scholarly journals The evolution of the size–mass relation at z = 1–3 derived from the complete Hubble Frontier Fields data set

2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (1) ◽  
pp. 1028-1037
Author(s):  
Lilan Yang ◽  
Guido Roberts-Borsani ◽  
Tommaso Treu ◽  
Simon Birrer ◽  
Takahiro Morishita ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We measure the size–mass relation and its evolution between redshifts 1 < z < 3, using galaxies lensed by six foreground Hubble Frontier Fields clusters. The power afforded by strong gravitation lensing allows us to observe galaxies with higher angular resolution beyond current facilities. We select a stellar mass limited sample and divide them into star-forming or quiescent classes based on their rest-frame UVJ colours from the ASTRODEEP catalogues. Source reconstruction is carried out with the recently released lenstruction software, which is built on the multipurpose gravitational lensing software lenstronomy. We derive the empirical relation between size and mass for the late-type galaxies with $M_{*}\gt 3\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ at 1 < z < 2.5 and $M_{*}\gt 5\times 10^{9}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ at 2.5 < z < 3, and at a fixed stellar mass, we find galaxy sizes evolve as $R \rm _{eff} \propto (1+z)^{-1.05\pm 0.37}$. The intrinsic scatter is <0.1 dex at z < 1.5 but increases to ∼0.3 dex at higher redshift. The results are in good agreement with those obtained in blank fields. We evaluate the uncertainties associated with the choice of lens model by comparing size measurements using five different and publicly available models, finding the choice of lens model leads to a 3.7 per cent uncertainty of the median value, and ∼25  per cent scatter for individual galaxies. Our work demonstrates the use of strong lensing magnification to boost resolution does not introduce significant uncertainties in this kind of work, and paves the way for wholesale applications of the sophisticated lens reconstruction technique to higher redshifts and larger samples.

2020 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. A125
Author(s):  
Cecilia Bacchini ◽  
Filippo Fraternali ◽  
Gabriele Pezzulli ◽  
Antonino Marasco

In the last decades, much effort has been put into finding the star formation law, which could unequivocally link the gas and the star formation rate (SFR) densities measured on a sub-kiloparsec scale in star-forming galaxies. The conventional approach of using the observed surface densities to infer star formation laws has however revealed a major and well-known issue, as such relations are valid for the high-density regions of galaxies but break down in low-density and HI-dominated environments. Recently, an empirical correlation between the total gas (HI+H2) and the SFR volume densities was obtained for a sample of nearby disc galaxies and for the Milky Way. This volumetric star formation (VSF) law is a single power-law with no break and a smaller intrinsic scatter with respect to the star formation laws based on the surface density. In this work, we explore the VSF law in the regime of dwarf galaxies in order to test its validity in HI-dominated, low-density, and low-metallicity environments. In addition, we assess this relation in the outskirts of spiral galaxies, which are low-density and HI-dominated regions similar to dwarf galaxies. Remarkably, we find that the VSF law, namely ρSFR ∝ ρgasα with α ≈ 2, is valid for both these regimes. This result indicates that the VSF law, which holds unbroken for a wide range of gas (≈3 dex) and SFR (≈6 dex) volume densities, is the empirical relation with the smallest intrinsic scatter and is likely more fundamental than surface-based star formation laws.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Santos ◽  
D Sobral ◽  
J Matthee ◽  
J Calhau ◽  
E da Cunha ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We explore deep rest-frame UV to FIR data in the COSMOS field to measure the individual spectral energy distributions (SED) of the ∼4000 SC4K (Sobral et al.) Lyman α (Ly α) emitters (LAEs) at z ∼ 2–6. We find typical stellar masses of 109.3 ± 0.6 M⊙ and star formation rates (SFR) of SFR$_{\rm SED}=4.4^{+10.5}_{-2.4}$ M⊙ yr−1 and SFR$_{\rm Ly\,\alpha }=5.9^{+6.3}_{-2.6}$ M⊙ yr−1, combined with very blue UV slopes of $\beta =-2.1^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$, but with significant variations within the population. MUV and β are correlated in a similar way to UV-selected sources, but LAEs are consistently bluer. This suggests that LAEs are the youngest and/or most dust-poor subset of the UV-selected population. We also study the Ly α rest-frame equivalent width (EW0) and find 45 ‘extreme’ LAEs with EW0 > 240 Å (3σ), implying a low number density of (7 ± 1) × 10−7 Mpc−3. Overall, we measure little to no evolution of the Ly α EW0 and scale length parameter (w0), which are consistently high (EW$_0=140^{+280}_{-70}$ Å, $w_0=129^{+11}_{-11}$ Å) from z ∼ 6 to z ∼ 2 and below. However, w0 is anticorrelated with MUV and stellar mass. Our results imply that sources selected as LAEs have a high Ly α escape fraction (fesc,Ly α) irrespective of cosmic time, but fesc,Ly α is still higher for UV-fainter and lower mass LAEs. The least massive LAEs (<109.5 M⊙) are typically located above the star formation ‘main sequence’ (MS), but the offset from the MS decreases towards z ∼ 6 and towards 1010 M⊙. Our results imply a lack of evolution in the properties of LAEs across time and reveals the increasing overlap in properties of LAEs and UV-continuum selected galaxies as typical star-forming galaxies at high redshift effectively become LAEs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 642 ◽  
pp. A113
Author(s):  
E. Spitoni ◽  
F. Calura ◽  
M. Mignoli ◽  
R. Gilli ◽  
V. Silva Aguirre ◽  
...  

