The ALMA REBELS survey: obscured star formation in massive Lyman-break galaxies at z = 4–8 revealed by the IRX–β and M⋆ relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigate the degree of dust obscured star formation in 49 massive (log10(M⋆/M⊙) > 9) Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z = 6.5–8 observed as part of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) large program. By creating deep stacks of the photometric data and the REBELS ALMA measurements we determine the average rest-frame ultraviolet (UV), optical, and far-infrared (FIR) properties which reveal a significant fraction (fobs = 0.4–0.7) of obscured star formation, consistent with previous studies. From measurements of the rest-frame UV slope, we find that the brightest LBGs at these redshifts show bluer (β ≃ −2.2) colours than expected from an extrapolation of the colour–magnitude relation found at fainter magnitudes. Assuming a modified blackbody spectral energy distribution (SED) in the FIR (with dust temperature of $T_{\rm d} = 46\, {\rm K}$ and βd = 2.0), we find that the REBELS sources are in agreement with the local ‘Calzetti-like’ starburst Infrared-excess (IRX)–β relation. By re-analysing the data available for 108 galaxies at z ≃ 4–6 from the ALMA Large Program to Investigate C+ at Early Times (ALPINE) using a consistent methodology and assumed FIR SED, we show that from z ≃ 4–8, massive galaxies selected in the rest-frame UV have no appreciable evolution in their derived IRX–β relation. When comparing the IRX–M⋆ relation derived from the combined ALPINE and REBELS sample to relations established at z < 4, we find a deficit in the IRX, indicating that at z > 4 the proportion of obscured star formation is lower by a factor of ≳ 3 at a given a M⋆. Our IRX–β results are in good agreement with the high-redshift predictions of simulations and semi-analytic models for z ≃ 7 galaxies with similar stellar masses and star formation rates.