scholarly journals Modelling Stellar Populations at High Redshift

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S277) ◽  
pp. 158-165
Author(s):  
Claudia Maraston

AbstractStellar populations carry information about the formation of galaxies and their evolution up to the present epoch. A wealth of observational data are available nowadays, which are analysed with stellar population models in order to obtain key properties such as ages, star formation histories, stellar masses. Differences in the models and/or in the assumptions regarding the star formation history affect the derived properties as much as differences in the data. I shall review the interpretation of high-redshift galaxy data from a model perspective. While data quality dominates galaxy analysis at the highest possible redshifts (z > 5), population modelling effects play the major part at lower redshifts. In particular, I discuss the cases of both star-forming galaxies at the peak of the cosmic star formation history as well as passive galaxies at redshift below 1 that are often used as cosmological probes. Remarks on the bridge between low and high-z massive galaxies conclude the contribution.

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 248-248
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bunker ◽  
Elizabeth R. Stanway ◽  
Laurence P. Eyles ◽  
Richard S. Ellis ◽  
Richard G. McMahon ◽  
...  

AbstractWe discuss the selection of star-forming galaxies at z≃6 through the Lyman-break technique. Spitzer imaging implies many of these contain older stellar populations (>200Myr) which produce detectable Balmer breaks. The ages and stellar masses (∼1010M⊙) imply that the star formation rate density at earlier epochs may have been significantly higher than at z≃6, and might have played a key role in re-ionizing the universe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. A81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison W. S. Man ◽  
Matthew D. Lehnert ◽  
Joël D. R. Vernet ◽  
Carlos De Breuck ◽  
Theresa Falkendal

The objective of this work is to study how active galactic nuclei (AGN) influence star formation in host galaxies. We present a detailed investigation of the star-formation history and conditions of a z = 2.57 massive radio galaxy based on VLT/X-shooter and ALMA observations. The deep rest-frame ultraviolet spectrum contains photospheric absorption lines and wind features indicating the presence of OB-type stars. The most significantly detected photospheric features are used to characterize the recent star formation: neither instantaneous nor continuous star-formation history is consistent with the relative strength of the Si IIλ1485 and S Vλ1502 absorption. Rather, at least two bursts of star formation took place in the recent past, at 6+1-2 Myr and ≳20 Myr ago, respectively. We deduce a molecular H2 gas mass of (3.9 ± 1.0) × 1010 M⊙ based on ALMA observations of the [C I] 3P2−3P1 emission. The molecular gas mass is only 13% of its stellar mass. Combined with its high star-formation rate of (1020-170+190 M⊙ yr-1, this implies a high star-formation efficiency of (26 ± 8) Gyr−1 and a short depletion time of (38 ± 12) Myr. We attribute the efficient star formation to compressive gas motions in order to explain the modest velocity dispersions (⩽55 km s−1) of the photospheric lines and of the star-forming gas traced by [C I]. Because of the likely very young age of the radio source, our findings suggest that vigorous star formation consumes much of the gas and works in concert with the AGN to remove any residual molecular gas, and eventually quenching star formation in massive galaxies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 661-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natascha M. Förster Schreiber ◽  
Stijn Wuyts

Ever deeper and wider look-back surveys have led to a fairly robust outline of the cosmic star-formation history, which culminated around [Formula: see text]; this period is often nicknamed “cosmic noon.” Our knowledge about star-forming galaxies at these epochs has dramatically advanced from increasingly complete population censuses and detailed views of individual galaxies. We highlight some of the key observational insights that influenced our current understanding of galaxy evolution in the equilibrium growth picture: ▪  Scaling relations between galaxy properties are fairly well established among massive galaxies at least out to [Formula: see text], pointing to regulating mechanisms already acting on galaxy growth. ▪  Resolved views reveal that gravitational instabilities and efficient secular processes within the gas- and baryon-rich galaxies at [Formula: see text] play an important role in the early buildup of galactic structure. ▪  Ever more sensitive observations of kinematics at [Formula: see text] are probing the baryon and dark matter budget on galactic scales and the links between star-forming galaxies and their likely descendants. ▪  Toward higher masses, massive bulges, dense cores, and powerful AGNs and AGN-driven outflows are more prevalent and likely play a role in quenching star formation. We outline emerging questions and exciting prospects for the next decade with upcoming instrumentation, including the James Webb Space Telescope and the next generation of extremely large telescopes.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S262) ◽  
pp. 153-163
Author(s):  
Ivo Labbé

AbstractHow did galaxies evolve from primordial fluctuations to the well-ordered but diverse population of disk and elliptical galaxies that we observe today? Stellar populations synthesis models have become a crucial tool in addressing this question by helping us to interpret the spectral energy distributions of present-day galaxies and their high redshift progenitors in terms of fundamental characteristics such as stellar mass and age. I will review our current knowledge on the evolution of stellar populations in early- and late type galaxies at z < 1 and the tantalizing – but incomplete – view of the stellar populations in galaxies at 1 < z < 3, during the global peak of star formation. Despite great progress, many fundamental questions remain: what processes trigger episodes of galaxy-scale star formation and what quenches them? To what degree does the star formation history of galaxies depend on the merger history, (halo) mass, or local environment? I will discuss some of the challenges posed in interpreting current data and what improved results might be expected from new observational facilities in the near- and more distant future.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S292) ◽  
pp. 289-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pannella ◽  
D. Elbaz ◽  
E. Daddi