Context. In their evolution, star-forming galaxies are known to follow scaling relations between some fundamental physical quantities, such as the relation between mass metallicity and star formation main sequence. Aims. We study the evolution of galaxies that at a given redshift, lie simultaneously on the mass-metallicity and main-sequence relations (MZR, MSR). Methods. To this aim, we used the analytical leaky-box chemical evolution model, in which galaxy evolution is described by the infall timescale τ and the wind efficiency λ. We provide a detailed analysis of the temporal evolution of their metallicity, stellar mass, mass-weighted age, and gas fraction. Results. The evolution of the galaxies lying on the MZR and MSR at z ∼ 0.1 suggests that the average infall timescale in two different bins of stellar masses (M⋆ <  1010 M⊙ and M⋆ >  1010 M⊙) decreases with decreasing redshift through the addition of new galaxies with shorter timescales. This means that at each redshift, only the youngest galaxies can be assembled on the shortest timescales and still belong to the star-forming MSR. In the lowest mass bin, a decrease in median τ is accompanied by an increase in the median λ value. This implies that systems that formed at more recent times will need to eject a larger amount of mass to retain their low metallicity values. Another important result is that galactic downsizing, as traced by the age-mass relation, is naturally recovered by imposing the local MZR and MSR for star-forming galaxies. This result is retained even when a constant star formation efficiency for different galactic masses is assumed (without imposing the observed scaling relation between stellar mass and gas-depletion time-scales). Finally, we study the evolution of the hosts of C IV-selected active galactic nuclei, which at z ∼ 2 follow a flat MZR. When we impose that these systems lie on the MSR, we find an “inverted” MZR at lower redshifts, meaning that some additional processes must be at play in their evolution. Conclusions. In our model, galactic downsizing is a direct consequence of the MZR and MSR for star-forming galaxies. This poses a challenge for models of galaxy evolution within a cosmological framework.


