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Register a new userProSpect: Generating Spectral Energy Distributions with Complex Star Formation and Metallicity Histories
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We introduce ProSpect, a generative galaxy spectral energy distribution (SED) package that encapsulates the best practices for SED methodologies in a number of astrophysical domains. ProSpect comes with two popular families of stellar population libraries (BC03 and EMILES), and a large variety of methods to construct star formation and metallicity histories. It models dust through the use of a Charlot & Fall attenuation model, with re-emission using Dale far-infrared templates. It also has the ability to model AGN through the inclusion of a simple AGN and hot torus model. Finally, it makes use of MAPPINGS-III photoionisation tables to produce line emission features. We test the generative and inversion utility of ProSpect through application to the Shark galaxy formation semi-analytic code, and informed by these results produce fits to the final ultraviolet to far-infrared photometric catalogues produces by the Galaxy and Mass Assembly Survey (GAMA). As part of the testing of ProSpect, we also produce a range of simple photometric stellar mass approximations covering a range of filters for both observed frame and rest frame photometry.
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We study the links between star formation history and structure for a large mass-selected galaxy sample at 0.05 < z_phot < 0.30. The galaxies inhabit a very broad range of environments, from cluster cores to the field. Using HST images, we quantify their structure following Hoyos et al. (2012), and divide them into disturbed and undisturbed. We also visually identify mergers. Additionally, we provide a quantitative measure of the degree of disturbance for each galaxy (roughness). The majority of elliptical and lenticular galaxies have relaxed structure, showing no signs of ongoing star formation. Structurally-disturbed galaxies, which tend to avoid the lowest-density regions, have higher star-formation activity and younger stellar populations than undisturbed systems. Cluster spirals with reduced/quenched star formation have somewhat less disturbed morphologies than spirals with normal star-formation activity, suggesting that these passive spirals have started their morphological transformation into S0s. Visually identified mergers and galaxies not identified as mergers but with similar roughness have similar specific star formation rates and stellar ages. The degree of enhanced star formation is thus linked to the degree of structural disturbance, regardless of whether it is caused by major mergers or not. This suggests that merging galaxies are not special in terms of their higher-than-normal star-formation activity. Any physical process that produces roughness, or regions of enhanced luminosity density, will increase the star-formation activity in a galaxy with similar efficiency. An alternative explanation is that star formation episodes increase the galaxies roughness similarly, regardless of whether they are merger-induced or not.
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