scholarly journals Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to z ∼ 1

2019 ◽  
Vol 631 ◽  
pp. A156 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. Díaz-García ◽  
A. J. Cenarro ◽  
C. López-Sanjuan ◽  
I. Ferreras ◽  
M. Cerviño ◽  
...  

Aims. Our aim is to determine the distribution of stellar population parameters (extinction, age, metallicity, and star formation rates) of quiescent galaxies within the rest-frame stellar mass–colour diagrams and UVJ colour–colour diagrams corrected for extinction up to z ∼ 1. These novel diagrams reduce the contamination in samples of quiescent galaxies owing to dust-reddened galaxies, and they provide useful constraints on stellar population parameters only using rest-frame colours and/or stellar mass. Methods. We set constraints on the stellar population parameters of quiescent galaxies combining the ALHAMBRA multi-filter photo-spectra with our fitting code for spectral energy distribution, MUlti-Filter FITting (MUFFIT), making use of composite stellar population models based on two independent sets of simple stellar population (SSP) models. The extinction obtained by MUFFIT allowed us to remove dusty star-forming (DSF) galaxies from the sample of red UVJ galaxies. The distributions of stellar population parameters across these rest-frame diagrams are revealed after the dust correction and are fitted by LOESS, a bi-dimensional and locally weighted regression method, to reduce uncertainty effects. Results. Quiescent galaxy samples defined via classical UVJ diagrams are typically contaminated by a ∼20% fraction of DSF galaxies. A significant part of the galaxies in the green valley are actually obscured star-forming galaxies (∼30–65%). Consequently, the transition of galaxies from the blue cloud to the red sequence, and hence the related mechanisms for quenching, seems to be much more efficient and faster than previously reported. The rest-frame stellar mass–colour and UVJ colour–colour diagrams are useful for constraining the age, metallicity, extinction, and star formation rate of quiescent galaxies by only their redshift, rest-frame colours, and/or stellar mass. Dust correction plays an important role in understanding how quiescent galaxies are distributed in these diagrams and is key to performing a pure selection of quiescent galaxies via intrinsic colours.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (4) ◽  
pp. 5592-5606 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Katsianis ◽  
V Gonzalez ◽  
D Barrientos ◽  
X Yang ◽  
C D P Lagos ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT There is a severe tension between the observed star formation rate (SFR)–stellar mass (M⋆) relations reported by different authors at z = 1–4. In addition, the observations have not been successfully reproduced by state-of-the-art cosmological simulations that tend to predict a factor of 2–4 smaller SFRs at a fixed M⋆. We examine the evolution of the SFR–M⋆ relation of z = 1–4 galaxies using the skirt simulated spectral energy distributions of galaxies sampled from the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments simulations. We derive SFRs and stellar masses by mimicking different observational techniques. We find that the tension between observed and simulated SFR–M⋆ relations is largely alleviated if similar methods are used to infer the galaxy properties. We find that relations relying on infrared wavelengths (e.g. 24 ${\rm \, \mu m}$, MIPS – 24, 70, and 160 ${\rm \, \mu m}$ or SPIRE – 250, 350, and 500 ${\rm \, \mu m}$) have SFRs that exceed the intrinsic relation by 0.5 dex. Relations that rely on the spectral energy distribution fitting technique underpredict the SFRs at a fixed stellar mass by −0.5 dex at z ∼ 4 but overpredict the measurements by 0.3 dex at z ∼ 1. Relations relying on dust-corrected rest-frame ultraviolet luminosities, are flatter since they overpredict/underpredict SFRs for low/high star-forming objects and yield deviations from the intrinsic relation from 0.10 to −0.13 dex at z ∼ 4. We suggest that the severe tension between different observational studies can be broadly explained by the fact that different groups employ different techniques to infer their SFRs.



2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (3) ◽  
pp. 3240-3253
Author(s):  
Amanda R Lopes ◽  
Eduardo Telles ◽  
Jorge Melnick

ABSTRACT We discuss the implications of assuming different star formation histories (SFH) in the relation between star formation rate (SFR) and mass derived by the spectral energy distribution fitting (SED). Our analysis focuses on a sample of H ii galaxies, dwarf starburst galaxies spectroscopically selected through their strong narrow emission lines in SDSS DR13 at z < 0.4, cross-matched with photometric catalogues from GALEX, SDSS, UKIDSS, and WISE. We modelled and fitted the SEDs with the code CIGALE adopting different descriptions of SFH. By adding information from different independent studies, we find that H ii galaxies are best described by episodic SFHs including an old (10 Gyr), an intermediate age (100−1000 Myr) and a recent population with ages < 10 Myr. H ii galaxies agree with the SFR−M* relation from local star-forming galaxies, and only lie above such relation when the current SFR is adopted as opposed to the average over the entire SFH. The SFR−M* demonstrated not to be a good tool to provide additional information about the SFH of H ii galaxies, as different SFH present a similar behaviour with a spread of <0.1 dex.