2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (3) ◽  
pp. 4303-4315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Radovich ◽  
Crescenzo Tortora ◽  
Fabio Bellagamba ◽  
Matteo Maturi ◽  
Lauro Moscardini ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A catalogue of galaxy clusters was obtained in an area of 414 $\deg ^2$ up to a redshift z ∼ 0.8 from the Data Release 3 of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS-DR3), using the Adaptive Matched Identifier of Clustered Objects (amico) algorithm. The catalogue and the calibration of the richness–mass relation were presented in two companion papers. Here, we describe the selection of the cluster central galaxy and the classification of blue and red cluster members, and analyse the main cluster properties, such as the red/blue fraction, cluster mass, brightness, and stellar mass of the central galaxy, and their dependence on redshift and cluster richness. We use the Illustris-TNG simulation, which represents the state-of-the-art cosmological simulation of galaxy formation, as a benchmark for the interpretation of the results. A good agreement with simulations is found at low redshifts (z ≤ 0.4), while at higher redshifts the simulations indicate a lower fraction of blue galaxies than what found in the KiDS-amico catalogue: we argue that this may be due to an underestimate of star-forming galaxies in the simulations. The selection of clusters with a larger magnitude difference between the two brightest central galaxies, which may indicate a more relaxed cluster dynamical status, improves the agreement between the observed and simulated cluster mass and stellar mass of the central galaxy. We also find that at a given cluster mass the stellar mass of blue central galaxies is lower than that of the red ones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 814-835
Author(s):  
Marc Huertas-Company ◽  
Yicheng Guo ◽  
Omri Ginzburg ◽  
Christoph T Lee ◽  
Nir Mandelker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A significant fraction of high redshift star-forming disc galaxies are known to host giant clumps, whose nature and role in galaxy evolution are yet to be understood. In this work, we first present a new method based on neural networks to detect clumps in galaxy images. We use this method to detect clumps in the rest-frame optical and UV images of a complete sample of ∼1500 star forming galaxies at 1 &lt; z &lt; 3 in the CANDELS survey as well as in images from the VELA zoom-in cosmological simulations. We show that observational effects have a dramatic impact on the derived clump properties leading to an overestimation of the clump mass up to a factor of 10, which highlights the importance of fair comparisons between observations and simulations and the limitations of current HST data to study the resolved structure of distant galaxies. After correcting for these effects with a mixture density network, we estimate that the clump stellar mass function follows a power law down to the completeness limit (107 solar masses) with the majority of the clumps being less massive than 109 solar masses. This is in better agreement with recent gravitational lensing based measurements. The simulations explored in this work overall reproduce the shape of the observed clump stellar mass function and clumpy fractions when confronted under the same conditions, although they tend to lie in the lower limit of the confidence intervals of the observations. This agreement suggests that most of the observed clumps are formed in situ.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 167-170
Author(s):  
Ying-jie Peng ◽  
Simon J. Lilly ◽  
Alvio Renzini ◽  
Marcella Carollo

AbstractIn this proceeding paper, we discuss the important underlying connections between the faint end slope αs of the stellar mass function of star-forming galaxies, the logarithmic slope β of the sSFR-mass relation and merging through the continuity approach, as we introduced in Peng et al. (2010, hereafter P10) and (2012, hereafter P12).


2018 ◽  
Vol 613 ◽  
pp. A15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Simon ◽  
Stefan Hilbert

Galaxies are biased tracers of the matter density on cosmological scales. For future tests of galaxy models, we refine and assess a method to measure galaxy biasing as a function of physical scalekwith weak gravitational lensing. This method enables us to reconstruct the galaxy bias factorb(k) as well as the galaxy-matter correlationr(k) on spatial scales between 0.01hMpc−1≲k≲ 10hMpc−1for redshift-binned lens galaxies below redshiftz≲ 0.6. In the refinement, we account for an intrinsic alignment of source ellipticities, and we correct for the magnification bias of the lens galaxies, relevant for the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, to improve the accuracy of the reconstructedr(k). For simulated data, the reconstructions achieve an accuracy of 3–7% (68% confidence level) over the abovek-range for a survey area and a typical depth of contemporary ground-based surveys. Realistically the accuracy is, however, probably reduced to about 10–15%, mainly by systematic uncertainties in the assumed intrinsic source alignment, the fiducial cosmology, and the redshift distributions of lens and source galaxies (in that order). Furthermore, our reconstruction technique employs physical templates forb(k) andr(k) that elucidate the impact of central galaxies and the halo-occupation statistics of satellite galaxies on the scale-dependence of galaxy bias, which we discuss in the paper. In a first demonstration, we apply this method to previous measurements in the Garching-Bonn Deep Survey and give a physical interpretation of the lens population.


