scholarly journals Balmer breaks in simulated galaxies at z>6

Author(s):  
Christian Binggeli ◽  
Erik Zackrisson ◽  
Xiangcheng Ma ◽  
Akio K Inoue ◽  
Anton Vikaeus ◽  
...  

Abstract Photometric observations of the spectroscopically confirmed z ≈ 9.1 galaxy MACS1149-JD1 have indicated the presence of a prominent Balmer break in its spectral energy distribution, which may be interpreted as due to very large fluctuations in its past star formation activity. In this paper, we investigate to what extent contemporary simulations of high-redshift galaxies produce star formation rate variations sufficiently large to reproduce the observed Balmer break of MACS1149-JD1. We find that several independent galaxy simulations are unable to account for Balmer breaks of the inferred size, suggesting that MACS1149-JD1 either must be a very rare type of object or that our simulations are missing some key ingredient. We present predictions of spectroscopic Balmer break strength distributions for z ≈ 7–9 galaxies that may be tested through observations with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope and also discuss the impact that various assumptions on dust reddening, Lyman continuum leakage and deviations from a standard stellar initial mass function would have on the results.


2019 ◽  
Vol 492 (2) ◽  
pp. 1706-1712
Author(s):  
Anton Vikaeus ◽  
Erik Zackrisson ◽  
Christian Binggeli

ABSTRACT The upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will allow observations of high-redshift galaxies at fainter detection levels than ever before, and JWST surveys targeting gravitationally lensed fields are expected to bring z ≳ 6 objects with very low star formation rate (SFR) within reach of spectroscopic studies. As galaxies at lower and lower star formation activity are brought into view, many of the standard methods used in the analysis of integrated galaxy spectra are at some point bound to break down, due to violation of the assumptions of a well-sampled stellar initial mass function (IMF) and a slowly varying SFR. We argue that galaxies with SFR ∼ 0.1 M⊙ yr−1 are likely to turn up at the spectroscopic detection limit of JWST in lensed fields, and investigate to what extent star formation sampling may affect the spectral analysis of such objects. We use the slug spectral synthesis code to demonstrate that such effects are likely to have significant impacts on spectral diagnostics of, for example, the Balmer emission lines. These effects are found to stem primarily from SFRs varying rapidly on short (∼Myr) time-scales due to star formation in finite units (star clusters), whereas the effects of an undersampled IMF is deemed insignificant in comparison. In contrast, the ratio between the He ii- and H i-ionizing flux is found to be sensitive to IMF-sampling as well as ICMF-sampling (sampling of the initial cluster mass function), which may affect interpretations of galaxies containing Population III stars or other sources of hard ionizing radiation.



2020 ◽  
Vol 640 ◽  
pp. A67
Author(s):  
O. B. Kauffmann ◽  
O. Le Fèvre ◽  
O. Ilbert ◽  
J. Chevallard ◽  
C. C. Williams ◽  
...  

We present a new prospective analysis of deep multi-band imaging with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In this work, we investigate the recovery of high-redshift 5 <  z <  12 galaxies through extensive image simulations of accepted JWST programs, including the Early Release Science in the EGS field and the Guaranteed Time Observations in the HUDF. We introduced complete samples of ∼300 000 galaxies with stellar masses of log(M*/M⊙) > 6 and redshifts of 0 <  z <  15, as well as galactic stars, into realistic mock NIRCam, MIRI, and HST images to properly describe the impact of source blending. We extracted the photometry of the detected sources, as in real images, and estimated the physical properties of galaxies through spectral energy distribution fitting. We find that the photometric redshifts are primarily limited by the availability of blue-band and near-infrared medium-band imaging. The stellar masses and star formation rates are recovered within 0.25 and 0.3 dex, respectively, for galaxies with accurate photometric redshifts. Brown dwarfs contaminating the z >  5 galaxy samples can be reduced to < 0.01 arcmin−2 with a limited impact on galaxy completeness. We investigate multiple high-redshift galaxy selection techniques and find that the best compromise between completeness and purity at 5 <  z <  10 using the full redshift posterior probability distributions. In the EGS field, the galaxy completeness remains higher than 50% at magnitudes mUV <  27.5 and at all redshifts, and the purity is maintained above 80 and 60% at z ≤ 7 and 10, respectively. The faint-end slope of the galaxy UV luminosity function is recovered with a precision of 0.1–0.25, and the cosmic star formation rate density within 0.1 dex. We argue in favor of additional observing programs covering larger areas to better constrain the bright end.



