The nature of submillimetre and highly star-forming galaxies in the EAGLE simulation

We exploit EAGLE, a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, to reproduce the selection of the observed submillimetre (submm) galaxy population by selecting the model galaxies at z >= 1 with mock submm fluxes S-850 mu m >= 1mJy. We find a reasonable agreement between the model galaxies within this sample and the properties of the observed submm population, such as their star formation rates (SFRs) at z = 1mJy model population is z approximate to 2.5, and that they are massive galaxies (M-* similar to 10(11)M(circle dot)) with high dust masses (M-dust similar to 10(8)M(circle dot)), gas fractions (f(gas) approximate to 50 per cent), and SFRs ((*) approximate to 100 M-circle dot yr(-1)). In addition, we find that they have major and minor merger fractions similar to the general population, suggesting that mergers are not the sole driver of the high SFRs in the model submm galaxies. Instead, the S-850 (mu m) >= 1mJy model galaxies yield high SFRs primarily because they maintain a significant gas reservoir as a result of hosting an undermassive black hole relative to comparably massive galaxies. Not all 'highly star-forming' ((*) >= 80M(circle dot) yr(-1)) EAGLE galaxies have submm fluxes S-850 (mu m) >= 1 mJy. We investigate the nature of these highly star-forming 'Submm-Faint' galaxies (i.e. (*) = 80 M-circle dot yr(-1) but S-850 (mu m) 4) and are lower mass (M-* similar to 10(10) M-circle dot). These typically higher redshift galaxies show stronger evidence for having been triggered by major mergers, and critically, they are likely missed by most current submm surveys due to their higher dust temperatures and lower dust masses.Peer reviewe