Search

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been conducted for over sixty years, yet no technosignatures have been identified. Previous studies have focused on stars in our galaxy, with few searches in the extragalactic Universe despite a larger volume being available. Civilizations capable of harvesting energy from a star or a galaxy are classified as KII or KIII on the Kardashev scale, respectively. Technosignatures from such advanced civilizations would be extremely luminous and detectable by current radio telescopes, even from distant galaxies. To explore the frontier of extragalactic SETI, we investigate the likely prevalence of extragalactic civilizations possessing a radio transmitter, known as the transmitter rate, based on observational results from the Breakthrough Listen (BL) observations. We calculated the transmitter rate by considering the background galaxies in the field of view of target stars in BL observations. We used a statistical method to derive the total mass of stars in those background galaxies from a galaxy stellar mass function. Our statistical method suggests that less than one in hundreds of trillions of extragalactic civilizations within 969 Mpc possess a radio transmitter above 7.7$\times$10$^{26}$ W of power, assuming one civilization per one-solar-mass stellar system. Additionally, we cross-matched the BL survey fields with the WISE$\times$SuperCOSMOS Photometric Redshift Catalogue and compared with the statistical method. Our result sets the strictest limits to date on the transmitter rate at such high power levels, emphasizing the high efficiency of searching for radio transmitters in galaxies and the rarity of technologically advanced civilizations in our Universe., 5 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in MNRAS. A summary video is available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xaRCnLMjsY&t=21s&ab_channel=NCHUAstronomy

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration transients with large dispersion measures. The origin of FRBs is still mysterious. One of the methods to comprehend FRB origin is to probe the physical environments of FRB host galaxies. Mapping molecular-gas kinematics in FRB host galaxies is critical because it results in star formation that is likely connected to the birth of FRB progenitors. However, most previous works of FRB host galaxies have focused on its stellar component. Therefore, we, for the first time, report the molecular gas kinematics in the host galaxy of the non-repeating FRB 180924B at $z= 0.3216$. Two velocity components of the CO (3-2) emission line are detected in its host galaxy with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA): the peak of one component ($-155.40$ km s$^{-1}$) is near the centre of the host galaxy, and another ($-7.76$ km s$^{-1}$) is near the FRB position. The CO (3-2) spectrum shows asymmetric profiles with A$_{\rm peak}$ $=2.03\pm 0.39$, where A$_{\rm peak}$ is the peak flux density ratio between the two velocity components. The CO (3-2) velocity map also indicates an asymmetric velocity gradient from $-180$ km s$^{-1}$ to 8 km s$^{-1}$. These results indicate a disturbed kinetic structure of molecular gas in the host galaxy. Such disturbed kinetic structures are reported for repeating FRB host galaxies using HI emission lines in previous works. Our finding indicates that non-repeating and repeating FRBs could commonly appear in disturbed kinetic environments, suggesting a possible link between the gas kinematics and FRB progenitors., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CldxLE7Pdwk&t=1s

We present mid-infrared (IR) galaxy number counts based on the Early Release Observations obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at 7.7-, 10-, and 15-μm (F770W, F1000W, and F1500W, respectively) bands of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Due to the superior sensitivity of JWST, the 80-per cent completeness limits reach 0.32, 0.79, and 2.0 μJy in F770W, F1000W, and F1500W filters, respectively, i.e. ∼100 times deeper than previous space IR telescopes such as Spitzer or AKARI. The number counts reach much deeper than the broad bump around 0.05∼0.5 mJy due to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions. An extrapolation towards fainter flux from the evolutionary models in the literature agrees amazingly well with the new data, where the extrapolated faint-end of IR luminosity functions combined with the cosmic star-formation history to higher redshifts can reproduce the deeper number counts by JWST. Our understanding of the faint IR sources has been confirmed by the observed data due to the superb sensitivity of JWST.

Addressing how strong UV radiation affects galaxy formation is central to understanding their evolution. The quenching of star formation via strong UV radiation (from starbursts or active galactic nuclei) has been proposed in various scenes to solve certain astrophysical problems. Around luminous sources, some evidence of decreased star formation has been found but is limited to a handful of individual cases. No direct, conclusive evidence on the actual role of strong UV radiation in quenching star formation has been found. Here, we present statistical evidence of decreased number density of faint (AB magnitude ≥ 24.75 mag) Ly α emitters (LAEs) around bright (AB magnitude < 24.75 mag) LAEs even when the radius goes up to 10 pMpc for z ≃ 5.7 LAEs. A similar trend is found for z ≃ 6.6 LAEs but only for faint LAEs within 1 pMpc radius from the bright LAEs. We use a large sample of 1077 (962) LAEs at z ≃ 5.7 (z ≃ 6.6) selected in total areas of 14 (21) deg2 with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam narrow-band data, and thus, the result is of statistical significance for the first time at these high redshift ranges. A simple analytical calculation indicates that the radiation from the central LAE is not enough to suppress LAEs with AB mag ≥ 24.75 mag around them, suggesting additional physical mechanisms we are unaware of are at work. Our results clearly show that the environment is at work for the galaxy formation at z ∼ 6 in the Universe.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are astronomical transients with millisecond timescales. Although most of the FRBs are not observed to repeat, a few of them are detected to repeat more than hundreds of times. There exist a large variety of physical properties among these bursts, suggesting heterogeneous mechanisms of FRBs. In this paper, we conduct a categorisation on the extremely frequently repeating FRB 20201124A with the assistance of machine learning, as such techniques have the potential to use subtle differences and correlations that humans are unaware of to better classify bursts. The research is carried out by applying the unsupervised Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) model on the FRB 20201124A data provided by Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The algorithm eventually categorises the bursts into three clusters. In addition to the two categories in previous work based on waiting time, a new way for categorisation has been found. The three clusters are either high energy, high frequency, or low frequency, reflecting the distribution of FRB energy and frequency. Importantly, a similar machine learning result is found in another frequently repeating FRB20121102A, implying a common mechanism among this kind of FRB. This work is one of the first steps towards the systematical categorisation of the extremely frequently repeating FRBs., 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. For summary video, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PPCMKcrIf4&list=PLOpYDs2PkYlYIiKDjDz6r6aKXcXdJZXYb&index=14&ab_channel=NCHUAstronomy