2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (3) ◽  
pp. 4325-4369
Author(s):  
Andrés F Ramos Padilla ◽  
M L N Ashby ◽  
Howard A Smith ◽  
Juan R Martínez-Galarza ◽  
Aliza G Beverage ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Emission from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is known to play an important role in the evolution of many galaxies including luminous and ultraluminous systems (U/LIRGs), as well as merging systems. However, the extent, duration, and exact effects of its influence are still imperfectly understood. To assess the impact of AGNs on interacting systems, we present a spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis of a sample of 189 nearby galaxies. We gather and systematically re-reduce archival broad-band imaging mosaics from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared using data from GALEX, SDSS, 2MASS, IRAS, WISE, Spitzer, and Herschel. We use spectroscopy from Spitzer/IRS to obtain fluxes from fine-structure lines that trace star formation and AGN activity. Utilizing the SED modelling and fitting tool cigale, we derive the physical conditions of the interstellar medium, both in star-forming regions and in nuclear regions dominated by the AGN in these galaxies. We investigate how the star formation rates (SFRs) and the fractional AGN contributions (fAGN) depend on stellar mass, galaxy type, and merger stage. We find that luminous galaxies more massive than about $10^{10} \,\rm {M}_{*}$ are likely to deviate significantly from the conventional galaxy main-sequence relation. Interestingly, infrared AGN luminosity and stellar mass in this set of objects are much tighter than SFR and stellar mass. We find that buried AGNs may occupy a locus between bright starbursts and pure AGNs in the fAGN–[Ne v]/[Ne ii] plane. We identify a modest correlation between fAGN and mergers in their later stages.



2021 ◽  
Vol 508 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-174
Author(s):  
Karen McNab ◽  
Michael L Balogh ◽  
Remco F J van der Burg ◽  
Anya Forestell ◽  
Kristi Webb ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We measure the rate of environmentally driven star formation quenching in galaxies at z ∼ 1, using eleven massive ($M\approx 2\times 10^{14}\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$) galaxy clusters spanning a redshift range 1.0 < z < 1.4 from the GOGREEN sample. We identify three different types of transition galaxies: ‘green valley’ (GV) galaxies identified from their rest-frame (NUV − V) and (V − J) colours; ‘blue quiescent’ (BQ) galaxies, found at the blue end of the quiescent sequence in (U − V) and (V − J) colour; and spectroscopic post-starburst (PSB) galaxies. We measure the abundance of these galaxies as a function of stellar mass and environment. For high-stellar mass galaxies (log M/M⊙ > 10.5) we do not find any significant excess of transition galaxies in clusters, relative to a comparison field sample at the same redshift. It is likely that such galaxies were quenched prior to their accretion in the cluster, in group, filament, or protocluster environments. For lower stellar mass galaxies (9.5 < log M/M⊙ < 10.5) there is a small but significant excess of transition galaxies in clusters, accounting for an additional ∼5–10 per cent of the population compared with the field. We show that our data are consistent with a scenario in which 20–30 per cent of low-mass, star-forming galaxies in clusters are environmentally quenched every Gyr, and that this rate slowly declines from z = 1 to z = 0. While environmental quenching of these galaxies may include a long delay time during which star formation declines slowly, in most cases this must end with a rapid (τ < 1 Gyr) decline in star formation rate.



