{
  "abstract": "We introduce the TRICEPS (Tracing Resolved Ionized Carbon Emission in Primeval Systems) survey. TRICEPS focuses on a sample of 16 massive galaxies at z = 4 - 5 with top-quality data: (i) ALMA band-7 observations of the [CII]-158 micron line, tracing the cold gas distribution and kinematics at spatial resolutions of about 0.1\" (~0.8 kpc), (ii) ALMA maps of the rest-frame 160 micron continuum emission, tracing the dust distribution at similar spatial resolutions, (iii) multi-band JWST images from NIRCam and MIRI, tracing the stellar mass distribution and star formation activity at spatial resolutions of 0.1\"-0.2\", and (iv) multi-line CO observations from ALMA and the VLA, including the CO(1-0) line, tracing the molecular gas content. In this first paper, we describe the TRICEPS scientific goals, the basic properties of the galaxy sample, and the ALMA band-7 observations. TRICEPS galaxies were selected based only on bright [CII] fluxes (>2 Jy km/s). They lie on the top-end of the star-forming main sequence at z = 4-5, having stellar masses between about 10^10.5-10^12 Msun and star-formation rates between about 100 - 3000 Msun/yr. To date, TRICEPS is the largest sample of galaxies at z = 4-5 for which the gas distribution and kinematics are exceptionally well resolved: on average, 46 resolution elements per galaxy with signal-to-noise ratio higher than 3. By survey design, half of the TRICEPS targets are in galaxy pairs; clear signs of tidal interactions are present in three of the four pairs. In all galaxies, the [CII] velocity fields display regular rotation, albeit the interacting galaxies tend to be somewhat more disturbed. The TRICEPS observations suggest that regular rotation is ubiquitous among massive star-forming galaxies when the Universe was less than ~1.5 Gyr old.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.30375",
  "author_total": 14,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Federico Lelli"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lingrui Lin"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zhi-Yu Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Cecilia Bacchini"
    },
    {
      "name": "Davide Bevacqua"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joe Bhangal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Marco Castellano"
    },
    {
      "name": "Carlos De Breuck"
    },
    {
      "name": "Giovanni Gandolfi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Allison W. S. Man"
    },
    {
      "name": "Antonino Marasco"
    },
    {
      "name": "Diego Paris"
    },
    {
      "name": "Borja Pérez-Díaz"
    },
    {
      "name": "Paola Santini"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6hwnfjjjjvxyx.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.30375",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "6hwnfjjjjvxyx",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30375",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.CO"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214603129",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.30375",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-24",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6hwnfjjjjvxyx.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:24:52Z",
      "native_id": "2609.30375",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30375"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.CO",
      "subfield": "cosmology"
    },
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "TRICEPS. I. Tracing cold gas, dust, and stars at sub-kpc scales in massive star-forming galaxies at z = 4-5",
  "title_text": "TRICEPS. I. Tracing cold gas, dust, and stars at sub-kpc scales in massive star-forming galaxies at z = 4-5",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:24:52Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6hwnfjjjjvxyx",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}