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A. W. Blain (Institute of Astronomy, UK)
Since 1997, millimeter(mm) and submm-wave telescopes have been detecting a significant population of very luminous distant galaxies, which are assumed to be dust-enshrouded star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei. By virtue of the high-redshift biased selection effect at work in these wavebands, most of the multiwaveband counterparts of these `SCUBA' galaxies have proved difficult to identify. However, by a combination of deep optical, near-infrared, radio and mm-wave interferometry data some considerable progress has been made, indicating that there are very few low-redshift counterparts. Here, I discuss the consequences of the detection of this population for our understanding of the evolution of galaxies, and the prospects for studying them in more detail in the future, especially using the ALMA interferometer array.
Much of this material is based on the SCUBA Lens Survey by Ian Smail, Rob Ivison. Jean-Paul Kneib and Dave Frayer. This work was supported generously by the Raymond & Beverly Sackler Foundation as part of the Foundation's Deep Sky Initiative program at the IoA.