2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (2) ◽  
pp. 2323-2338
Author(s):  
Thomas M Jackson ◽  
D J Rosario ◽  
D M Alexander ◽  
J Scholtz ◽  
Stuart McAlpine ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present data from 72 low-redshift, hard X-ray selected active galactic nucleus (AGN) taken from the Swift–BAT 58 month catalogue. We utilize spectral energy distribution fitting to the optical to infrared photometry in order to estimate host galaxy properties. We compare this observational sample to a volume- and flux-matched sample of AGN from the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) hydrodynamical simulations in order to verify how accurately the simulations can reproduce observed AGN host galaxy properties. After correcting for the known +0.2 dex offset in the SFRs between EAGLE and previous observations, we find agreement in the star formation rate (SFR) and X-ray luminosity distributions; however, we find that the stellar masses in EAGLE are 0.2–0.4 dex greater than the observational sample, which consequently leads to lower specific star formation rates (sSFRs). We compare these results to our previous study at high redshift, finding agreement in both the observations and simulations, whereby the widths of sSFR distributions are similar (∼0.4–0.6 dex) and the median of the SFR distributions lie below the star-forming main sequence by ∼0.3–0.5 dex across all samples. We also use EAGLE to select a sample of AGN host galaxies at high and low redshift and follow their characteristic evolution from z = 8 to z = 0. We find similar behaviour between these two samples, whereby star formation is quenched when the black hole goes through its phase of most rapid growth. Utilizing EAGLE we find that 23 per cent of AGN selected at z ∼ 0 are also AGN at high redshift, and that their host galaxies are among the most massive objects in the simulation. Overall, we find EAGLE reproduces the observations well, with some minor inconsistencies (∼0.2 dex in stellar masses and ∼0.4 dex in sSFRs).



2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S352) ◽  
pp. 194-198
Author(s):  
Christina C. Williams

AbstractWe discuss the serendipitous discovery of a dusty high-redshift galaxy in a small (8 arcmin2) ALMA 3-mm survey Williams et al. (2019). The galaxy was previously unknown and is absent from existing multi-wavelength catalogs (“ALMA-only”). Using the ALMA position as prior, we perform forced deblended photometry to constrain its spectral energy distribution. The spectral energy distribution is well described by a massive (M* = 1010.8 M⊙) and highly obscured (AV ∼ 4) galaxy at redshift z = 5.5 ± 1.1 with star formation rate ∼ 300 M⊙yr−1. Our small survey area implies an uncertain but large contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density, similar to the contribution from all ultraviolet-selected galaxies combined at this redshift. This galaxy likely traces an abundant population of massive galaxies absent from current samples of infrared-selected or sub-millimeter galaxies, but with larger space densities, higher duty cycles, and significant contribution to the cosmic star-formation rate and stellar mass densities.



2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 272-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Maraston

AbstractModelling stellar populations in galaxies is a key approach to gain knowledge on the still elusive process of galaxy formation as a function of cosmic time. In this review, after a summary of the state-of-art, I discuss three aspects of the modelling, that are particularly relevant to massive galaxies, the focus of this symposium, at low and high-redshift. These are the treatment of the Thermally-Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch phase, evidences of an unusual Initial Mass Function, and the effect of modern stellar libraries on the model spectral energy distribution.



2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A82 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Circosta ◽  
V. Mainieri ◽  
P. Padovani ◽  
G. Lanzuisi ◽  
M. Salvato ◽  
...  

Theoretical models of galaxy formation suggest that the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) is required to regulate the growth of its host galaxy through feedback mechanisms, produced by, for example, AGN-driven outflows. Although many observational studies have revealed that such outflows are common both at low and high redshift, a comprehensive picture is still missing. In particular, the peak epoch of galaxy assembly (1 <  z <  3) has been poorly explored so far, and current observations in this redshift range are mostly limited to targets with high chances to be in an outflowing phase. This paper introduces SUPER (a SINFONI Survey for Unveiling the Physics and Effect of Radiative feedback), an ongoing ESO’s VLT/SINFONI Large Programme. SUPER will perform the first systematic investigation of ionized outflows in a sizeable and blindly-selected sample of 39 X-ray AGN at z ∼ 2, which reaches high spatial resolutions (∼2 kpc) thanks to the adaptive optics-assisted IFS observations. The outflow morphology and star formation in the host galaxy will be mapped through the broad component of [O III]λ5007 and the narrow component of Hα emission lines. The main aim of our survey is to infer the impact of outflows on the on-going star formation and to link the outflow properties to a number of AGN and host galaxy properties. We describe here the survey characteristics and goals, as well as the selection of the target sample. Moreover, we present a full characterization of its multi-wavelength properties: we measure, via spectral energy distribution fitting of UV-to-FIR photometry, stellar masses (4 × 109 − 2 × 1011 M⊙), star formation rates (25 − 680 M⊙ yr−1) and AGN bolometric luminosities (2 × 1044 − 8 × 1047 erg s−1), along with obscuring column densities (up to 2 × 1024 cm−2) and luminosities in the hard 2 − 10 keV band (2 × 1043 − 6 × 1045 erg s−1) derived through X-ray spectral analysis. Finally, we classify our AGN as jetted or non-jetted according to their radio and FIR emission.