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense bursts of radio emission with durations of milliseconds. Although researchers have found them happening frequently all over the sky, they are still in the dark to understand what causes the phenomena because the existing radio observatories have encountered certain challenges during the discovery of FRB progenitors. The construction of Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan (BURSTT) is being proposed to solve these challenges. We simulate mock Galactic FRB-like events by applying a range of spatial distributions, pulse widths and luminosity functions. The effect of turbulent Interstellar Medium (ISM) on the detectability of FRB-like events within the Milky Way plane is considered to estimate the dispersion measure and pulse scattering of mock events. We evaluate the fraction of FRB-like events in the Milky Way that are detectable by BURSTT and compare the result with those by Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) and Galactic Radio Explorer (GReX). We find that BURSTT could increase the detection rate by more than two orders of magnitude compared with STARE2 and GReX, depending on the slope of luminosity function of the events. We also investigate the influence of the specifications of BURSTT on its detection improvement. This leads to the fact that greatly higher sensitivity and improved coverage of the Milky Way plane have significant effects on the detection improvement of BURSTT. We find that the upgrade version of BURSTT, BURSTT-2048 could increase the detection rate of faint Galactic FRB-like events by a factor of 3., 9 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

How does the environment affect active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity? We investigated this question in an extinction-free way, by selecting 1120 infrared galaxies in the $AKARI$ North Ecliptic Pole Wide field at redshift $z$ $\leq$ 1.2. A unique feature of the $AKARI$ satellite is its continuous 9-band infrared (IR) filter coverage, providing us with an unprecedentedly large sample of IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies. By taking advantage of this, for the first time, we explored the AGN activity derived from SED modelling as a function of redshift, luminosity, and environment. We quantified AGN activity in two ways: AGN contribution fraction (ratio of AGN luminosity to the total IR luminosity), and AGN number fraction (ratio of number of AGNs to the total galaxy sample). We found that galaxy environment (normalised local density) does not greatly affect either definitions of AGN activity of our IRG/LIRG samples (log ${\rm L}_{\rm TIR}$ $\leq$ 12). However, we found a different behavior for ULIRGs (log ${\rm L}_{\rm TIR}$ $>$ 12). At our highest redshift bin (0.7 $\lesssim$ z $\lesssim$ 1.2), AGN activity increases with denser environments, but at the intermediate redshift bin (0.3 $\lesssim$ z $\lesssim$ 0.7), the opposite is observed. These results may hint at a different physical mechanism for ULIRGs. The trends are not statistically significant (p $\geq$ 0.060 at the intermediate redshift bin, and p $\geq$ 0.139 at the highest redshift bin). Possible different behavior of ULIRGs is a key direction to explore further with future space missions (e.g., $JWST$, $Euclid$, $SPHEREx$)., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A summary video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y_a0kJkLI4&ab_channel=NthuCosmology

Galaxy clusters provide an excellent probe in various research fields in astrophysics and cosmology. However, the number of galaxy clusters detected so far in the $AKARI$ North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field is limited. In this work, we provide galaxy cluster candidates in the $AKARI$ NEP field with the minimum requisites based only on coordinates and photometric redshift (photo-$z$) of galaxies. We used galaxies detected in 5 optical bands ($g$, $r$, $i$, $z$, and $Y$) by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), assisted with $u$-band from Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) MegaPrime/MegaCam, and IRAC1 and IRAC2 bands from the $Spitzer$ space telescope for photo-$z$ estimation. We calculated the local density around every galaxy using the 10$^{th}$-nearest neighbourhood. Cluster candidates were determined by applying the friends-of-friends algorithm to over-densities. 88 cluster candidates containing 4390 member galaxies below redshift 1.1 in 5.4 deg$^2$ have been detected. The reliability of our method was examined through false detection tests, redshift uncertainty tests, and applications on the COSMOS data, giving false detection rates of 0.01 to 0.05 and recovery rate of 0.9 at high richness. 3 X-ray clusters previously observed by $ROSAT$ and $Chandra$ were recovered. The cluster galaxies show higher stellar mass and lower star formation rate (SFR) compared to the field galaxies in two-sample Z-tests. These cluster candidates are useful for environmental studies of galaxy evolution and future astronomical surveys in the NEP, where $AKARI$ has performed unique 9-band mid-infrared photometry for tens of thousands of galaxies., Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures, has been accepted for publication in MNRAS

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been conducted for nearly 60 years. A Dyson Sphere, a spherical structure that surrounds a star and transports its radiative energy outward as an energy source for an advanced civilisation, is one of the main targets of SETI. In this study, we discuss whether building a Dyson Sphere around a black hole is effective. We consider six energy sources: (i) the cosmic microwave background, (ii) the Hawking radiation, (iii) an accretion disk, (iv) Bondi accretion, (v) a corona, and (vi) relativistic jets. To develop future civilisations (for example, a Type II civilisation), $4\times10^{26}\,{\rm W}$($1\,{\rm L_{\odot}}$) is expected to be needed. Among (iii) to (vi), the largest luminosity can be collected from an accretion disk, reaching $10^{5}\,{\rm L_{\odot}}$, enough to maintain a Type II civilisation. Moreover, if a Dyson Sphere collects not only the electromagnetic radiation but also other types of energy (e.g., kinetic energy) from the jets, the total collected energy would be approximately 5 times larger. Considering the emission from a Dyson Sphere, our results show that the Dyson Sphere around a stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way ($10\,\rm kpc$ away from us) is detectable in the ultraviolet$(\rm 10-400\,{\rm nm)}$, optical$(\rm 400-760\,{\rm nm)}$, near-infrared($\rm 760\,{\rm nm}-5\,{\rm \mu m}$), and mid-infrared($\rm 5-40\,{\rm \mu m}$) wavelengths via the waste heat radiation using current telescopes such as Galaxy Evolution Explorer Ultraviolet Sky Surveys. Performing model fitting to observed spectral energy distributions and measuring the variability of radial velocity may help us to identify these possible artificial structures., Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in MNRAS

