Proposed identification of Hubble Deep Field submillimeter source HDF 850.1

The IRAM Interferometer has been used to detect the submillimeter source HDF 850.1 found by Hughes et al. (1998) in the Hubble Deep Field. The flux density measured at 1.3 mm (236 GHz) is 2.20:3(1) mJy, in agreement with the flux den- sity measured at the JCMT. The flux densities and upper limits measured at 3.4, 2.8, 1.3, 0.85, and 0.45 mm show that the emis- sion comes from dust. We suggest that the 1.3 mm dust source is associated with the optical arc-like feature, 3-593.0, that has a photometric redshift z 1:7. If the HDF 850.1 is at this red- shift and unlensed, its spectral energy distribution, combined with that of 3-593.0, matches closely that of the ultraluminous galaxy VII Zw 31. Another possibility is that the dust source may be gravitationally lensed by the elliptical galaxy 3-586.0 at z 1. The position of the dust source agrees within the errors with that of the tentative VLA radio source 3651+1226.