Detailed study of a rare hyperluminous rotating disk in an Einstein ring 10 billion years ago

Hyperluminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRGs) are the rarest and most extreme starbursts in the distant Universe (z ≥ 1), typically with intrinsic infrared luminosities LIR ≥ 1013 L⊙ and frequently associated with major mergers. We present a detailed study of PJ0116-24, the brightest (µLIR ≈ 2.6 × 1014 L⊙, magnified by µ = 17) Einstein-ring HyLIRG in the southern sky at z = 2.125, using near-IR IFU spectroscopy with VLT/ERIS and submillimetre interferometry with ALMA. We detect Hα, Hβ, [N II] and [S II] lines and measure an extreme Balmer decrement (Hα/Hβ ≈ 8.73 ± 1.14). Molecular- and ionized-gas kinematics modelled from CO(3–2) and Hα at ∼100–300 pc and (sub)kpc delensed scales, respectively, reveal consistent, regular rotation. PJ0116-24 is highly rotationally supported (vrot/σ0,mol ≈ 9.4) and exhibits richer gaseous substructure than other known HyLIRGs. It is intrinsically massive (Mbaryon ≈ 1011.3 M⊙) with an extreme SFR ≈ 1,490 M⊙ yr−1, and likely undergoing secular evolution rather than a major merger. These results imply that maximal SFRs (≥1,000 M⊙ yr−1) predicted by simulations can occur during secular evolution, away from mergers.

Daizhong Liu, Natascha M. Förster Schreiber, Kevin C. Harrington, Lilian L. Lee, Patrick S. Kamieneski, Richard I. Davies, Dieter Lutz, Alvio Renzini, Stijn Wuyts, Linda J. Tacconi, Reinhard Genzel, Andreas Burkert, Rodrigo Herrera-Camus, Belén Alcalde Pampliega, Amit Vishwas, Melanie Kaasinen, Q. Daniel Wang, Eric F. Jiménez-Andrade, James Lowenthal, Nicholas Foo, Brenda L. Frye, Jinyi Shangguan, Yixian Cao, Guido Agapito, Alex Agudo Berbel, Capucine Barfety, Andrea Baruffolo, Derek Berman, Martin Black, Marco Bonaglia, Runa Briguglio, Luca Carbonaro, Lee Chapman, Jianhang Chen, Aleksandar Cikota, Alice Concas, Olivia Cooper, Giovanni Cresci, Yigit Dallilar, Matthias Deysenroth, Ivan Di Antonio, Amico Di Cianno, Gianluca Di Rico, David Doelman, Mauro Dolci, Frank Eisenhauer, Carlos Garcia Diaz, Simone Esposito, Daniela Fantinel, Debora Ferruzzi, Helmut Feuchtgruber, Xiaofeng Gao, Juan Espejo, Stefan Gillessen, Paolo Grani, Michael Hartl, David Henry, Heinrich Huber, Jean-Baptiste Jolly, Christoph U. Keller, Matthew Kenworthy, Kateryna Kravchenko, Minju M. Lee, John Lightfoot, David Lunney, Mike Macintosh, Filippo Mannucci, Thomas Ott, Massimo Pascale, Stavros Pastras, David Pearson, Alfio Puglisi, Claudia Pulsoni, Sebastian Rabien, Christian Rau, Armando Riccardi, Bernardo Salasnich, Taro Shimizu, Frans Snik, Eckhard Sturm, William Taylor, Angelo Valentini, Christopher Waring, Erich Wiezorrek, Marco Xompero, Min S. Yun