Blowing dusty bubbles into the CGM: The contribution of dust-enshrouded starbursts to the baryon cycle

Maximal starbursts form stars at a sufficient rate to disrupt the collapse of molecular clouds through stellar feedback. Capturing their prevalence is critical to understanding the quenching of star formation after Cosmic Noon. Dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) are considered the best candidates, as they are optically thick not just to UV radiation from massive stars, but even to dust-reprocessed IR light. This creates significant radiation pressure, capable of ejecting dust and gas from the plane of the disk and into the circumgalactic medium (CGM). To better understand this, we focus on some of the most luminous known DSFGs. Our sample of 30 gravitationally-lensed objects includes hyperluminous IR galaxies with SFRs ~ 300-3000 Msun/yr. Using 0.1”-resolution ALMA observations, and taking advantage of lensing magnification, we aim to identify ~100pc-scale regions forming stars at super-Eddington rates, from where galactic winds are likely to be launched. Such measurements are nearly impossible without lensing, as they would require ~10 milliarcsec resolution. JWST is now adding valuable insight to this picture, peering through the thick shrouds of dust and allowing for spatially-resolved SED fitting of DSFGs on similar scales. Through NIRCam, we find widespread distributions of star formation, but also a significant presence of dust in front of more quiescent regions. This may be further evidence of our proposed scenario of dust being transported into the intervening CGM.