We present the ancillary data and basic physical measurements for the galaxies in the ALMA Large Program to Investigate C⁺ at Early Times (ALPINE) survey—the first large multiwavelength survey that aims at characterizing the gas and dust properties of 118 main-sequence galaxies at redshifts 4.4 < z < 5.9 via the measurement of [ ] emission at (64% at >3.5σ) and the surrounding far-infrared continuum in conjunction with a wealth of optical and near-infrared data. We outline in detail the spectroscopic data and selection of the galaxies as well as the ground- and space-based imaging products. In addition, we provide several basic measurements including stellar masses, star formation rates (SFR), rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) luminosities, UV continuum slopes (β), and absorption line redshifts, as well as Hα emission derived from Spitzer colors. We find that the ALPINE sample is representative of the 4 < z < 6 galaxy population selected by photometric methods and only slightly biased toward bluer colors (Δβ ∼ 0.2). Using [ ] as tracer of the systemic redshift (confirmed for one galaxy at z = 4.5 out of 118 for which we obtained optical [ ]λ3727Å emission), we confirm redshifted Lyα emission and blueshifted absorption lines similar to findings at lower redshifts. By stacking the rest-frame UV spectra in the [ ] rest frame, we find that the absorption lines in galaxies with high specific SFR are more blueshifted, which could be indicative of stronger winds and outflows.

The molecular gas content of normal galaxies atz > 4 is poorly constrained because the commonly used molecular gas tracers become hard to detect at these high redshifts. We use the [C II] 158μm luminosity, which was recently proposed as a molecular gas tracer, to estimate the molecular gas content in a large sample of main sequence star-forming galaxies atz = 4.4 − 5.9, with a median stellar mass of 10^9.7 M_⊙, drawn from the ALMA Large Program to INvestigate [C II] at Early times survey. The agreement between the molecular gas masses derived from [C II] luminosities, dynamical masses, and rest-frame 850μm luminosities extrapolated from the rest-frame 158μm continuum supports [C II] as a reliable tracer of molecular gas in our sample. We find a continuous decline of the molecular gas depletion timescale fromz = 0 toz = 5.9, which reaches a mean value of (4.6 ± 0.8) × 10⁸yr atz ∼ 5.5, only a factor of between two and three shorter than in present-day galaxies. This suggests a mild enhancement of the star formation efficiency toward high redshifts. Our estimates also show that the previously reported rise in the molecular gas fraction flattens off abovez ∼ 3.7 to achieve a mean value of 63%±3% overz = 4.4 − 5.9. This redshift evolution of the gas fraction is in line with that of the specific star formation rate. We use multi-epoch abundance-matching to follow the gas fraction evolution across cosmic time of progenitors ofz = 0 Milky Way-like galaxies in ∼10¹³ M_⊙halos and of more massivez = 0 galaxies in ∼10¹⁴ M_⊙halos. Interestingly, the former progenitors show a monotonic increase of the gas fraction with redshift, while the latter show a steep rise fromz = 0 toz ∼ 2 followed by a constant gas fraction fromz ∼ 2 toz = 5.9. We discuss three possible effects, namely outflows, a pause in gas supply, and over-efficient star formation, which may jointly contribute to the gas fraction plateau of the latter massive galaxies.

We combine results from deep ALMA observations of massive (M_* > 10¹⁰ M_⊙) galaxies at different redshifts to show that the column density of their interstellar medium (ISM) rapidly increases toward early cosmic epochs. Our analysis includes objects from the ASPECS and ALPINE large programs, as well as individual observations ofz ∼ 6 quasar hosts. When accounting for non-detections and correcting for selection effects, we find that the median surface density of the ISM of the massive galaxy population evolves as ∼(1 + z)^3.3. This means that the ISM column density toward the nucleus of az > 3 galaxy is typically > 100 times larger than locally, and it may reach values as high as Compton-thick atz ≳ 6. Remarkably, the median ISM column density is on the same order of what is measured from X-ray observations of large active galactic nucleus (AGN) samples already atz ≳ 2. We have developed a simple analytic model for the spatial distribution of ISM clouds within galaxies, and estimate the total covering factor toward active nuclei when obscuration by ISM clouds on the host scale is added to that of parsec-scale circumnuclear material (the so-called torus). The model includes clouds with a distribution of sizes, masses, and surface densities, and also allows for an evolution of the characteristic cloud surface density with redshift, Σ_c, * ∝ (1 + z)^γ. We show that, forγ = 2, such a model successfully reproduces the increase in the obscured AGN fraction with redshift that is commonly observed in deep X-ray surveys, both when different absorption thresholds and AGN luminosities are considered. Our results suggest that 80–90% of supermassive black holes in the early Universe (z > 6 − 8) are hidden to our view, primarily by the ISM in their hosts. We finally discuss the implications of our results and how they can be tested observationally with current and forthcoming facilities (e.g., VLT, E-ELT, ALMA, and JWST) and with next-generation X-ray imaging satellites. By extrapolating the observed X-ray nebulae around local AGN to the environments of supermassive black holes at high redshifts, we find ≲1″ nebulae impose stringent design constraints on the spatial resolution of any future X-ray imaging Great Observatory in the coming decades.