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been conducted for more than 60 years, and no technosignatures have yet been detected. Very few searches have been attempted in the extra-galactic Universe, where a much larger volume is available for extragalactic civilizations. According to the Kardashev scale, a civilization that can handle huge energy harvested from a star or a galaxy is called KII or KIII civilization. Hypothetical technosignatures from such advanced civilizations would also be extremely bright, which can be detected by the current radio telescopes even for distant galaxies. However, only a few previous studies have focused on extragalactic civilizations. To explore a frontier of extragalactic SETI, we study the fraction of KII or KIII civilizations possessing radio transmitters on an extragalactic scale. We utilize the data from the past radio SETI observations and a galaxy mass function to statistically constrain the stellar transmitter rate of KII or KIII civilizations in extra galaxies. We set a new upper limit on the galactic transmitter rate, which scales inversely with the number of galaxies in a surveyed volume. The detailed results and discussions will be presented in my poster.

A correlation between the intrinsic energy and the burst duration of non-repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) has been reported. If it exists, the correlation can be used to estimate intrinsic energy from the duration, and thus can provide us with a new distance measure for cosmology. However, the correlation suffered from small number statistics (68 FRBs) and was not free from contamination by latent repeating populations, which might not have such a correlation. How to separate/exclude the repeating bursts from the mixture of all different types of FRBs is essential to see this property. Using a much larger sample from the new FRB catalogue (containing 536 FRBs) recently released by the CHIME/FRB project, combined with a new classification method developed based on unsupervised machine learning, we carried out further scrutiny of the relation. We found that there is a weak correlation between the intrinsic energy and duration for non-repeating FRBs at z < 0.3 with Kendall's tau correlation coefficient of 0.239 and significance of 0.001 (statistically significant), whose slope looks similar to that of gamma-ray bursts. This correlation becomes weaker and insignificant at higher redshifts (z > 0.3), possibly due to the lack of the faint FRBs at high-z and/or the redshift evolution of the correlation. The scattering time in the CHIME/FRB catalogue shows an intriguing trend: it varies along the line obtained from linear fit on the energy versus duration plane between these two parameters. A possible cosmological application of the relation must wait for faint FRBs at high-z., 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are bright millisecond-duration radio transients that appear about 1,000 times per day, all-sky, for a fluence threshold 5 Jy ms at 600 MHz. The FRB radio-emission physics and the compact objects involved in these events are subjects of intense active debate. To better constrain source models, the Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan (BURSTT) is optimized to discover and localize a large sample of rare, high-fluence, nearby FRBs. This is the population most amenable to multi-messenger, multi-wavelength follow-up, allowing deeper understanding of source mechanisms. BURSTT will provide horizon-to-horizon sky coverage with a half power field-of-view (FoV) of $\sim$10$^{4}$ deg$^{2}$, a 400 MHz effective bandwidth between 300-800 MHz, and sub-arcsecond localization, made possible using outrigger stations hundreds to thousands of km from the main array. Initially, BURSTT will employ 256 antennas. After tests of various antenna designs and optimization of system performance we plan to expand to 2048 antennas. We estimate that BURSTT-256 will detect and localize $\sim$100 bright ($\geq$100 Jy ms) FRBs per year. Another advantage of BURSTT's large FoV and continuous operation will be greatly enhanced monitoring of FRBs for repetition. The current lack of sensitive all-sky observations likely means that many repeating FRBs are currently cataloged as single-event FRBs., Published version

To understand the cosmic accretion history of supermassive black holes, separating the radiation from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star-forming galaxies (SFGs) is critical. However, a reliable solution on photometrically recognising AGNs still remains unsolved. In this work, we present a novel AGN recognition method based on Deep Neural Network (Neural Net; NN). The main goals of this work are (i) to test if the AGN recognition problem in the North Ecliptic Pole Wide (NEPW) field could be solved by NN; (ii) to shows that NN exhibits an improvement in the performance compared with the traditional, standard spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting method in our testing samples; and (iii) to publicly release a reliable AGN/SFG catalogue to the astronomical community using the best available NEPW data, and propose a better method that helps future researchers plan an advanced NEPW database. Finally, according to our experimental result, the NN recognition accuracy is around 80.29% - 85.15%, with AGN completeness around 85.42% - 88.53% and SFG completeness around 81.17% - 85.09%., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

We present a five-broad-band (grizy) photometric catalogue of Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) optical imaging observations at around the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) where the AKARI infrared (IR) satellite conducted a large survey (NEP-Wide survey). The observations cover almost all the NEP-Wide survey field down to the depth of 28.1, 26.8, 26.3, 25.5, and 25.0 mag (5σ) at grizy, respectively. The five-band HSC catalogue contains about 2.6 million objects, and 70 959 AKARI NEP-Wide counterpart sources are identified in the catalogue. We added existing supplementary catalogues from the u band to the far-IR band, and estimated photo-z for the AKARI-HSC sources. We achieved σΔz/(1 + zs) = 0.06 and an outlier rate of 13.4 per cent at z = 0.2–1.5. Using the spectral energy distribution (SED) template fitting, we classified the AKARI-HSC galaxies into four categories, namely quiescent, star-forming, Type1 active galactic nucleus (AGN), and Type2 AGN, in each redshift bin. At z > 1, the mean SED of star-forming galaxies in mid-IR (3–10 μm) range is significantly different from that of spiral galaxies in the nearby Universe, indicating that many of star-forming galaxies at z > 1 contain a heat source capable of heating dust to temperatures that radiate thermal emission in the mid-IR range. Furthermore, we estimated the number fraction of AGNs (fAGN) in each bin of redshift and IR luminosity (LIR), and examined the dependence of redshift and LIR. In log(LIR/L⊙) = 11.0–14.0, the fAGN shows a significant increase with increasing redshift, regardless of the LIR bins. In contrast, the fAGN shows a slight increase against LIR at z < 1 and no increase with increasing LIR at z > 1.

