1994A&A...288L..33C

We have searched for dust emission at 1300µm in three distant radio galaxies and detected faint signals from 4C41.17 (z=3.8) and 0902+34 (z=3.46); for 1232+39 (z=3.22) we could obtain a useful upper limit. Comparison with radio and submm data suggests that the 1300µm flux from the most distant known galaxy 4C41.17 is due to thermal emission from dust. We derive a dust temperature of ∼80K. Adopting galactic grain properties, this transforms into a total dust mass M_dust∼9x10⁷M_Sun for 4C41.17 and comparable values for the two other distant objects. The ionized gas of the Lyα halo and the dust must be spatially separated; we suggest a disk-like configuration for the dust, perpendicular to the alignment axis of radio and optical emission. The IR luminosity of 4C41.17 is estimated to be ∼10¹⁴L_Sun.