No Arabic abstract
We use new near-infrared spectroscopic observations to investigate the nature and evolution of the most luminous Halpha (Ha) emitters at z~0.8-2.23, which evolve strongly in number density over this period, and compare them to more typical Ha emitters. We study 59 luminous Ha emitters with $L_{Halpha}>L_{Halpha}^*$, roughly equally split per redshift slice at z~0.8, 1.47 and 2.23 from the HiZELS and CF-HiZELS surveys. We find that, overall, 30$pm$8% are AGN (80$pm$30% of these AGN are broad-line AGN, BL-AGN), and we find little to no evolution in the AGN fraction with redshift, within the errors. However, the AGN fraction increases strongly with Ha luminosity and correlates best with $L_{Halpha}/L_{Halpha}^*(z)$. While $L_{Halpha}<L_{rm Halpha}^*(z)$ Ha emitters are largely dominated by star-forming galaxies (>80%), the most luminous Ha emitters ($L_{Halpha}>10L_{Halpha}^*(z)$) at any cosmic time are essentially all BL-AGN. Using our AGN-decontaminated sample of luminous star-forming galaxies, and integrating down to a fixed Ha luminosity, we find a factor of ~1300x evolution in the star formation rate density from z=0 to z=2.23. This is much stronger than the evolution from typical Ha star-forming galaxies and in line with the evolution seen for constant luminosity cuts used to select Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies and/or sub-millimetre galaxies. By taking into account the evolution in the typical Ha luminosity, we show that the most strongly star-forming Ha-selected galaxies at any epoch ($L_{Halpha}>L^*_{Halpha}(z)$) contribute the same fractional amount of ~15% to the total star-formation rate density, at least up to z=2.23.
We present the spatially resolved H-alpha (Ha) dynamics of sixteen star-forming galaxies at z~0.81 using the new KMOS multi-object integral field spectrograph on the ESO VLT. These galaxies were selected using 1.18 um narrow-band imaging from the 10 deg^2 CFHT-HiZELS survey of the SA22hr field, are found in a ~4Mpc over-density of Ha emitters and likely reside in a group/intermediate environment, but not a cluster. We confirm and identify a rich group of star-forming galaxies at z=0.813+-0.003, with thirteen galaxies within 1000 km/s of each other, and 7 within a diameter of 3Mpc. All our galaxies are typical star-forming galaxies at their redshift, 0.8+-0.4 SFR*(z=0.8), spanning a range of specific star formation rate of sSFR=0.2-1.1 Gyr^-1 and have a median metallicity very close to solar of 12+log(O/H)=8.62+-0.06. We measure the spatially resolved Ha dynamics of the galaxies in our sample and show that thirteen out of sixteen galaxies can be described by rotating disks and use the data to derive inclination corrected rotation speeds of 50-275 km/s. The fraction of disks within our sample is 75+-8, consistent with previous results based on HST morphologies of Ha selected galaxies at z~1 and confirming that disks dominate the star formation rate density at z~1. Our Ha galaxies are well fitted by the z~1-2 Tully-Fisher relation, confirming the evolution seen in the zero-point. Apart from having, on average, higher stellar masses and lower sSFRs, our group galaxies at z=0.813 present the same mass-metallicity and TF relation as z~1 field galaxies, and are all disk galaxies.
We present clustering analyses of identically-selected star-forming galaxies in 3 narrow redshift slices (at z=0.8, z=1.47 and z=2.23), from HiZELS, a deep, near-infrared narrow-band survey. The HiZELS samples span the peak in the cosmic star-formation rate density, identifying typical star-forming galaxies at each epoch. Narrow-band samples have well-defined redshift distributions and are therefore ideal for clustering analyses. We quantify the clustering of the three samples, and of H-alpha luminosity-selected subsamples, initially using simple power law fits to the two-point correlation function. We extend this work to link the evolution of star-forming galaxies and their host dark matter halos over cosmic time using sophisticated dark matter halo models. We find that the clustering strength, r0, and the bias of galaxy populations relative to the clustering of dark matter increase linearly with H-alpha luminosity (and, by implication, star-formation rate) at all three redshifts, as do the host dark matter halo masses of the HiZELS galaxies. The typical galaxies in our samples are star-forming centrals, residing in halos of mass M_halo ~ a few times 10^12M_solar. We find a remarkably tight redshift-independent relation between the H-alpha luminosity scaled by the characteristic luminosity, L(H-alpha)/L(H-alpha)*(z), and the minimum host dark matter halo mass of central galaxies. This reveals that the dark matter halo environment is a strong driver of galaxy star-formation rate and therefore of the evolution of the star-formation rate density in the Universe.
