Hodge, J. A. and Smail, I. and Walter, F. and Cunha, E. da and Swinbank, A. M. and Rybak, M. and Venemans, B. and Brandt, W. N. and Rivera, G. Calistro and Chapman, S. C. and Chen, Chian-Chou and Cox, P. and Dannerbauer, H. and Decarli, R. and Greve, T. R. and Ivison, R. J. and Knudsen, K. K. and Menten, K. M. and Schinnerer, E. and Simpson, J. M. and Werf, P. van der and Wardlow, J. L. and Weiss, A. (2019) ALMA reveals potential evidence for spiral arms, bars, and rings in high-redshift submillimeter galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 876 (2). ISSN 0004-637X
1810.12307v3.pdf - Accepted Version
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Abstract
We present sub-kpc-scale mapping of the 870 $\mu$m ALMA continuum emission in six luminous ($L_{\rm IR}~\sim~5~\times10^{12}$ L$_{\odot}$) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) from the ALESS survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. Our high-fidelity 0.07$''$-resolution imaging ($\sim$500 pc) reveals robust evidence for structures with deconvolved sizes of $\lesssim$0.5-1 kpc embedded within (dominant) exponential dust disks. The large-scale morphologies of the structures within some of the galaxies show clear curvature and/or clump-like structures bracketing elongated nuclear emission, suggestive of bars, star-forming rings, and spiral arms. In this interpretation, the ratio of the `ring' and `bar' radii (1.9$\pm$0.3) agrees with that measured for such features in local galaxies. These potential spiral/ring/bar structures would be consistent with the idea of tidal disturbances, with their detailed properties implying flat inner rotation curves and Toomre-unstable disks (Q