In order to understand the interaction between the central black hole and the whole galaxy or their co-evolution history along with cosmic time, a complete census of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is crucial. However, AGNs are often missed in optical, UV and soft X-ray observations since they could be obscured by gas and dust. A mid-infrared (mid-IR) survey supported by multiwavelength data is one of the best ways to find obscured AGN activities because it suffers less from extinction. Previous large IR photometric surveys, e.g., $WISE$ and $Spitzer$, have gaps between the mid-IR filters. Therefore, star forming galaxy (SFG)-AGN diagnostics in the mid-IR were limited. The $AKARI$ satellite has a unique continuous 9-band filter coverage in the near to mid-IR wavelengths. In this work, we take advantage of the state-of-the-art spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling software, CIGALE, to find AGNs in mid-IR. We found 126 AGNs in the NEP-Wide field with this method. We also investigate the energy released from the AGN as a fraction of the total IR luminosity of a galaxy. We found that the AGN contribution is larger at higher redshifts for a given IR luminosity. With the upcoming deep IR surveys, e.g., $JWST$, we expect to find more AGNs with our method., 14 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. For associated video, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B01jL0Bol9Q&feature=emb_logo

The $AKARI$ infrared (IR) space telescope conducted two surveys (Deep and Wide) in the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field to find more than 100,000 IR sources using its Infrared Camera (IRC). IRC's 9 filters, which cover wavebands from 2 to 24 $\mu$m continuously, make $AKARI$ unique in comparison with other IR observatories such as $Spitzer$ or $WISE$. However, studies of the $AKARI$ NEP-Wide field sources had been limited due to the lack of follow-up observations in the ultraviolet (UV) and optical. In this work, we present the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) MegaPrime/MegaCam $u$-band source catalogue of the $AKARI$ NEP-Wide field. The observations were taken in 7 nights in 2015 and 2016, resulting in 82 observed frames covering 3.6 deg$^2$. The data reduction, image processing and source extraction were performed in a standard procedure using the \textsc{Elixir} pipeline and the \textsc{AstrOmatic} software, and eventually 351,635 sources have been extracted. The data quality is discussed in two regions (shallow and deep) separately, due to the difference in the total integration time (4,520 and 13,910 seconds). The 5$\sigma$ limiting magnitude, seeing FWHM, and the magnitude at 50 per cent completeness are 25.38 mag (25.79 mag in the deep region), 0.82 arcsec (0.94 arcsec) and 25.06 mag (25.45 mag), respectively. The u-band data provide us with critical improvements to photometric redshifts and UV estimates of the precious infrared sources from the $AKARI$ space telescope., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) can be a promising tracer of cosmic star-formation rate history (CSFRH). In order to reveal the CSFRH using GRBs, it is important to understand whether they are biased tracers or not. For this purpose, it is crucial to understand properties of GRB host galaxies, in comparison to field galaxies. In this work, we report ALMA far-infrared (FIR) observations of six $z\sim2$ IR-bright GRB host galaxies, which are selected for the brightness in IR. Among them, four host galaxies are detected for the first time in the rest-frame FIR. In addition to the ALMA data, we collected multi-wavelength data from previous studies for the six GRB host galaxies. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting analyses were performed with \texttt{CIGALE} to investigate physical properties of the host galaxies, and to test whether active galactic nucleus (AGN) and radio components are required or not. Our results indicate that the best-fit templates of five GRB host galaxies do not require an AGN component, suggesting the absence of AGNs. One GRB host galaxy, 080207, shows a very small AGN contribution. While derived stellar masses of the three host galaxies are mostly consistent with those in previous studies, interestingly the value of star-formation rates (SFRs) of all six GRB hosts are inconsistent with previous studies. Our results indicate the importance of rest-frame FIR observations to correctly estimate SFRs by covering thermal emission from cold dust heated by star formation., Comment: This paper has been accepted for publication in MNRAS

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious millisecond pulses in radio, most of which originate from distant galaxies. Revealing the origin of FRBs is becoming central in astronomy. The redshift evolution of the FRB energy function, i.e., the number density of FRB sources as a function of energy, provides important implications for the FRB progenitors. Here we show the energy functions of FRBs selected from the recently released Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) catalogue using the $V_{\rm max}$ method. The $V_{\rm max}$ method allows us to measure the redshift evolution of the energy functions as it is without any prior assumption on the evolution. We use a homogeneous sample of 164 non-repeating FRB sources, which are about one order of magnitude larger than previously investigated samples. The energy functions of non-repeating FRBs show Schechter function-like shapes at $z\lesssim1$. The energy functions and volumetric rates of non-repeating FRBs decrease towards higher redshifts similar to the cosmic stellar-mass density evolution: there is no significant difference between the non-repeating FRB rate and cosmic stellar-mass density evolution with a 1\% significance threshold, whereas the cosmic star-formation rate scenario is rejected with a more than 99\% confidence level. Our results indicate that the event rate of non-repeating FRBs is likely controlled by old populations rather than young populations which are traced by the cosmic star-formation rate density. This suggests old populations such as old neutron stars and black holes as more likely progenitors of non-repeating FRBs., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A summary video is available at https://youtu.be/qbUctrFHLAs