New results from a large survey of H-alpha emission-line galaxies at z=0.84 using WFCAM/UKIRT and a custom narrow-band filter in the J band are presented as part of the HiZELS survey. Reaching an effective flux limit of 1e-16 erg/s/cm^2 in a comoving volume of 1.8e5 Mpc^3, this represents the largest and deepest survey of its kind ever done at z~1. There are 1517 potential line emitters detected across 1.4 sq.deg of the COSMOS and UKIDSS UDS fields, of which 743 are selected as H-alpha emitters. These are used to calculate the H-alpha luminosity function, which is well-fitted by a Schechter function with phi*=10^(-1.92+-0.10) Mpc^-3, L*=10^(42.26+-0.05)erg/s, and alpha=-1.65+-0.15. The integrated star formation rate density (SFRD) at z=0.845 is 0.15+-0.01 M_sun/yr/Mpc^3. The results robustly confirm a strong evolution of SFRD from the present day out to z~1 and then flattening to z~2, using a single star-formation indicator. Out to z~1, both the characteristic luminosity and space density of the H-alpha emitters increase significantly; at higher redshifts, L* continues to increase, but phi* decreases. The z=0.84 H-alpha emitters are mostly disk galaxies (82+-3%), while 28+-4% of the sample show signs of merger activity and contribute ~20% to the total SFRD. Irregulars and mergers dominate the H-alpha luminosity function above L*, while disks are dominant at fainter luminosities. These results demonstrate that it is the evolution of normal disk galaxies that drives the strong increase in the SFRD from the current epoch to z~1, although the continued strong evolution of L* beyond z=1 suggests an increasing importance of merger activity at higher redshifts.
We present adaptive optics assisted integral field spectroscopy of 34 star-forming galaxies at $z$ = 0.8-3.3 selected from the HiZELS narrow-band survey. We measure the kinematics of the ionised interstellar medium on $sim$1 kpc scales, and show that the galaxies are turbulent, with a median ratio of rotational to dispersion support of $v$/$sigma$=0.82$pm$0.13. We combine the dynamics with high-resolution rest-frame optical imaging and extract emission line rotation curves. We show that high-redshift star-forming galaxies follow a similar power-law trend in specific angular momentum with stellar mass as that of local late type galaxies. We exploit the high resolution of our data and examine the radial distribution of angular momentum within each galaxy by constructing total angular momentum profiles. Although the stellar mass of a typical star-forming galaxy is expected to grow by a factor $sim$8 in the $sim$5 Gyrs between $z$$sim$3.3 and $z$$sim$0.8, we show that the internal distribution of angular momentum becomes less centrally concentrated in this period i.e the angular momentum grows outwards. To interpret our observations, we exploit the EAGLE simulation and trace the angular momentum evolution of star forming galaxies from $z$$sim$3 to $z$$sim$0, identifying a similar trend of decreasing angular momentum concentration. This change is attributed to a combination of gas accretion in the outer disk, and feedback that preferentially arises from the central regions of the galaxy. We discuss how the combination of the growing bulge and angular momentum stabilises the disk and gives rise to the Hubble sequence.
We present HST WFC3 F160W imaging and infrared spectral energy distributions for twelve extremely luminous, obscured AGN at $1.8<z<2.7$, selected via Hot, Dust Obscured mid-infrared colors. Their infrared luminosities span $2-15times10^{13}$L$_{odot}$, making them among the most luminous objects in the Universe at $zsim2$. In all cases the infrared emission is consistent with arising at least in most part from AGN activity. The AGN fractional luminosities are higher than those in either sub-millimeter galaxies, or AGN selected via other mid-infrared criteria. Adopting the $G$, M$_{20}$ and $A$ morphological parameters, together with traditional classification boundaries, infers that three quarters of the sample as mergers. Our sample do not, however, show any correlation between the considered morphological parameters and either infrared luminosity or AGN fractional luminosity. Moreover, their asymmetries and effective radii are distributed identically to those of massive galaxies at $zsim2$. We conclude that our sample is not preferentially associated with mergers, though a significant merger fraction is still plausible. Instead, we propose that our sample are examples of the massive galaxy population at $zsim2$ that harbor a briefly luminous, flickering AGN, and in which the $G$ and M$_{20}$ values have been perturbed, due to either the AGN, and/or the earliest formation stages of a bulge in an inside-out manner. Furthermore, we find that the mass assembly of the central black holes in our sample leads the mass assembly of any bulge component. Finally, we speculate that our sample represent a small fraction of the immediate antecedents of compact star-forming galaxies at $zsim2$.