We compare various star formation rate (SFR) indicators for star-forming galaxies at 1.4 < z < 2.5 in the COSMOS field. The main focus is on the SFRs from the far-IR (PACS-Herschel data) with those from the ultraviolet, for galaxies selected according to the BzK criterion. FIR-selected samples lead to a vastly different slope of the SFR–stellar mass (M_*) relation, compared to that of the dominant main-sequence population as measured from the UV, since the FIR selection picks predominantly only a minority of outliers. However, there is overall agreement between the main sequences derived with the two SFR indicators, when stacking on the PACS maps the BzK-selected galaxies. The resulting logarithmic slope of the SFR–M_* relation is ∼0.8–0.9, in agreement with that derived from the dust-corrected UV luminosity. Exploiting deeper 24 μm Spitzer data, we have characterized a subsample of galaxies with reddening and SFRs poorly constrained, as they are very faint in the B band. The combination of Herschel with Spitzer data has allowed us to largely break the age/reddening degeneracy for these intriguing sources, by distinguishing whether a galaxy is very red in B-z because of being heavily dust reddened, or whether because star formation has been (or is being) quenched. Finally, we have compared our SFR(UV) to the SFRs derived by stacking the radio data and to those derived from the Hα luminosity of a sample of star-forming galaxies at 1.4 < z < 1.7. The two sets of SFRs are broadly consistent as they are with the SFRs derived from the UV and by stacking the corresponding PACS data in various mass bins.

The star formation rate density (SFRD) history of the universe is well constrained up to redshift z ∼ 2. At earlier cosmic epochs, the picture has been largely inferred from UV-selected galaxies (e.g., Lyman-break galaxies; LBGs). However, the inferred star formation rates of LBGs strongly depend on the assumed dust extinction correction, which is not well constrained at high z, while observations in the radio domain are not affected by this issue. In this work we measure the SFRD from a 1.4 GHz selected sample of ∼600 galaxies in the GOODS-N field up to redshift ∼3.5. We take into account the contribution of active galactic nuclei from the infrared-radio correlation. We measure the radio luminosity function, fitted with a modified Schechter function, and derive the SFRD. The cosmic SFRD shows an increase up to z ∼ 2 and then an almost flat plateau up to z ∼ 3.5. Our SFRD is in agreement with those from other far-IR/radio surveys and a factor 2 higher than those from LBG samples. We also estimate that galaxies lacking a counterpart in the HST/WFC3 H-band (H-dark) make up ∼25% of the ϕ-integrated SFRD relative to the full sample at z ∼ 3.2, and up to 58% relative to LBG samples.

We present the average [C ii] 158 μm emission line sizes of UV-bright star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 7. Our results are derived from a stacking analysis of [C ii] 158 μm emission lines and dust continua observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), taking advantage of the large program Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey. We find that the average [C ii] emission at z ∼ 7 has an effective radius r _e of 2.2 ± 0.2 kpc. It is ≳2× larger than the dust continuum and the rest-frame UV emission, in agreement with recently reported measurements for z ≲ 6 galaxies. Additionally, we compared the average [C ii] size with 4 < z < 6 galaxies observed by the ALMA Large Program to INvestigate [C ii] at Early times (ALPINE). By analyzing [C ii] sizes of 4 < z < 6 galaxies in two redshift bins, we find an average [C ii] size of r _e = 2.2 ± 0.2 kpc and r _e = 2.5 ± 0.2 kpc for z ∼ 5.5 and z ∼ 4.5 galaxies, respectively. These measurements show that star-forming galaxies, on average, show no evolution in the size of the [C ii] 158 μm emitting regions at redshift between z ∼ 7 and z ∼ 4. This finding suggests that the star-forming galaxies could be morphologically dominated by gas over a wide redshift range.