ALMA 26 arcmin2 Survey of GOODS-S at 1 mm (ASAGAO): Near-infrared-dark Faint ALMA Sources

Abstract

We report detections of two 1.2 mm continuum sources (S-1.2 mm similar to 0.6 mJy) without any counterparts in the deep H- and/or K-band image (i.e., K-band magnitude greater than or similar to 26 mag). These near-infrared-dark faint millimeter sources are uncovered by ASAGAO, a deep and wide-field (similar or equal to 26 arcmin(2)) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm survey. One has a red IRAC (3.6 and 4.5 mu m) counterpart, and the other has been independently detected at 850 and 870 mu m using SCUBA2 and ALMA Band 7, respectively. Their optical-to-radio spectral energy distributions indicate that they can lie at z greater than or similar to 3-5 and can be in the early phase of massive galaxy formation. Their contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density is estimated to be similar to 1 x 10(-3) M-circle dot yr(-1) Mpc(-3) if they lie somewhere in the redshift range of z similar to 3-5. This value can be consistent with, or greater than, that of bright submillimeter galaxies (S-870 mu m > 4.2 mJy) at z similar to 3-5. We also uncover three more candidate near-infrared-dark faint ALMA sources without any counterparts (S-1.2 mm similar to 0.45-0.86 mJy). These results show that an unbiased ALMA survey can reveal the dust-obscured star formation activities, which were missed in previous deep optical/near-infrared surveys.