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Register a new userQuenching star formation at intermediate redshifts: downsizing of the mass flux density in the green valley
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Thiago S. Gon\\c{c}alves
Publication date
2012
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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The bimodality in galaxy properties has been observed at low and high redshift, with a clear distinction between star-forming galaxies in the blue cloud and passively evolving objects in the red sequence; the absence of galaxies with intermediate properties indicates that the quenching of star formation and subsequent transition between populations must happen rapidly. In this paper, we present a study of over 100 transiting galaxies in the so-called green valley at intermediate redshifts (z ~ 0.8). By using very deep spectroscopy with the DEIMOS instrument at the Keck telescope we are able to infer the star formation histories of these objects and measure the stellar mass flux density transiting from the blue cloud to the red sequence when the universe was half its current age. Our results indicate that the process happened more rapidly and for more massive galaxies in the past, suggesting a top-down scenario in which the massive end of the red sequence is forming first. This represent another aspect of downsizing, with the mass flux density moving towards smaller galaxies in recent times.
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We calculate the star formation quenching timescales in green valley galaxies at intermediate redshifts ($zsim0.5-1$) using stacked zCOSMOS spectra of different galaxy morphological types: spheroidal, disk-like, irregular and merger, dividing disk-like galaxies further into unbarred, weakly-barred and strongly-barred, assuming a simple exponentially-decaying star formation history model and based on the H$_{delta}$ absorption feature and the $4000$ AA ~break. We find that different morphological types present different star formation quenching timescales, reinforcing the idea that the galaxy morphology is strongly correlated with the physical processes responsible for quenching star formation. Our quantification of the star formation quenching timescale indicates that disks have typical timescales $60%$ to 5 times longer than that of galaxies presenting spheroidal, irregular or merger morphologies. Barred galaxies in particular present the slowest transition timescales through the green valley. This suggests that although secular evolution may ultimately lead to gas exhaustion in the host galaxy via bar-induced gas inflows that trigger star formation activity, secular agents are not major contributors in the rapid quenching of galaxies at these redshifts. Galaxy interaction, associated with the elliptical, irregular and merger morphologies contribute, to a more significant degree, to the fast transition through the green valley at these redshifts. In the light of previous works suggesting that both secular and merger processes are responsible for the star formation quenching at low redshifts, our results provide an explanation to the recent findings that star formation quenching happened at a faster pace at $zsim0.8$.
We present first results of a study aimed to constrain the star formation rate and dust content of galaxies at z~2. We use a sample of BzK-selected star-forming galaxies, drawn from the COSMOS survey, to perform a stacking analysis of their 1.4 GHz radio continuum as a function of different stellar population properties, after removing AGN contaminants from the sample. Dust unbiased star formation rates are derived from radio fluxes assuming the local radio-IR correlation. The main results of this work are: i) specific star formation rates are constant over about 1 dex in stellar mass and up to the highest stellar mass probed; ii) the dust attenuation is a strong function of galaxy stellar mass with more massive galaxies being more obscured than lower mass objects; iii) a single value of the UV extinction applied to all galaxies would lead to grossly underestimate the SFR in massive galaxies; iv) correcting the observed UV luminosities for dust attenuation based on the Calzetti recipe provide results in very good agreement with the radio derived ones; v) the mean specific star formation rate of our sample steadily decreases by a factor of ~4 with decreasing redshift from z=2.3 to 1.4 and a factor of ~40 down the local Universe. These empirical SFRs would cause galaxies to dramatically overgrow in mass if maintained all the way to low redshifts, we suggest that this does not happen because star formation is progressively quenched, likely starting from the most massive galaxies.
