z > 4.0. By combining ground-based near-infrared, Spitzer IRAC and MIPS, Herschel SPIRE, and ground-based submillimeter/millimeter photometry, we construct their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and a composite model to fit the SEDs. The model includes a stellar emission component at λrest < 3.5 μm, a hot dust component peaking at λrest ∼ 5 μm, and cold dust component which becomes significant for λrest > 50 μm. Six objects in the sample are detected at 250 and 350 μm. The dust temperatures for the sources in this sample are in the range of 40-80 K, and their LFIR ∼ 1013 L⊙ qualifies them as hyper-luminous infrared galaxies. The mean FIR-radio index for this sample is around 〈q〉 = 2.2 indicating no radio excess in their radio emission. Most sources in the sample have 24 μm detections corresponding to a rest-frame 4.5 μm luminosity of Log10(L4.5/L ⊙) = 11 ∼ 11.5. Their L4.5/LFIR ratios are very similar to those of starburst-dominated SMGs at z ∼ 2. The L CO-LFIR relation for this sample is consistent with that determined for local ULIRGs and SMGs at z ∼ 2. We conclude that SMGs at z > 4 are hotter and more luminous in the FIR but otherwise very similar to those at z ∼ 2. None of these sources show any sign of the strong QSO phase being triggered. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.