No Arabic abstract
The existence of a spatially resolved Star-Forming Main Sequence (rSFMS) and a spatially resolved Mass-Metallicity Relation (rMZR) is now well established for local galaxies. Moreover, gradients with metallicity decreasing with radius seem to be common in local disc galaxies. These observations suggest that galaxy formation is a self-regulating process, and provide constraints for galaxy evolution models. Studying the evolution of these relations at higher redshifts is still however very challenging. In this paper, we analyse three gravitationally lensed galaxies at z = 0.6, 0.7 and 1, observed with MUSE and SINFONI. These galaxies are highly magnified by galaxy clusters, which allow us to observe resolved scaling relations and metallicity gradients on physical scales of a couple of hundred parsecs, comparable to studies of local galaxies. We confirm that the rSFMS is already in place at these redshifts on sub-kpc scales, and establish, for the first time, the existence of the rMZR at higher redshifts. We develop a forward-modelling approach to fit 2D metallicity gradients of multiply imaged lensed galaxies in the image plane, and derive gradients of -0.027+/-0.003, -0.019+/-0.003 and -0.039+/-0.060 dex/kpc. Despite the fact that these are clumpy galaxies, typical of high redshift discs, the metallicity variations in the galaxies are well described by global linear gradients, and we do not see any difference in metallicity associated with the star-forming clumps.
We study the spatially resolved physical properties of the Cosmic Snake arc in MACS J1206.2-0847 and the arc in Abell 0521 (A521). These are two strongly lensed galaxies at redshifts $z=1.036$ and $z=1.044$. We used observations of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The former gives access to the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass ($M_star$), and the latter to the H$_2$ molecular gas mass ($M_{mathrm{mol}}$). HST and ALMA observations have similar angular resolutions of $0.15^{prime prime}-0.2^{prime prime}$, which with the help of strong gravitational lensing enable us to reach spatial resolutions down to $sim 30,mathrm{pc}$ and $sim 100,mathrm{pc}$ in these two galaxies, respectively. These resolutions are close to the resolution of observations of nearby galaxies. We study the radial profiles of SFR, $M_star$, and $M_{mathrm{mol}}$ surface densities of these high-redshift galaxies and compare the corresponding exponential scale lengths with those of local galaxies. We find that the scale lengths in the Cosmic Snake are about $0.5,mathrm{kpc}-1.5,mathrm{kpc}$, and they are 3 to 10 times larger in A521. This is a significant difference knowing that the two galaxies have comparable integrated properties. These high-redshift scale lengths are nevertheless comparable to those of local galaxies, which cover a wide distribution. The particularity of our high-redshift radial profiles is the normalisation of the $M_{mathrm{mol}}$ surface density profiles ($Sigma M_{mathrm{mol}}$), which are offset by up to a factor of 20 with respect to the profiles of $z=0$ counterparts. The SFR surface density profiles are also offset by the same factor as $Sigma M_{mathrm{mol}}$, as expected from the Kennicutt-Schmidt law.
We study the propagation of star formation based on the investigation of the separation of young star clusters from HII regions nearest to them. The relation between the separation and U-B colour index (or age) of a star cluster was found. The average age of star clusters increases with the separation as the 1.0-1.2 power in the separation range from 40 to 200 pc and as the 0.4-0.9 power in the range of 100-500 pc in the galaxies with symmetric morphology. The galaxies with distorted asymmetric disc structure show more complex and steeper (power >1.2 at separations from 40 to 500 pc) dependence between the age and the separation. Our results confirm the findings of previous studies on the dominant role of turbulence in propagation of the star formation process on spatial scales up to 500 pc and on time scales up to 300 Myr. On a smaller scale (=<100 pc), other physical processes, such as stellar winds and supernova explosions, play an important role along with turbulence. On the scale of stellar associations (100-200 pc and smaller), the velocity of star formation propagation is almost constant and it has a typical value of a few km/s.
We present hitherto the largest sample of gas-phase metallicity radial gradients measured at sub-kiloparsec resolution in star-forming galaxies in the redshift range of $zin[1.2, 2.3]$. These measurements are enabled by the synergy of slitless spectroscopy from the Hubble Space Telescope near-infrared channels and the lensing magnification from foreground galaxy clusters. Our sample consists of 76 galaxies with stellar mass ranging from 10$^7$ to 10$^{10}$ $M_odot$, instantaneous star-formation rate in the range of [1, 100] $M_odot$/yr, and global metallicity [$frac{1}{12}$, 2] solar. At 2-$sigma$ confidence level, 15/76 galaxies in our sample show negative radial gradients, whereas 7/76 show inverted gradients. Combining ours and all other metallicity gradients obtained at similar resolution currently available in the literature, we measure a negative mass dependence of $Deltalog({rm O/H})/Delta r~ [mathrm{dex~kpc^{-1}}] = left(-0.020pm0.007right) + left(-0.016pm0.008right) log(M_ast/10^{9.4} M_odot)$ with the intrinsic scatter being $sigma=0.060pm0.006$ over four orders of magnitude in stellar mass. Our result is consistent with strong feedback, not secular processes, being the primary governor of the chemo-structural evolution of star-forming galaxies during the disk mass assembly at cosmic noon. We also find that the intrinsic scatter of metallicity gradients increases with decreasing stellar mass and increasing specific star-formation rate. This increase in the intrinsic scatter is likely caused by the combined effect of cold-mode gas accretion and merger-induced starbursts, with the latter more predominant in the dwarf mass regime of $M_astlesssim10^9 M_odot$.
Using ALMA, we report high angular-resolution observations of the redshift z=3.63 galaxy, G09v1.97, one of the most luminous strongly lensed galaxies discovered by the H-ATLAS survey. We present 02-04 resolution images of the rest-frame 188 and 419$mu$m dust continuum and the CO(6-5), H2O(211-202) and J=2 H2O+ line emission. We also report the detection of H$_2^{18}$O in this source. The dust continuum and molecular gas emission are resolved into a nearly complete ~15 diameter Einstein ring plus a weaker image in the center, which is caused by a special dual deflector lensing configuration. The observed line profiles of the CO, H2O and H2O+ lines are strikingly similar. In the source plane, we reconstruct the dust continuum images and the spectral cubes of the line emission at sub-kpc scales. The reconstructed dust emission in the source plane is dominated by a compact disk with an effective radius of 0.7kpc plus an overlapping extended disk with a radius twice as large. While the average magnification for the dust continuum is $mu$~10-11, the magnification of the line emission varies 5 to 22 across different velocity components. The emission lines have similar spatial and kinematic distributions. The molecular gas and dust content reveal that G09v1.97 is a gas-rich major merger in its pre-coalescence phase. Both of the merging companions are intrinsically ULIRGs with LIR reaching $gtrsim 4times10^{12}L_odot$, and the total LIR of G09v1.97 is $1.4times10^{13}L_odot$. The approaching southern galaxy shows no obvious kinematic structure with a semi-major half-light radius a_s=0.4kpc, while the receding galaxy resembles an a_s=1.2kpc rotating disk. The two galaxies are separated by a projected distance of 1.3kpc, bridged by weak line emission that is co-spatially located with the cold-dust-emission peak, suggesting a large amount of cold ISM in the interacting region. (abridged)
After a decade of great progress in understanding gas flow into, out of, and through the Milky Way, we are poised to merge observations with simulations to build a comprehensive picture of the multi-scale magnetized interstellar medium (ISM). These insights will also be crucial to four bold initiatives in the 2020s: detecting nanohertz gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays (PTAs), decoding fast radio bursts (FRBs), cosmic B-mode detection, and imaging the Milky Ways black hole with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).