We analyze the SDSS data to classify the galaxies based on their colour using a fuzzy set-theoretic method and quantify their environments using the local dimension. We find that the fraction of the green galaxies does not depend on the environment and $10%-20%$ of the galaxies at each environment are in the green valley depending on the stellar mass range chosen. Approximately $10%$ of the green galaxies at each environment host an AGN. Combining data from the Galaxy Zoo, we find that $sim 95%$ of the green galaxies are spirals and $sim 5%$ are ellipticals at each environment. Only $sim 8%$ of green galaxies exhibit signs of interactions and mergers, $sim 1%$ have dominant bulge, and $sim 6%$ host a bar. We show that the stellar mass distributions for the red and green galaxies are quite similar at each environment. Our analysis suggests that the majority of the green galaxies must curtail their star formation using physical mechanism(s) other than interactions, mergers, and those driven by bulge, bar and AGN activity. We speculate that these are the massive galaxies that have grown only via smooth accretion and suppressed the star formation primarily through mass driven quenching. Using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, we do not find any statistically significant difference between the properties of green galaxies in different environments. We conclude that the environmental factors play a minor role and the internal processes play the dominant role in quenching star formation in the green valley galaxies.
We investigate the role of dense Mpc-scale environments in processing molecular gas of cluster galaxies as they fall into the cluster cores. We consider $sim20$ luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in intermediate-$z$ clusters, from the Hershel Lensing Survey and the Local Cluster Substructure Survey. They include MACS J0717.5+3745 at $z=0.546$ and Abell 697, 963, 1763, and 2219 at $z=0.2-0.3$. We have performed far infrared to ultraviolet spectral energy distribution modeling of the LIRGs, which span cluster-centric distances within $r/r_{200}simeq0.2-1.6$. We have observed the LIRGs in CO(1$rightarrow$0) or CO(2$rightarrow$1) with the Plateau de Bure interferometer and its successor NOEMA, as part of five observational programs carried out between 2012 and 2017. We have compared the molecular gas to stellar mass ratio $M(H_2)/M_star$, star formation rate (SFR), and depletion time ($tau_{rm dep}$) of the LIRGs with those of a compilation of cluster and field star forming galaxies. The targeted LIRGs have SFR, $M(H_2)/M_star$, and $tau_{rm dep}$ that are consistent with those of both main sequence (MS) field galaxies and star forming galaxies from the comparison sample. However we find that the depletion time, normalized to the MS value, increases with increasing $r/r_{200}$, with a significance of $2.8sigma$, which is ultimately due to a deficit of cluster core LIRGs with $tau_{rm dep}gtrsimtau_{rm dep,MS}$. We suggest that a rapid exhaustion of the molecular gas reservoirs occurs in the cluster LIRGs and is effective in suppressing their star formation. This mechanism may explain the exponential decrease of the fraction of cluster LIRGs with cosmic time. The compression of the gas in LIRGs, possibly induced by intra-cluster medium shocks, may be responsible for the short depletion timescales, observed in a large fraction of cluster core LIRGs.
We use a robust sample of 11 z~7 galaxies (z-dropouts) to estimate the stellar mass density of the universe when it was only ~750 Myr old. We combine the very deep optical to near-Infrared photometry from the HST ACS and NICMOS cameras with mid-Infrared Spitzer IRAC imaging available through the GOODS program. After carefully removing the flux from contaminating foreground sources we have obtained reliable photometry in the 3.6 and 4.5 micron IRAC channels. The spectral shapes of these sources, including their rest frame optical colors, strongly support their being at z~7 with a mean photometric redshift of <z>=7.2+/-0.5. We use Bruzual & Charlot (2003) synthetic stellar population models to constrain their stellar masses and star formation histories. We find stellar masses that range over 0.1 -12x10^9 M_sol and average ages from 20 Myr to up to 425 Myr with a mean of ~300 Myr, suggesting that in some of these galaxies most of the stars were formed at z>8 (and probably at z>~10). The best fits to the observed SEDs are consistent with little or no dust extinction, in agreement with recent results at z~4-8. The star formation rates (SFR) are in the range from 5-20 M_sol/yr. From this sample we measure a stellar mass density of 6.6_{-3.3}^{+5.4}x10^5 M_sol/Mpc^3 to a limit of M_{UV,AB}<-20 (or 0.4 L*(z=3)). Combined with a fiducial lower limit for their ages (80 Myr) this implies a maximum SFR density of 0.008 M_sol/yr/Mpc^3. This is well below the critical level needed to reionize the universe at z~8 using standard assumptions. However, this result is based on luminous sources (>L*) and does not include the dominant contribution of the fainter galaxies. Strikingly, we find that the specific SFR is constant from z~7 to z~2 but drops substantially at more recent times.
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