The Hubble constant ($H_{0}$) is a measurement to describe the expansion rate of the Universe in the current era. However, there is a $4.4\sigma$ discrepancy between the measurements from the early Universe and the late Universe. In this research, we propose a model-free and distance-free method to constrain $H_{0}$. Combining Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker cosmology with geometrical relation of the proper motion of extragalactic jets, the lower limit ($H_{\rm 0,min}$) of $H_{0}$ can be determined using only three cosmology-free observables: the redshifts of the host galaxies, as well as the approaching and receding angular velocities of radio jets. Using these, we propose to use the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S test) between cumulative distribution functions of $H_{\rm 0,min}$ to differentiate cosmology. We simulate 100, 200, and 500 extragalactic jets with 3 levels of accuracy of the proper motion ($\mu_{a}$ and $\mu_{r}$), at $10\%$, $5\%$, and $1\%$, corresponding to the accuracies of the current and future radio interferometers. We perform K-S tests between the simulated samples as theoretical distributions with different $H_{0}$ and power-law index of velocity distribution of jets and mock observational data. Our result suggests increasing sample sizes leads to tighter constraints on both power-law index and the Hubble constant at moderate accuracy (i.e., $10\%$ and $5\%$) while at $1\%$ accuracy, increasing sample sizes leads to tighter constraints on power-law index more. Improving accuracy results in better constraints in the Hubble constant compared with the power-law index in all cases but it alleviates the degeneracy., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are astronomical transients with millisecond timescales occurring at cosmological distances. The observed time lag between different energies of each FRB is well described by the inverse-square law of the observed frequency, i.e., dispersion measure. Therefore, FRBs provide one of the ideal laboratories to test Einstein's weak equivalence principle (WEP): the hypothetical time lag between photons with different energies under a gravitational potential. If WEP is violated, such evidence should be exposed within the observational uncertainties of dispersion measures, unless the WEP violation also depends on the inverse-square of the observed frequency. In this work, we constrain the difference of gamma parameters ($\Delta\gamma$) between photons with different energies using the observational uncertainties of FRB dispersion measures, where $\Delta\gamma=0$ for Einstein's general relativity. Adopting the averaged 'Shapiro time delay' for cosmological sources, FRB 121002 at $z=1.6\pm0.3$ and FRB 180817.J1533+42 at $z=1.0\pm0.2$ place the most stringent constraints of $\log\Delta\gamma, Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review D. A summary video is available at https://youtu.be/Rt7tXN02wpQ

We study the galaxy merger fraction and its dependence on star formation mode in the5.4 square degrees of the North Ecliptic Pole-Wide field. We select 6352 galaxies withAKARI 9{\mu}m detections, and identify mergers among them using the Gini coefficientand M20derived from the Subaru/HSC optical images. We obtain the total infraredluminosity and star formation rate of galaxies using the spectral energy distributiontemplates based on one band, AKARI 9{\mu}m. We classify galaxies into three differentstar formation modes (i.e. starbursts, main sequence, and quiescent galaxies) andcalculate the merger fractions for each. We find that the merger fractions of galaxiesincrease with redshift atz, Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRAS

As recent advancements in physics and astronomy rapidly rewrite textbooks, there is a growing need in keeping abreast of the latest knowledge in these fields. Reading preprints is one of the effective ways to do this. By having journal clubs where people can read and discuss journals together, the benefits of reading journals become more prevalent. We present an investigative study of understanding the factors that affect the success of preprint journal clubs in astronomy, more commonly known as Astro-ph/Astro-Coffee (hereafter called AC). A survey was disseminated to understand how institutions from different countries implement AC. We interviewed 9 survey respondents and from their responses we identified four important factors that make AC successful: commitment (how the organizer and attendees participate in AC), environment (how conducive and comfortable AC is conducted), content (the discussed topics in AC and how they are presented), and objective (the main goal/s of conducting AC). We also present the format of our AC, an elective class which was evaluated during the Spring Semester 2020 (March 2020 - June 2020). Our evaluation with the attendees showed that enrollees (those who are enrolled and are required to present papers regularly) tend to be more committed in attending compared to audiences (those who are not enrolled and are not required to present papers regularly). In addition, participants tend to find papers outside their research field harder to read. Finally, we showed an improvement in the weekly number of papers read after attending AC of those who present papers regularly, and a high satisfaction rating of our AC. We summarize the areas of improvement in our AC implementation, and we encourage other institutions to evaluate their own AC in accordance with the four aforementioned factors to assess the effectiveness of their AC in reaching their goals., Accepted for publication in PRPER. A summary video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzy2I_xA_dU&ab_channel=NthuCosmology

We report fourteen and twenty-eight protocluster candidates at z = 5.7 and 6.6 over 14 and 19 deg2 areas, respectively, selected from 2,230 Lyα emitters (LAEs) photometrically identified with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) deep images. Six out of the 42 protocluster candidates include at least 1 spectroscopically confirmed LAEs at redshifts up to z = 6.574. By the comparisons with the cosmological Lyα radiative transfer (RT) model reproducing LAEs with the reionization effects, we find that more than a half of these protocluster candidates might be progenitors of the present-day clusters with a mass of ≳ 1014M⊙. We also investigate the correlation between LAE overdensity and Lya rest-frame equivalent width (EW), because the cosmological Lyα RT model suggests that a slope of EW-overdensity relation is steepened towards the epoch of cosmic reionization (EoR), due to the existence of the ionized bubbles around galaxy overdensities easing the escape of Lyα emission from the partly neutral intergalactic medium. The available HSC data suggest that the slope of the EW-overdensity correlation does not evolve from the post-reionization epoch z = 5.7 to the EoR z = 6.6 beyond the moderately large statistical errors.

We present ALMA [CII] line and far-infrared (FIR) continuum observations of seven z > 6 low-luminosity quasars (M1450 > −25 mag) discovered by our on-going Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. The [CII] line was detected in all targets with luminosities of ∼(2−10) × 108 L⊙, about one order of magnitude smaller than optically luminous quasars. Also found was a wide scatter of FIR continuum luminosity, ranging from LFIR < 1011L⊙ to ∼2 × 1012L⊙. With the [CII]-based dynamical mass, we suggest that a significant fraction of low-luminosity quasars are located on or even below the local Magorrian relation, particularly at the massive end of the galaxy mass distribution. This is a clear contrast to the previous finding that luminous quasars tend to have overmassive black holes relative to the relation. Our result is expected to show a less-biased nature of the early co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies.

