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Register a new userA Population of Massive and Evolved Galaxies at z$ga$5
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T. Wiklind
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We report results from a search for massive and evolved galaxies at z>5 in the GOODS southern field. Combining HST ACS, VLT ISAAC and Spitzer IRAC photometric data, we develop a color selection technique to identify candidates for being evolved galaxies at high redshifts. The color selection is primarily based on locating the Balmer-break using the K- and 3.6micron bands. Stellar population synthesis models are fitted to the SEDs of these galaxies to identify the final sample. We find 11 candidates with photometric redshifts in the range 4.9 < z < 6.5, dominated by an old stellar population, with ages 0.2-1.0 Gyr, and stellar masses in the range (0.5 - 5) 10^{11} Msun. The majority of the stars in these galaxies were formed at z > 9. One candidate has a spectroscopically confirmed redshift, in good agreement with our photometric redshift. The galaxies are very compact, with half-light radii in the observed K-band smaller than ~2 kpc. Seven of the 11 candidates are also detected at 24micron with the MIPS instrument on Spitzer. The 24micron emission could be interpreted as PAH emission from a dusty starburst at z~2-3, however, it is also consistent with the presence of an obscured AGN at z>5. We estimate the completeness of the Balmer break galaxy sample to be ~40%. The comoving number density of galaxies with a stellar mass >10^{11} Msun, at an average redshift z=5.2, is 3.9 10^{-5} Mpc^{-3} (no-MIPS sample: 1.4 10^{-5} Mpc^{-3}). The corresponding stellar mass density is 8 10^{6} Msun/Mpc^3 (no-MIPS sample: 6.2 10^6 Msun/Mpc^3).
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We present the results of TNG near-IR low resolution spectroscopy of two (S7F5-254 and S7F5-45) sources belonging to a complete sample of 15 EROs with K<18 and R-K>5 selected from the MUNICS Survey. Both the spectra show a sharp drop in the continuum which can be ascribed only to the Balmer break. This places them at 1.2<z<1.5. Their rest-frame z=1.2 K-band absolute magnitude is M_K ~ -26.6 (L ~ 7L*). The comparison of the spectra and the photometric data with a grid of synthetic template spectra provides a redshift z=1.22 for S7F5-254 and z=1.46 for S7F5-45. The resulting lower limits to their stellar mass are M_{stars}=6x10^{11} M_{sun} and M_{stars}=4x10^{11} M_{sun}. The minimum age of the last burst of star formation in S7F5-254 is 3.5 Gyr while it is 0.5 Gyr in S7F5-45 implying a minimum formation redshift z_f>3.5 and z_f>2 for the two EROs respectively.
We use data taken as part of HST/WFC3 observations of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) to identify massive and evolved galaxies at 3<z<4.5. This is performed using the strength of the Balmer break feature at rest-frame 3648A, which is a diagnostic of the age of the stellar population in galaxies. Using WFC3 H-band selected catalog for the CANDELS GOODS-S field and deep multi-waveband photometry from optical (HST) to mid-infrared (Spitzer) wavelengths, we identify a population of old and evolved post-starburst galaxies based on the strength of their Balmer breaks (Balmer Break Galaxies- BBGs). The galaxies are also selected to be bright in rest-frame near-IR wavelengths and hence, massive. We identify a total of 16 BBGs. Fitting the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the BBGs show that the candidate galaxies have average estimated ages of ~800 Myr and average stellar masses of ~5x10^10 M_sun, consistent with being old and massive systems. Two of our BBG candidates are also identified by the criteria that is sensitive to star forming galaxies (LBG selection). We find a number density of ~3.2x10^-5 Mpc^-3 for the BBGs corresponding to a mass density of ~2.0x10^6 M_sun/Mpc^3 in the redshift range covering the survey. Given the old age and the passive evolution, it is argued that some of these objects formed the bulk of their mass only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
