0 Assigned ID: 809 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Apr 11 20:57:52 GMT 2014) ----- Understanding the formation of massive early-type galaxies remains a long standing problem in astrophysics. Observational evidence suggests that these galaxies formed the bulk of their stars in a massive dissipative burst of star formation at z > 1. The discovery of high redshift dusty star-bursting galaxies in the late 90s via their submillimeter (submm) emission seemed to provide the ideal candidates for the progenitors of local massive early-type galaxies. However, despite much effort the importance of these submm galaxies remains uncertain mainly as a result of the difficulty in identifying and studying their typically faint counterparts at shorter wavelengths. The combination of two of the latest world leading galaxy surveys, the HST WFC3 CANDELS and SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey (S2CLS) finally provides the opportunity to resolve this issue once and for all. We propose to combine the deep, wide-field, high resolution near-IR (and associated multi-wavelength ancillary data) of CANDELS with the deep, high resolution SCUBA-2 submm imaging of the S2CLS to study with both unprecedented fidelity and statistics a sample of >400 z > 1 submm selected dusty starbursts. We will measure the redshift distribution, stellar mass, SFRs, dust masses, sizes and light profile shapes, morphology, merger fraction, and clustering amplitude and hence dark matter halo mass for a sample of submm-selected galaxies a factor of 10 larger than any studied to date. These measurements will finally allow us to determine if these submm galaxies are the crucial phase in the formation of massive early-type galaxies. COSMOLOGY Default Medium false false false false false SUPPORTED