We study the clustering property and physical parameters of gzK-colour-selected star-forming galaxies (sgzKs) based on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope surveys over 0.55 deg2 in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole-Deep Field. Two-point correlation functions for two magnitude-limited cases, Ks < 21.1 (N = 234) and Ks < 21.5 (N = 428), are estimated using a single power-law function with the fixed slope of 0.8. The bias factors of sgzKs with Ks < 21.1 and 21.5 are 5.79 ± 1.07 and 4.00 ± 0.67, respectively, representing that sgzKs with z ∼ 1.7 reside in dark matter haloes more massive than $10^{13} ~\rm M_{\odot }$. We find that haloes hosting sgzKs with Ks < 21.5 evolve into haloes that host local massive galaxies with ∼6 L*. This suggests that sgzKs with Ks < 21.5 are likely to be predecessors of local massive galaxies. The evolutionary track of bias factor for host haloes of the bright sgzKs is similar to that of the bright passive extremely red objects, implying a possible connection between the two populations of galaxies. From the spectral energy distribution fitting, we estimate physical parameters and active galactic nucleus (AGN) contribution for 75 mid-infrared (MIR)-detected sgzKs with Ks < 21.5. The median values of stellar mass and star formation rate are 9.5 × 1010$\rm M_{\odot }$ and 162 $\rm M_{\odot }$ yr−1, respectively. MIR-detected sgzKs have a variety of AGN contributions ranging from 0 to 80 per cent. The number ratio of sgzKs with larger AGN contribution than 10 per cent is 30 per cent.

The $AKARI$ space infrared telescope has performed near- to mid-infrared (MIR) observations on the North Ecliptic Pole Wide (NEPW) field (5.4 deg$^2$) for about one year. $AKARI$ took advantage of its continuous nine photometric bands, compared with NASA's $Spitzer$ and WISE space telescopes, which had only four filters with a wide gap in the MIR. The $AKARI$ NEPW field lacked deep and homogeneous optical data, limiting the use of nearly half of the IR sources for extra-galactic studies owing to the absence of photometric redshifts (photo-zs). To remedy this, we have recently obtained deep optical imaging over the NEPW field with 5 bands ($g$, $r$, $i$, $z$, and $Y$) of the Hyper Suprime-Camera (HSC) on the Subaru 8m telescope. We optically identify AKARI-IR sources along with supplementary $Spitzer$ and WISE data as well as pre-existing optical data. In this work, we derive new photo-zs using a $\chi^2$ template-fitting method code ($Le$ $Phare$) and reliable photometry from 26 selected filters including HSC, $AKARI$, CFHT, Maidanak, KPNO, $Spitzer$ and WISE data. We take 2026 spectroscopic redshifts (spec-z) from all available spectroscopic surveys over the NEPW to calibrate and assess the accuracy of the photo-zs. At z < 1.5, we achieve a weighted photo-z dispersion of $\sigma_{\Delta{z/(1+z)}}$ = 0.053 with $\eta$ = 11.3% catastrophic errors., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. For summary video, please see http://youtu.be/hjNJRCoBIgg

Izumi, T., et al., We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array [C ii] 158 μm line and far-infrared (FIR) continuum emission observations toward HSC J120505.09-000027.9 (J1205-0000) at z = 6.72 with a beam size of ∼0.″8 × 0.″5 (or 4.1 kpc × 2.6 kpc), the most distant red quasar known to date. Red quasars are modestly reddened by dust and are thought to be in rapid transition from an obscured starburst to an unobscured normal quasar, driven by powerful active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback that blows out a cocoon of interstellar medium. The FIR continuum of J1205-0000 is bright, with an estimated luminosity of L FIR ∼ 3 × 1012 L o˙. The [C ii] line emission is extended on scales of r ∼ 5 kpc, greater than that of the FIR continuum. The line profiles at the extended regions are complex and broad (FWHM ∼ 630-780 km s-1). Although it is not practical to identify the nature of this extended structure, possible explanations include (i) companion/merging galaxies and (ii) massive AGN-driven outflows. For the case of (i), the companions are modestly star-forming (∼10 M o˙ yr-1) but are not detected by our Subaru optical observations (y AB,5σ = 24.4 mag). For the case of (ii), our lower limit to the cold neutral outflow rate is ∼100 M o˙ yr-1. The outflow kinetic energy and momentum are both much lower than predicted in energy-conserving wind models, suggesting that the AGN feedback in this quasar is not capable of completely suppressing its star formation., Funding was contributed by the FIRST program of the Japanese Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the Toray Science Foundation, NAOJ, Kavli IPMU, KEK, ASIAA, and Princeton University. T.I. is supported by an ALMA Japan Research Grant of the NAOJ ALMA Project, NAOJ-ALMA-249.

Revealing the cosmic reionisation history is at the frontier of extragalactic astronomy. The power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation can be used to constrain the reionisation history. Here we propose a CMB-independent method using fast radio bursts (FRBs) to directly measure the ionisation fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM) as a function of redshift. FRBs are new astronomical transients with millisecond timescales. Their dispersion measure (DM$_{\rm IGM}$) is an indicator of the amount of ionised material in the IGM. Since the differential of DM$_{\rm IGM}$ against redshift is proportional to the ionisation fraction, our method allows us to directly measure the reionisation history without any assumption on its functional shape. As a proof of concept, we constructed mock non-repeating FRB sources to be detected with the Square Kilometre Array, assuming three different reionisation histories with the same optical depth of Thomson scattering. We considered three cases of redshift measurements: (A) spectroscopic redshift for all mock data, (B) spectroscopic redshift for 10% of mock data, and (C) redshift estimated from an empirical relation of FRBs between their time-integrated luminosity and rest-frame intrinsic duration. In all cases, the reionisation histories are consistently reconstructed from the mock FRB data using our method. Our results demonstrate the capability of future FRBs in constraining the reionisation history., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A summary video is available at https://youtu.be/uis6h_cBnpE

