Paper detail

On the Limited Sizes of Dusty Starbursting Regions at High Redshifts

Using the far-infrared data obtained by the Herschel Space Observatory, we study the relation between the infrared luminosity (L_IR) and the dust temperature (T) of dusty starbursting galaxies at high redshifts (high-z). We focus on the total infrared luminosity from the cold-dust component (L_IR^(cd)), whose emission can be described by a modified black body (MBB) of a single temperature (T_mbb). An object on the (L_IR^(cd), T_mbb) plane can be explained by the equivalent of the Stefan-Boltzmann law for a MBB with an effective radius of R_eff. We show that R_eff is a good measure of the combined size of the dusty starbursting regions (DSBRs) of the host galaxy. In at least one case where the individual DSBRs are well resolved through strong gravitational lensing, R_eff is consistent with the direct size measurement. We show that the observed L_IR-T relation is simply due to the limited R_eff (<~ 2 kpc). The small R_eff values also agree with the compact sizes of the DSBRs seen in the local universe. However, previous interferometric observations to resolve high-z dusty starbursting galaxies often quote much larger sizes. This inconsistency can be reconciled by the blending effect when considering that the current interferometry might still not be of sufficient resolution. From R_eff we infer the lower limits to the volume densities of the star formation rate ("minSFR3D") in the DSBRs, and find that the $L_{IR}$-$T$ relation outlines a boundary on the (L_IR^(cd), T) plane, below which is the "zone of avoidance" in terms of minSFR3D.