2020 ◽  
Vol 498 (3) ◽  
pp. 4109-4118
Author(s):  
G C Jones ◽  
R Maiolino ◽  
P Caselli ◽  
S Carniani

ABSTRACT The molecular gas content of high-redshift galaxies is a highly sought-after property. However, H2 is not directly observable in most environments, so its mass is probed through other emission lines (e.g. CO, [C i], [C ii]), or through a gas-to-dust ratio. Each of these methods depends on several assumptions, and are best used in parallel. In this work, we extend an additional molecular gas tracer to high-redshift studies by observing hydrogen deuteride (HD) emission in the strongly lensed z = 5.656 galaxy SPT0346−52 with ALMA. While no HD(1–0) emission is detected, we are able to place an upper limit on the gas mass of $\rm M_{H_2}\lt 6.4\times 10^{11}\, M_{\odot }$. This is used to find a limit on the $L^{\prime }_{\mathrm{ CO}}$ conversion factor of      $\rm \alpha _{CO}\lt 5.8\,M_{\odot}(K\,km\,s^{-1}\,pc^2)^{-1}$. In addition, we construct the most complete spectral energy distribution of this source to date, and fit it with a single-temperature modified blackbody using the nested sampling code multinest, yielding a best-fitting dust mass Mdust = 108.92 ± 0.02 M⊙, dust temperature 78.6 ± 0.5 K, dust emissivity spectral index β = 1.81 ± 0.03, and star formation rate SFR = 3800 ± 100 M⊙ yr−1. Using the continuum flux densities to estimate the total gas mass of the source, we find   $\rm M_{H_2}\lt 2.4\times 10^{11}\, M_{\odot }$ , assuming subsolar metallicity. This implies a CO conversion factor of αCO &lt; 2.2, which is between the standard values for MW-like galaxies and starbursts. These properties confirm that SPT0346−52 is a heavily starbursting, gas-rich galaxy.



2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A169 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Rowan-Robinson ◽  
Lingyu Wang ◽  
Duncan Farrah ◽  
Dimitra Rigopoulou ◽  
Carlotta Gruppioni ◽  
...  

We have used two catalogues, a Herschel catalogue selected at 500 μm (HerMES) and an IRAS catalogue selected at 60 μm (RIFSCz), to contrast the sky at these two wavelengths. Both surveys demonstrate the existence of “extreme” starbursts, with star-formation rates (SFRs) > 5000 M⊙ yr−1. The maximum intrinsic star-formation rate appears to be ~30 000 M⊙ yr−1. The sources with apparent SFR estimates higher than this are in all cases either lensed systems, blazars, or erroneous photometric redshifts. At redshifts between three and five, the time-scale for the Herschel galaxies to make their current mass of stars at their present rate of star formation is ~108 yr, so these galaxies are making a significant fraction of their stars in the current star-formation episode. Using dust mass as a proxy for gas mass, the Herschel galaxies at redshift three to five have gas masses comparable to their mass in stars. Of the 38 extreme starbursts in our Herschel survey for which we have more complete spectral energy distribution (SED) information, 50% show evidence for QSO-like optical emission, or exhibit AGN dust tori in the mid-infrared SEDs. In all cases however the infrared luminosity is dominated by a starburst component. We derive a mean covering factor for AGN dust as a function of redshift and derive black hole masses and black hole accretion rates. There is a universal ratio of black-hole mass to stellar mass in these high redshift systems of ~10−3, driven by the strong period of star-formation and black-hole growth at z = 1−5.



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 &lt;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 &lt; z &lt; 3, is consistent with that of known z &gt; 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.



2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 487-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyan K Stoychev ◽  
Keri L Dixon ◽  
Andrea V Macciò ◽  
Marvin Blank ◽  
Aaron A Dutton

ABSTRACT We use 38 high-resolution simulations of galaxy formation between redshift 10 and 5 to study the impact of a 3 keV warm dark matter (WDM) candidate on the high-redshift Universe. We focus our attention on the stellar mass function and the global star formation rate and consider the consequences for reionization, namely the neutral hydrogen fraction evolution and the electron scattering optical depth. We find that three different effects contribute to differentiate warm and cold dark matter (CDM) predictions: WDM suppresses the number of haloes with mass less than few 109 M⊙; at a fixed halo mass, WDM produces fewer stars than CDM, and finally at halo masses below 109 M⊙, WDM has a larger fraction of dark haloes than CDM post-reionization. These three effects combine to produce a lower stellar mass function in WDM for galaxies with stellar masses at and below 107 M⊙. For z > 7, the global star formation density is lower by a factor of two in the WDM scenario, and for a fixed escape fraction, the fraction of neutral hydrogen is higher by 0.3 at z ∼ 6. This latter quantity can be partially reconciled with CDM and observations only by increasing the escape fraction from 23 per cent to 34 per cent. Overall, our study shows that galaxy formation simulations at high redshift are a key tool to differentiate between dark matter candidates given a model for baryonic physics.



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