Einstein's General Relativity (GR) is the basis of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Testing the validity of basic assumptions of GR is important. In this work, we test a possible violation of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), i.e., there might be a time-lag between photons of different frequencies caused by the effect of gravitational fields if the speeds of photons are slightly different at different frequencies. We use Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) , which are astronomical transients with millisecond timescales detected in the radio frequency range. Being at cosmological distances, accumulated time delay of FRBs can be caused by the plasma in between an FRB source and an observer, and by gravitational fields in the path of the signal. We segregate the delay due to dispersion and gravitational field using the post-Newtonian formalism (PPN) parameter $\Delta \gamma$, which defines the space-curvature due to gravity by a unit test mass. We did not detect any time-delay from FRBs but obtained tight constraints on the upper limit of $\Delta \gamma$. For FRB20181117C with $z = 1.83 \pm 0.28$ and $\nu_{obs}$ = $676.5\,{\rm MHz}$, the best possible constraint is obtained at log($\Delta \gamma$) = $-21.58 ^{+0.10}_{-0.12}$ and log($\Delta \gamma$/$r_{\rm E}$) = $-21.75 ^{+0.10}_{-0.14}$, respectively, where $r_{\rm E}$ is the energy ratio of two photons of the same FRB signal. This constraint is about one order of magnitude better than the previous constraint obtained with FRBs, and five orders tighter than any constraint obtained using other cosmological sources., Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The origins of fast radio bursts (FRBs), astronomical transients with millisecond timescales, remain unknown. One of the difficulties stems from the possibility that observed FRBs could be heterogeneous in origin; as some of them have been observed to repeat, and others have not. Due to limited observing periods and telescope sensitivities, some bursts may be misclassified as non-repeaters. Therefore, it is important to clearly distinguish FRBs into repeaters and non-repeaters, to better understand their origins. In this work, we classify repeaters and non-repeaters using unsupervised machine learning, without relying on expensive monitoring observations. We present a repeating FRB recognition method based on the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP). The main goals of this work are to: (i) show that the unsupervised UMAP can classify repeating FRB population without any prior knowledge about their repetition, (ii) evaluate the assumption that non-repeating FRBs are contaminated by repeating FRBs, and (iii) recognise the FRB repeater candidates without monitoring observations and release a corresponding catalogue. We apply our method to the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) database. We found that the unsupervised UMAP classification provides a repeating FRB completeness of 95 per cent and identifies 188 FRB repeater source candidates from 474 non-repeater sources. This work paves the way to a new classification of repeaters and non-repeaters based on a single epoch observation of FRBs., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. For summary video, please see https://youtu.be/fWfvfFPDhcQ

Context. The North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) field provides a unique set of panchromatic data, well suited for active galactic nuclei (AGN) studies. Selection of AGN candidates is often based on mid-infrared (MIR) measurements. Such method, despite its effectiveness, strongly reduces a catalog volume due to the MIR detection condition. Modern machine learning techniques can solve this problem by finding similar selection criteria using only optical and near-infrared (NIR) data. Aims. Aims of this work were to create a reliable AGN candidates catalog from the NEP field using a combination of optical SUBARU/HSC and NIR AKARI/IRC data and, consequently, to develop an efficient alternative for the MIR-based AKARI/IRC selection technique. Methods. A set of supervised machine learning algorithms was tested in order to perform an efficient AGN selection. Best of the models were formed into a majority voting scheme, which used the most popular classification result to produce the final AGN catalog. Additional analysis of catalog properties was performed in form of the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting via the CIGALE software. Results. The obtained catalog of 465 AGN candidates (out of 33 119 objects) is characterized by 73% purity and 64% completeness. This new classification shows consistency with the MIR-based selection. Moreover, 76% of the obtained catalog can be found only with the new method due to the lack of MIR detection for most of the new AGN candidates. Training data, codes and final catalog are available via the github repository. Final AGN candidates catalog will be also available via the CDS service after publication., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We present the spectroscopic discovery of 69 quasars at 5.8 < z < 7.0, drawn from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program (SSP) imaging survey data. This is the 16th publication from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, and completes identification of all but the faintest candidates (i.e., i-band dropouts with zAB < 24 and y-band detections, and z-band dropouts with yAB < 24) with Bayesian quasar probability Pq > 0.1 in the HSC-SSP third public data release (PDR3). The sample reported here also includes three quasars with Pq < 0.1 at z ~ 6.6, which we selected in an effort to completely cover the reddest point sources with simple color cuts. The number of high-z quasars discovered in SHELLQs has now grown to 162, including 23 type-II quasar candidates. This paper also presents identification of seven galaxies at 5.6 < z < 6.7, an [O III] emitter at z = 0.954, and 31 Galactic cool stars and brown dwarfs. High-z quasars and galaxies comprise 75 % and 16 % respectively of all the spectroscopic SHELLQs objects that pass our latest selection algorithm with the PDR3 photometry. That is, a total of 91 % of the objects lie at z > 5.6. This demonstrates that the algorithm has very high efficiency, even though we are probing an unprecedentedly low-luminosity population down to M1450 ~ -21 mag., Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