2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 342-346
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bunker

AbstractI present an overview of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), a joint program of the JWST/NIRCam and NIRSpec Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) teams involving 950 hours of observation. We will target two well-studied fields with excellent supporting data (e.g., from HST-CANDELS): GOODS-North and South, including the Ultra Deep Field. The science goal of JADES is to chart galaxy evolution at z > 2, and potentially out to z > 10, using the rest-frame optical and near-IR though observations from ≍ 1–5μm. Multi-colour NIRCam imaging with 9 filters will enable photometric redshifts and the application of the Lyman break technique out to unprecedented distances. NIRSpec spectroscopy (with spectral resolving powers of R = 100, 1000 & 2700) will measure secure spectroscopic redshifts of the photometrically-selected population, as well as stellar continuum slopes in the UV rest-frame, and hence study the role of dust, stellar population age, and other effects. Measuring emission lines can constrain the dust extinction, star formation rates, metallicity, chemical abundances, ionization and excitation mechanism in high redshift galaxies. Coupling NIRCam and NIRSpec observations will determine stellar populations (age, star formation histories, abundances) of galaxies and provide the information to correct their broad-band spectral energy distribution for likely line contamination. Potentially we can search for signatures of Population III stars such as HeII. We can address the contribution of star-forming galaxies at z > 7 to reionization by determining the faint end slope of the luminosity function and investigating the escape fraction of ionizing photons by comparing the UV stellar continuum with the Balmer-line fluxes.



2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S266) ◽  
pp. 499-499
Author(s):  
S. M. Petty ◽  
D. F. de Mello ◽  
J. P. Gardner ◽  
J. S. Gallagher

AbstractWe explore the multiwavelength properties of three nearby starburst galaxies: NGC 3079, NGC 7673, and Mrk 08. We established that each of these galaxies has similar rest-frame far-ultraviolet (FUV) morphologies as Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 1.5 and 4, when the age of the Universe was ~ 4.3 and ~ 1.6 Gyr, respectively. LBGs are at an important stage in galaxy evolution when the Universe had a peak in the star-formation-rate density. Many LBGs are primarily composed of star-forming clumps, i.e., stellar clusters, with a significant lack of older stellar populations. Here, we present the comparison of the spectral-energy distributions (SEDs) of three nearby starburst galaxies with those of typical LBGs. From our nearby sample, each object has been artificially redshifted to observe what the galaxies would look like at z ~ 1 to 4 in the rest-frame FUV. NGC 3079 is an edge-on Seyfert 2 galaxy. It has a bright bulge and is interacting with two other galaxies, with extended Hi only along NGC 3079. The redshifting process changes its appearance, so that at high z it looks like a chain galaxy with multiple knots of star formation and no bulge. NGC 7673 has extended Hi and the star formation is mostly within the inner optical region in the multiple star-forming clumps defining the galaxy morphology. In the FUV, the galaxy looks highly compact with little detail resolved. As it is artificially redshifted, the galaxy continues to look more spherical. Mrk 8 is a merging pair, with the two galaxies observable in the visible spectrum. It is classified as a Wolf–Rayet galaxy, which suggests a very young burst, and is composed of several large star-forming regions. The FUV image does not resolve the separate galaxies, and the appearance remains similar for each redshift. We use the Gini coefficient, M20, and the Sérsic index to quantify the morphologies. The SEDs of the objects have similarities with LBG stellar population models. Because these local galaxies can be studied in more detail, they act as a bridge between nearby observations of starburst galaxies and high-z starburst galaxies such as LBGs.



2018 ◽  
Vol 615 ◽  
pp. A55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Telles ◽  
Jorge Melnick

Aims. We present a UV to mid-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) study of a large sample of SDSS DR13 HII galaxies. These galaxies are selected as starbursts (EW(Hα) > 50Å) and for their high-excitation locus in the upper left region of the BPT diagram. Their photometry was derived from the cross-matched GALEX, SDSS, UKDISS, and WISE catalogs. Methods. We used CIGALE modeling and a SED fitting routine with the parametrization of a three-burst star formation history, and a comprehensive analysis of all other model parameters. We were able to estimate the contribution of the underlying old stellar population to the observed equivalent width of Hβ, and allow for more accurate burst age determination. Results. We found that the star formation histories of HII Galaxies can be reproduced remarkably well by three major eras of star formation. In addition, the SED fitting results indicate that in all cases the current burst produces a small percent of the total stellar mass, i.e., the bulk of stellar mass in HII galaxies has been produced by the past episodes of star formation, and also indicate that at a given age the Hβ luminosity depends only on the mass of young stars favoring a universal IMF for massive stars. Most importantly, the current star formation episodes are maximum starbursts that produce stars at the highest possible rate.