We report the likely identification of a substantial population of massive M~10^11M_Sun galaxies at z~4 with suppressed star formation rates (SFRs), selected on rest-frame optical to near-IR colors from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey. The observed spectral energy distributions show pronounced breaks, sampled by a set of near-IR medium-bandwidth filters, resulting in tightly constrained photometric redshifts. Fitting stellar population models suggests large Balmer/4000AA breaks, relatively old stellar populations, large stellar masses and low SFRs, with a median specific SFR of 2.9+/-1.8 x 10^-11/yr. Ultradeep Herschel/PACS 100micron, 160micron and Spitzer/MIPS 24micron data reveal no dust-obscured SFR activity for 15/19 (79%) galaxies. Two far-IR detected galaxies are obscured QSOs. Stacking the far-IR undetected galaxies yields no detection, consistent with the SED fit, indicating independently that the average specific SFR is at least 10x smaller than of typical star-forming galaxies at z~4. Assuming all far-IR undetected galaxies are indeed quiescent, the volume density is 1.8+/-0.7 x 10^-5Mpc^-3 to a limit of log10M/M_Sun>10.6, which is 10x and 80x lower than at z = 2 and z = 0.1. They comprise a remarkably high fraction (~35%) of z~4 massive galaxies, suggesting that suppression of star formation was efficient even at very high redshift. Given the average stellar age of 0.8Gyr and stellar mass of 0.8x10^11M_Sun, the galaxies likely started forming stars before z =5, with SFRs well in excess of 100M_Sun/yr, far exceeding that of similarly abundant UV-bright galaxies at z>4. This suggests that most of the star-formation in the progenitors of quiescent z~4 galaxies was obscured by dust.
[Abridged] Using public data from the NMBS and CANDELS surveys, we study the population of massive galaxies at z>3 to identify the potential progenitors of z~2 compact, massive, quiescent (CMQ) galaxies, furthering our understanding of the evolution of massive galaxies. Our work is enabled by high-resolution CANDELS images and accurate photometric redshifts, stellar masses and star formation rates (SFRs) from 37-band NMBS photometry. The total number of z>3 massive galaxies is consistent with the number of massive quiescent (MQ) galaxies at z~2, implying that the SFRs for all of these galaxies must be much lower by z~2. We discover 4 CMQ galaxies at z>3, pushing back the time for which such galaxies have been observed. However, the volume density for these galaxies is significantly less than that of galaxies at z<2 with similar masses, SFRs, and sizes, implying that additional CMQ galaxies must be created in the ~1 Gyr between z=3 and z=2. We find 5 star-forming galaxies at z~3 that are compact (Re<1.4 kpc) and have stellar mass M*>10^(10.6)Msun, likely to become members of the CMQ galaxy population at z~2. We evolve the stellar masses and SFRs of each individual z>3 galaxy adopting 5 different star formation histories (SFHs) and studying the resulting population of massive galaxies at z=2.3. We find that declining or truncated SFHs are necessary to match the observed number density of MQ galaxies at z~2, whereas a constant SFH results in a number density significantly smaller than observed. All of our assumed SFHs imply number densities of CMQ galaxies at z~2 that are consistent with the observed number density. Better agreement with the observed number density of CMQ galaxies at z~2 is obtained if merging is included in the analysis and better still if star formation quenching is assumed to shortly follow the merging event, as implied by recent models of formation of MQ galaxies.
We present the results of a pilot near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic campaign of five very massive galaxies ($log(text{M}_star/text{M}_odot)>11.45$) in the range of $1.7<z<2.7$. We measure an absorption feature redshift for one galaxy at $z_text{spec}=2.000pm0.006$. For the remaining galaxies, we combine the photometry with the continuum from the spectra to estimate continuum redshifts and stellar population properties. We define a continuum redshift ($z_{rm cont}$ ) as one in which the redshift is estimated probabilistically using EAZY from the combination of catalog photometry and the observed spectrum. We derive the uncertainties on the stellar population synthesis properties using a Monte Carlo simulation and examine the correlations between the parameters with and without the use of the spectrum in the modeling of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The spectroscopic constraints confirm the extreme stellar masses of the galaxies in our sample. We find that three out of five galaxies are quiescent (star formation rate of $lesssim 1 M_odot~yr^{-1}$) with low levels of dust obscuration ($A_{rm V} < 1$) , that one galaxy displays both high levels of star formation and dust obscuration (${rm SFR} approx 300 M_odot~{rm yr}^{-1}$, $A_{rm V} approx 1.7$~mag), and that the remaining galaxy has properties that are intermediate between the quiescent and star-forming populations.
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