No Arabic abstract
Previous findings show that the existence of dense cores or bulges is the prerequisite for quenching a galaxy, leading to a proposed two-step quenching scenario: compaction and quenching. In this scenario, galaxies first grow their cores to a stellar mass surface density threshold and subsequently quenching occurs, suggesting that galaxies evolve from extended star-forming galaxies (eSFGs), through compact star-forming galaxies (cSFGs), to quenched population. In this work, we aim at examining the possible evolutionary link between eSFGs and cSFGs by identifying the trends in star formation rate (SFR), gas-phase metallicity and HI content, since one would naturally expect that galaxies evolve along the track of cold gas consumption and metal enhancement. We select a volume-limited sample of 15,933 galaxies with stellar mass above $10^{9.5}M_{odot}$ and redshift of 0.02 < z < 0.05 from the NASA-Sloan-Atlas catalog within the ALFALFA footprint. The cSFGs on average exhibit similar or slightly higher SFRs of $sim$0.06 dex and significantly higher gas-phase metallicity (up to 0.2 dex at low mass) with respect to the eSFGs, while the cSFGs dominate the galaxy population of the most intense star formation activities. More importantly, overall the median HI content and gas depletion time of cSFGs are about half of eSFGs. Our result supports the compaction and quenching scenario that galaxies evolve and grow their cores along the track of cold gas consumption and metal enhancement. The environments of eSFGs and cSFGs are indistinguishable, suggesting that the compaction process is independent of any environmental effects at least for low-redshift universe.
We compare the relations among various integrated characteristics of ~25,000 low-redshift (z<1.0) compact star-forming galaxies (CSFGs) from Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and of high-redshift (z>1.5) star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with respect to oxygen abundances, stellar masses M*, far-UV absolute magnitudes M(FUV), star-formation rates SFR and specific star-formation rates sSFR, Lyman-continuum photon production efficiencies (xi_ion), UV continuum slopes beta, [OIII]5007/[OII]3727 and [NeIII]3868/[OII]3727 ratios, and emission-line equivalent widths EW([OII]3727), EW([OIII]5007), and EW(Halpha). We find that the relations for low-z CSFGs with high equivalent widths of the Hbeta emission line, EW(Hbeta)>100A, and high-z SFGs are very similar, implying close physical properties in these two categories of galaxies. Thus, CSFGs are likely excellent proxies for the SFGs in the high-z Universe. They also extend to galaxies with lower stellar masses, down to ~10^6 Msun, and to absolute FUV magnitudes as faint as -14 mag. Thanks to their proximity, CSFGs can be studied in much greater detail than distant SFGs. Therefore, the relations between the integrated characteristics of the large sample of CSFGs studied here can prove very useful for our understanding of high-z dwarf galaxies in future observations with large ground-based and space telescopes.
We study the evolution of the core (r<1 kpc) and effective (r<r_e) stellar-mass surface densities, in star-forming and quiescent galaxies. Since z=3, both populations occupy distinct, linear relations in log(Sigma_e) and log(Sigma_1) vs. log(M). These structural relations exhibit slopes and scatter that remain almost constant with time while their normalizations decline. For SFGs, the normalization declines by less than a factor of 2 from z=3, in both Sigma_e and Sigma_1. Such mild declines suggest that SFGs build dense cores by growing along these relations. We define this evolution as the structural main sequence (Sigma-MS). Quiescent galaxies follow different relations (Sigma^Q_e, Sigma^Q_1) off the Sigma-MS by having higher densities than SFGs of the same mass and redshift. The normalization of Sigma^Q_e declines by a factor of 10 since z=3, but only a factor of 2 in Sigma^Q_1. Thus, the common denominator for quiescent galaxies at all redshifts is the presence of a dense stellar core, and the formation of such cores in SFGs is the main requirement for quenching. Expressed in 2D as deviations off the SFR-MS and off Sigma^Q_1 at each redshift, the distribution of massive galaxies forms a universal, L-shaped sequence that relates two fundamental physical processes: compaction and quenching. Compaction is a process of substantial core-growth in SFGs relative to that in the Sigma-MS. This process increases the core-to-total mass and Sersic index, thereby, making compact SFGs. Quenching occurs once compact SFGs reach a maximum central density above Sigma^Q_1 > 9.5 M_sun/kpc^2. This threshold provides the most effective selection criterion to identify the star-forming progenitors of quiescent galaxies at all redshifts.
We have used Galaxy Zoo DECaLS (GZD) to study strong and weak bars in disk galaxies. Out of the 314,000 galaxies in GZD, we created a volume-limited sample (0.01 < z < 0.05, Mr < -18.96) which contains 1,867 galaxies with reliable volunteer bar classifications in the ALFALFA footprint. In keeping with previous Galaxy Zoo surveys (such as GZ2), the morphological classifications from GZD agree well with previous morphological surveys. GZD considers galaxies to either have a strong bar (15.5%), a weak bar (28.1%) or no bar (56.4%), based on volunteer classifications on images obtained from the DECaLS survey. This places GZD in a unique position to assess differences between strong and weak bars. We find that the strong bar fraction is typically higher in quiescent galaxies than in star forming galaxies, while the weak bar fraction is similar. Moreover, we have found that strong bars facilitate the quenching process in star forming galaxies, finding higher fibre SFRs, lower gas masses and shorter depletion timescales in these galaxies compared to unbarred galaxies. However, we also found that any differences between strong and weak bars disappear when controlling for bar length. Based on this, we conclude that weak and strong bars are not fundamentally different phenomena. Instead, we propose that there is a continuum of bar types, which varies from weakest to strongest.
We use the data for the Hbeta emission-line, far-ultraviolet (FUV) and mid-infrared 22 micron continuum luminosities to estimate star formation rates <SFR> averaged over the galaxy lifetime for a sample of about 14000 bursting compact star-forming galaxies (CSFGs) selected from the Data Release 12 (DR12) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The average coefficient linking <SFR> and the star formation rate SFR_0 derived from the Hbeta luminosity at zero starburst age is found to be 0.04. We compare <SFR>s with some commonly used SFRs which are derived adopting a continuous star formation during a period of ~100 Myr, and find that the latter ones are 2-3 times higher. It is shown that the relations between SFRs derived using a geometric mean of two star-formation indicators in the UV and IR ranges and reduced to zero starburst age have considerably lower dispersion compared to those with single star-formation indicators. We suggest that our relations for <SFR> determination are more appropriate for CSFGs because they take into account a proper temporal evolution of their luminosities. On the other hand, we show that commonly used SFR relations can be applied for approximate estimation within a factor of ~2 of the <SFR> averaged over the lifetime of the bursting compact galaxy.
Lyman break analogues (LBAs) are a population of star-forming galaxies at low redshift (z ~ 0.2) selected in the ultraviolet (UV). These objects present higher star formation rates and lower dust extinction than other galaxies with similar masses and luminosities in the local universe. In this work we present results from a survey with the Combined Array for Research in Millimetre-wave Astronomy (CARMA) to detect CO(1-0) emission in LBAs, in order to analyse the properties of the molecular gas in these galaxies. Our results show that LBAs follow the same Schmidt-Kennicutt law as local galaxies. On the other hand, they have higher gas fractions (up to 66%) and faster gas depletion time-scales (below 1 Gyr). These characteristics render these objects more akin to high-redshift star-forming galaxies. We conclude that LBAs are a great nearby laboratory for studying the cold interstellar medium in low-metallicity, UV-luminous compact star-forming galaxies.