Author(s):  
Joseph A O’Leary ◽  
Benjamin P Moster ◽  
Thorsten Naab ◽  
Rachel S Somerville

Abstract We explore the galaxy-galaxy merger rate with the empirical model for galaxy formation, emerge. On average, we find that between 2 per cent and 20 per cent of massive galaxies (log10(m*/M⊙) ≥ 10.3) will experience a major merger per Gyr. Our model predicts galaxy merger rates that do not scale as a power-law with redshift when selected by descendant stellar mass, and exhibit a clear stellar mass and mass-ratio dependence. Specifically, major mergers are more frequent at high masses and at low redshift. We show mergers are significant for the stellar mass growth of galaxies log10(m*/M⊙) ≳ 11.0. For the most massive galaxies major mergers dominate the accreted mass fraction, contributing as much as 90 per cent of the total accreted stellar mass. We reinforce that these phenomena are a direct result of the stellar-to-halo mass relation, which results in massive galaxies having a higher likelihood of experiencing major mergers than low mass galaxies. Our model produces a galaxy pair fraction consistent with recent observations, exhibiting a form best described by a power-law exponential function. Translating these pair fractions into merger rates results in an inaccurate prediction compared to the model intrinsic values when using published observation timescales. We find the pair fraction can be well mapped to the intrinsic merger rate by adopting an observation timescale that decreases linearly with redshift as Tobs = −0.36(1 + z) + 2.39 [Gyr], assuming all observed pairs merge by z = 0.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1591-1602
Author(s):  
T Parsotan ◽  
R K Cochrane ◽  
C C Hayward ◽  
D Anglés-Alcázar ◽  
R Feldmann ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The galaxy size–stellar mass and central surface density–stellar mass relationships are fundamental observational constraints on galaxy formation models. However, inferring the physical size of a galaxy from observed stellar emission is non-trivial due to various observational effects, such as the mass-to-light ratio variations that can be caused by non-uniform stellar ages, metallicities, and dust attenuation. Consequently, forward-modelling light-based sizes from simulations is desirable. In this work, we use the skirt  dust radiative transfer code to generate synthetic observations of massive galaxies ($M_{*}\sim 10^{11}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$ at z = 2, hosted by haloes of mass $M_{\rm {halo}}\sim 10^{12.5}\, \rm {M_{\odot }}$) from high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations that form part of the Feedback In Realistic Environments project. The simulations used in this paper include explicit stellar feedback but no active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback. From each mock observation, we infer the effective radius (Re), as well as the stellar mass surface density within this radius and within $1\, \rm {kpc}$ (Σe and Σ1, respectively). We first investigate how well the intrinsic half-mass radius and stellar mass surface density can be inferred from observables. The majority of predicted sizes and surface densities are within a factor of 2 of the intrinsic values. We then compare our predictions to the observed size–mass relationship and the Σ1−M⋆ and Σe−M⋆ relationships. At z ≳ 2, the simulated massive galaxies are in general agreement with observational scaling relations. At z ≲ 2, they evolve to become too compact but still star forming, in the stellar mass and redshift regime where many of them should be quenched. Our results suggest that some additional source of feedback, such as AGN-driven outflows, is necessary in order to decrease the central densities of the simulated massive galaxies to bring them into agreement with observations at z ≲ 2.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (4) ◽  
pp. 5641-5652
Author(s):  
Georgios Vernardos ◽  
Grigorios Tsagkatakis ◽  
Yannis Pantazis

ABSTRACT Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for constraining substructure in the mass distribution of galaxies, be it from the presence of dark matter sub-haloes or due to physical mechanisms affecting the baryons throughout galaxy evolution. Such substructure is hard to model and is either ignored by traditional, smooth modelling, approaches, or treated as well-localized massive perturbers. In this work, we propose a deep learning approach to quantify the statistical properties of such perturbations directly from images, where only the extended lensed source features within a mask are considered, without the need of any lens modelling. Our training data consist of mock lensed images assuming perturbing Gaussian Random Fields permeating the smooth overall lens potential, and, for the first time, using images of real galaxies as the lensed source. We employ a novel deep neural network that can handle arbitrary uncertainty intervals associated with the training data set labels as input, provides probability distributions as output, and adopts a composite loss function. The method succeeds not only in accurately estimating the actual parameter values, but also reduces the predicted confidence intervals by 10 per cent in an unsupervised manner, i.e. without having access to the actual ground truth values. Our results are invariant to the inherent degeneracy between mass perturbations in the lens and complex brightness profiles for the source. Hence, we can quantitatively and robustly quantify the smoothness of the mass density of thousands of lenses, including confidence intervals, and provide a consistent ranking for follow-up science.


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