Author(s): Kim, Seong Jin; Oi, Nagisa; Goto, Tomotsugu; Ikeda, Hiroyuki; Ho, Simon C-C; Shim, Hyunjin; Toba, Yoshiki; Hwang, Ho Seong; Hashimoto, Tetsuya; Barrufet, Laia; Malkan, Matthew; Kim, Helen K; Huang, Ting-Chi; Matsuhara, Hideo; Miyaji, Takamitsu; Pearson, Chris; Serjeant, Stephen; Santos, Daryl Joe D; Kim, Eunbin; Pollo, Agnieszka; Jeong, Woong-Seob; Wang, Ting-Wen; Momose, Rieko; Takagi, Toshinobu | Abstract: ABSTRACT The North Ecliptic Pole field is a natural deep-field location for many satellite observations. It has been targeted many times since it was surveyed by the AKARI space telescope with its unique wavelength coverage from the near- to mid-infrared (mid-IR). Many follow-up observations have been carried out, making this field one of the most frequently observed areas with a variety of facilities, accumulating abundant panchromatic data from the X-ray to the radio wavelength range. Recently, a deep optical survey with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) at the Subaru telescope covered the NEP-Wide (NEPW) field, which enabled us to identify faint sources in the near- and mid-IR bands, and to improve the photometric redshift (photo-z) estimation. In this work, we present newly identified AKARI sources by the HSC survey, along with multiband photometry for 91 861 AKARI sources observed over the NEPW field. We release a new band-merged catalogue combining various photometric data from the GALEX UV to submillimetre (sub-mm) bands (e.g. Herschel/SPIRE, JCMT/SCUBA-2). About ∼20 000 AKARI sources are newly matched to the HSC data, most of which seem to be faint galaxies in the near- to mid-infrared AKARI bands. This catalogue is motivating a variety of current research, and will be increasingly useful as recently launched (eROSITA/ART-XC) and future space missions (such as JWST, Euclid, and SPHEREx) plan to take deep observations in the NEP field.

A1689-zD1 is one of the most distant galaxies, discovered with the aid of gravitational lensing, providing us with an important opportunity to study galaxy formation in the very early universe. In this study, we report the detection of [C ii]158 μm and [O iii]88 μm emission lines of A1689-zD1 in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Bands 6 and 8. We measure the redshift of this galaxy as z sys = 7.133 ± 0.005 based on the [C ii] and [O iii] emission lines, consistent with that adopted by Bakx et al. The observed L [O III]/L [C II] ratio is 2.09 ± 0.09, higher than that of most of the local galaxies, but consistent with other z ∼ 7 galaxies. The moderate spatial resolution of ALMA data provided us with a precious opportunity to investigate spatial variation of L [O III]/L [C II]. In contrast to the average value of 2.09, we find a much higher L [O III]/L [C II] of ∼7 at the center of the galaxy. This spatial variation of L [O III]/L [C II] was seldom reported for other high-z galaxies. It is also interesting that the peak of the ratio does not overlap with optical peaks. Possible physical reasons include a central active galactic nucleus, shock heating from merging, and a starburst. Our moderate spatial resolution data also reveal that in addition to the observed two clumps shown in previous Hubble Space Telescope images, there is a redshifted segment to the west of the northern optical clump. This structure is consistent with previous claims that A1689-zD1 is a merging galaxy, but with the northern redshifted part being some ejected material, or that the northern redshifted material stems from a third more highly obscured region of the galaxy.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are mysterious extragalactic radio signals. Revealing their origin is one of the central foci in modern astronomy. Previous studies suggest that occurrence rates of non-repeating and repeating FRBs could be controlled by the cosmic stellar-mass density (CSMD) and star formation-rate density (CSFRD), respectively. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is one of the best future instruments to address this subject due to its high sensitivity and high-angular resolution. Here, we predict the number of FRBs to be detected with the SKA. In contrast to previous predictions, we estimate the detections of non-repeating and repeating FRBs separately, based on latest observational constraints on their physical properties including the spectral indices, FRB luminosity functions, and their redshift evolutions. We consider two cases of redshift evolution of FRB luminosity functions following either the CSMD or CSFRD. At $z\gtrsim2$, $z\gtrsim6$ and $z\gtrsim10$, non-repeating FRBs will be detected with the SKA at a rate of $\sim10^{4}$, $\sim10^{2}$, and $\sim10$ (sky$^{-1}$ day$^{-1}$), respectively, if their luminosity function follows the CSMD evolution. At $z\gtrsim1$, $z\gtrsim2$, and $z\gtrsim4$, sources of repeating FRBs will be detected at a rate of $\sim10^{3}$, $\sim10^{2}$, and $\lesssim10$ (sky$^{-1}$ day$^{-1}$), respectively, assuming that the redshift evolution of their luminosity function is scaled with the CSFRD. These numbers could change by about one order of magnitude depending on the assumptions on the CSMD and CSFRD. In all cases, abundant FRBs will be detected by the SKA, which will further constrain the luminosity functions and number density evolutions., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A summary is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-30UghzCO8

Context. Dusty high-z galaxies are extreme objects with high star formation rates (SFRs) and luminosities. Characterising the properties of this population and analysing their evolution over cosmic time is key to understanding galaxy evolution in the early Universe. Aims. We select a sample of high-z dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and evaluate their position on the main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies, the well-known correlation between stellar mass and SFR. We aim to understand the causes of their high star formation and quantify the percentage of DSFGs that lie above the MS. Methods. We adopted a multi-wavelength approach with data from optical to submillimetre wavelengths from surveys at the North Ecliptic Pole to study a submillimetre sample of high-redshift galaxies. Two submillimetre selection methods were used, including: sources selected at 850 μm with the Sub-millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) SCUBA-2 instrument and Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) selected sources (colour-colour diagrams and 500 μm risers), finding that 185 have good multi-wavelength coverage. The resulting sample of 185 high-z candidates was further studied by spectral energy distribution fitting with the CIGALE fitting code. We derived photometric redshifts, stellar masses, SFRs, and additional physical parameters, such as the infrared luminosity and active galactic nuclei (AGN) contribution. Results. We find that the Herschel-SPIRE selected DSFGs generally have higher redshifts (z = 2.57−0.09+0.08) than sources that are selected solely by the SCUBA-2 method (z = 1.45−0.06+0.21). We find moderate SFRs (797−50+108 M⊙ yr−1), which are typically lower than those found in other studies. We find that the different results in the literature are, only in part, due to selection effects, as even in the most extreme cases, SFRs are still lower than a few thousand solar masses per year. The difference in measured SFRs affects the position of DSFGs on the MS of galaxies; most of the DSFGs lie on the MS (60%). Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency (SFE) depends on the epoch and intensity of the star formation burst in the galaxy; the later the burst, the more intense the star formation. We discuss whether the higher SFEs in DSFGs could be due to mergers.