AbstractWe quantitatively explore in a unbiased way the evolution of dust attenuation up to z ≈ 4 as a function of galaxy properties. We have used one of the deepest datasets available at present, in the GOODS-N field, to select a star forming galaxy sample and robustly measure galaxy redshifts, star formation rates, stellar masses and UV restframe properties. Our main results can be summarized as follows: i) we confirm that galaxy stellar mass is a main driver of UV dust attenuation in star forming galaxies: more massive galaxies are more dust attenuated than less massive ones; ii) strikingly, we find that the correlation does not evolve with redshift: the amount of dust attenuation is the same at all cosmic epochs for a fixed stellar mass; iii) this finding explains why and how the SFR–AUV relation evolves with redshift: the same amount of star formation is less attenuated at higher redshift because it is hosted in less massive galaxies; iv) combining our finding with results from line emission surveys, we confirm that line reddening is larger than continuum reddening, at least up to z ≈ 1.5; v) given the redshift evolution of the mass-metallicity relation, we predict that star forming galaxies at a fixed metal content are more attenuated at high redshift. Finally, we explored the correlation between UV dust attenuation and the spectral slope: vi) the correlation is evolving with redshift with star forming galaxies at lower redshift having redder spectra than higher redshift ones for the same amount of dust attenuation.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 341-344
Author(s):  
Casey Papovich

AbstractI discuss current observational constraints on the star-formation and stellar-assembly histories of galaxies at high redshifts. The data on massive galaxies at z < 1 implies that their stellar populations formed at z>2, and that their morphological configuration was in place soon thereafter. Spitzer Space Telescope 24 μ observations indicate that a substantial fraction of massive galaxies at z ~ 1.5–3 have high IR luminosities, suggesting they are rapidly forming stars, accreting material onto supermassive black holes, or both. I compare how observations of these IR–active phases in the histories of massive galaxies constrain current galaxy–formation models.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S341) ◽  
pp. 134-137
Author(s):  
Kartheik G. Iyer ◽  
Eric Gawiser

AbstractPanchromatic SED fitting allows us to better resolve degeneracies between quantities like the star formation rate and dust. This in turn allows us to more robustly extract information about the different stellar populations that comprise a galaxy’s Star Formation History (SFH). Using the Dense Basis SED fitting method (Iyer & Gawiser 2017), we reconstruct the SFHs with uncertainties for a large sample of galaxies using an atlas of SEDs corresponding to a physically motivated basis of SFHs. Using Gaussian Process Regression, we encode the parameters describing these SFHs in a functionally independent form. This give us more robust estimates for quantities like Stellar Masses and Star Formation Rates, that directly depend on the SFH. These SFHs can additionally be used to answer questions like the time at which a galaxy’s star formation peaked, and how many major episodes of star formation occurred in a galaxy’s past, allowing us to go beyond the traditionally estimated ‘Galaxy Age’, which is often poorly constrained. They also allow us to probe the high-redshift low-stellar mass regime of the SFR-M* correlation by constructing trajectories in SFR-M* space for each galaxy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 502 (3) ◽  
pp. 3128-3143
Author(s):  
Thomas Peterken ◽  
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca ◽  
Michael Merrifield ◽  
Vladimir Avila-Reese ◽  
Nicholas F Boardman ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT By fitting stellar populations to the fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey observations of ∼7000 suitably weighted individual galaxies, we reconstruct the star formation history of the Universe, which we find to be in reasonable agreement with previous studies. Dividing the galaxies by their present-day stellar mass, we demonstrate the downsizing phenomenon, whereby the more massive galaxies hosted the most star formation at earlier times. Further dividing the galaxy sample by colour and morphology, we find that a galaxy’s present-day colour tells us more about its historical contribution to the cosmic star formation history than its current morphology. We show that downsizing effects are greatest among galaxies currently in the blue cloud, but that the level of downsizing in galaxies of different morphologies depends quite sensitively on the morphological classification used, due largely to the difficulty in classifying the smaller low-mass galaxies from their ground-based images. Nevertheless, we find agreement that among galaxies with stellar masses $M_{\star } \gt 6\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{ M}_{\odot }$, downsizing is most significant in spirals. However, there are complicating factors. For example, for more massive galaxies, we find that colour and morphology are predictors of the past star formation over a longer time-scale than in less massive systems. Presumably this effect is reflecting the longer period of evolution required to alter these larger galaxies’ physical properties, but shows that conclusions based on any single property do not tell the full story.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 136-140
Author(s):  
Minju M. Lee ◽  
Ichi Tanaka ◽  
Rohei Kawabe

AbstractWe present studies of a protocluster at z =2.5, an overdense region found close to a radio galaxy, 4C 23.56, using ALMA. We observed 1.1 mm continuum, two CO lines (CO (4–3) and CO (3–2)) and the lower atomic carbon line transition ([CI](3P1-3P0)) at a few kpc (0″.3-0″.9) resolution. The primary targets are 25 star-forming galaxies selected as Hα emitters (HAEs) that are identified with a narrow band filter. These are massive galaxies with stellar masses of > 1010Mʘ that are mostly on the galaxy main sequence at z =2.5. We measure the molecular gas mass from the independent gas tracers of 1.1 mm, CO (3–2) and [CI], and investigate the gas kinematics of galaxies from CO (4–3). Molecular gas masses from the different measurements are consistent with each other for detection, with a gas fraction (fgas = Mgas/(Mgas+ Mstar)) of ≃ 0.5 on average but with a caveat. On the other hand, the CO line widths of the protocluster galaxies are typically broader by ˜50% compared to field galaxies, which can be attributed to more frequent, unresolved gas-rich mergers and/or smaller sizes than field galaxies, supported by our high-resolution images and a kinematic model fit of one of the galaxies. We discuss the expected scenario of galaxy evolution in protoclusters at high redshift but future large surveys are needed to get a more general view.


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