NED Abstract 
Copyright by Royal Astronomical Society.
2006MNRAS.370.1057S

A combined re-analysis of existing blank-field SCUBA surveys: comparative
850-microns source lists, combined number counts, and evidence for strong
clustering of the bright submillimetre galaxy population on arcminute
scales

Scott, S. E.; Dunlop, J. S.; Serjeant, S. 

Abstract. Since the advent of Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array
(SCUBA) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), a series of
complementary surveys has resolved the bulk of the far-infrared
extragalactic background into discrete sources. This has revealed a
population of heavily dust-obscured sources at high redshift (z> 1)
undergoing an intense period of massive star-forming activity with
inferred star formation rates of several hundred to several thousand
solar masses per year. Taken together, these existing surveys cover a
total area of 460 arcmin^2^ to a range of depths, but combining the
results has hitherto been complicated by the fact that different survey
groups have used different methods of data reduction and source
extraction. In this paper, we re-reduce and re-analyse all of the
blank-field surveys to date in an almost identical manner to that
employed in the 'SCUBA 8-mJy Survey'. Comparative source catalogues are
given which include a number of new significant source detections as
well as failing to confirm some of those objects previously published.
These new source catalogues have been combined to produce the most
accurate number counts to date from 2 to 12.5 mJy. We find N(>4 mJy) =
620^+110^_-190_ deg^-2^, N(>6 mJy) = 310^+60^_-100_ deg^-2^, N(>8 mJy) =
150^+40^_-60_ deg^-2^ and N(>10 mJy) = 40^+20^_-20_ deg^-2^ after
correcting for the effects of incompleteness, flux-density boosting and
contamination from spurious/confused detections. Furthermore, the
cumulative number counts appear to steepen beyond S_850_> 8 mJy, which
could indicate an intrinsic turnover in the underlying luminosity
function placing an upper limit on the luminosity (and hence mass) of a
high-redshift galaxy. We have also investigated the clustering
properties of the bright S_850_> 5 mJy SCUBA population by means of
two-point angular correlation functions. We find a 3.5{sigma} excess of
pairs within the first 100 arcsec over that expected from a Poisson
distribution. Fits of a standard power law of the form w({theta}) =
A{theta}^-delta^ to the angular correlation functions for S_850_> 5 mJy
are limited in accuracy by the small number of source detections but
appear to be broadly consistent with those measured for extremely red
objects. Nearest-neighbour analyses further support strong clustering on
arcmin scales, rejecting the null hypothesis that the distribution of
the submillimetre sources is random at the 95 per cent confidence level
for S_850_> 5 mJy, and at the 99 per cent confidence level for S_850_> 7
mJy. 

Key words: galaxies: evolution,galaxies: formation,galaxies:
starburst,cosmology: observations,infrared: galaxies