2019 ◽  
Vol 492 (1) ◽  
pp. 1492-1512
Author(s):  
S Gillman ◽  
A L Tiley ◽  
A M Swinbank ◽  
C M Harrison ◽  
Ian Smail ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present an analysis of the gas dynamics of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 using data from the KMOS Galaxy Evolution Survey. We quantify the morphology of the galaxies using HSTcandels imaging parametrically and non-parametrically. We combine the H α dynamics from KMOS with the high-resolution imaging to derive the relation between stellar mass (M*) and stellar specific angular momentum (j*). We show that high-redshift star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 follow a power-law trend in specific stellar angular momentum with stellar mass similar to that of local late-type galaxies of the form j*  ∝  M$_*^{0.53\, \pm \, 0.10}$. The highest specific angular momentum galaxies are mostly disc-like, although generally both peculiar morphologies and disc-like systems are found across the sequence of specific angular momentum at a fixed stellar mass. We explore the scatter within the j* – M* plane and its correlation with both the integrated dynamical properties of a galaxy (e.g. velocity dispersion, Toomre Qg, H α star formation rate surface density ΣSFR) and its parametrized rest-frame UV / optical morphology (e.g. Sérsic index, bulge to total ratio, clumpiness, asymmetry, and concentration). We establish that the position in the j* – M* plane is strongly correlated with the star-formation surface density and the clumpiness of the stellar light distribution. Galaxies with peculiar rest-frame UV / optical morphologies have comparable specific angular momentum to disc- dominated galaxies of the same stellar mass, but are clumpier and have higher star formation rate surface densities. We propose that the peculiar morphologies in high-redshift systems are driven by higher star formation rate surface densities and higher gas fractions leading to a more clumpy interstellar medium.



2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (2) ◽  
pp. 1870-1883
Author(s):  
M L L Dantas ◽  
P R T Coelho ◽  
P Sánchez-Blázquez

ABSTRACT The ultraviolet (UV) upturn is characterized by an unexpected up-rise of the UV flux in quiescent galaxies between the Lyman limit and 2500 Å. By making use of colour–colour diagrams, one can subdivide UV bright red-sequence galaxies in two groups: UV weak and upturn. With these two groups, we propose a comparison between their stellar population properties with the goal of establishing differences and similarities between them. We make use of propensity score matching to mitigate potential biases between the two samples, by selecting similar objects in terms of redshift and stellar mass. Also, we take advantage of spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting results from magphys made available by the GAMA collaboration. The analyses are made by comparing the distributions from the SED fitting directly, as well as investigating the differences in correlations between their parameters, and finally by using principal component analysis. We explore important differences and similarities between UV weak and upturn galaxies in terms of several parameters, such as: metallicity, age, specific star formation rate, time of last burst of star-formation, to mention a few. Notable differences are those concerning (g − r) colour, metallicity, and time since last burst of star-formation: UV upturn are redder in the optical, more metallic, and their last burst of star-formation happened earlier in time. These differences suggest that UV upturn systems have shorter star-formation histories (i.e. have been evolving more passively) when compared to UV weak galaxies. Consequently, these last seem to have a higher diversity of stellar populations.



2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (3) ◽  
pp. 3840-3859 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Cheng ◽  
D L Clements ◽  
J Greenslade ◽  
J Cairns ◽  
P Andreani ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present SCUBA-2 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m observations of 13 candidate starbursting protoclusters selected using Planck and Herschel data. The cumulative number counts of the 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m sources in 9 of 13 of these candidate protoclusters show significant overdensities compared to the field, with the probability <10−2 assuming the sources are randomly distributed in the sky. Using the 250, 350, 500, and 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m flux densities, we estimate the photometric redshifts of individual SCUBA-2 sources by fitting spectral energy distribution templates with an MCMC method. The photometric redshift distribution, peaking at 2 < z < 3, is consistent with that of known z > 2 protoclusters and the peak of the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD). We find that the 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m sources in our candidate protoclusters have infrared luminosities of $L_{\mathrm{IR}}\gtrsim 10^{12}\, \mathrm{L}_{\odot }$ and star formation rates of SFR  = (500–1500) M⊙ yr−1. By comparing with results in the literature considering only Herschel photometry, we conclude that our 13 candidate protoclusters can be categorized into four groups: six of them being high-redshift starbursting protoclusters, one being a lower redshift cluster or protocluster, three being protoclusters that contain lensed dusty star-forming galaxies or are rich in 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m sources, and three regions without significant Herschel or SCUBA-2 source overdensities. The total SFRs of the candidate protoclusters are found to be comparable or higher than those of known protoclusters, suggesting our sample contains some of the most extreme protocluster population. We infer that cross-matching Planck and Herschel data is a robust method for selecting candidate protoclusters with overdensities of 850 $\mathrm{ \mu}$m sources.



Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document