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Register a new userEuclid: The selection of quiescent and star-forming galaxies using observed colours
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The Euclid mission will observe well over a billion galaxies out to $zsim6$ and beyond. This will offer an unrivalled opportunity to investigate several key questions for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. The first step for many of these studies will be the selection of a sample of quiescent and star-forming galaxies, as is often done in the literature by using well known colour techniques such as the `UVJ diagram. However, given the limited number of filters available for the Euclid telescope, the recovery of such rest-frame colours will be challenging. We therefore investigate the use of observed Euclid colours, on their own and together with ground-based u-band observations, for selecting quiescent and star-forming galaxies. The most efficient colour combination, among the ones tested in this work, consists of the (u-VIS) and (VIS-J) colours. We find that this combination allows users to select a sample of quiescent galaxies complete to above $sim70%$ and with less than 15$%$ contamination at redshifts in the range $0.75<z<1$. For galaxies at high-z or without the u-band complementary observations, the (VIS-Y) and (J-H) colours represent a valid alternative, with $>65%$ completeness level and contamination below 20$%$ at $1<z<2$ for finding quiescent galaxies. In comparison, the sample of quiescent galaxies selected with the traditional UVJ technique is only $sim20%$ complete at $z<3$, when recovering the rest-frame colours using mock Euclid observations. This shows that our new methodology is the most suitable one when only Euclid bands, along with u-band imaging, are available.
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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 utilize for the first time HST ACS imaging to examine the structural properties of galaxies in the rest-frame U-V versus V-J diagram (i.e., the UVJ diagram) using a sample at 0.6<z<0.9 that reaches a low stellar mass limit (log M/Msun>10.25). The use of the UVJ diagram as a tool to distinguish quiescent galaxies from star forming galaxies (SFGs) is becoming more common due to its ability to separate red quiescent galaxies from reddened SFGs. Quiescent galaxies occupy a small and distinct region of UVJ color space and we find most of them to have concentrated profiles with high Sersic indices (n>2.5) and smooth structure characteristic of early-type systems. SFGs populate a broad, but well-defined sequence of UVJ colors and are comprised of objects with a mix of Sersic indices. Interestingly, most UVJ-selected SFGs with high Sersic indices also display structure due to dust and star formation typical of the n<2.5 SFGs and late-type systems. Finally, we find that the position of a SFG on the sequence of UVJ colors is determined to a large degree by the mass of the galaxy and its inclination. Systems that are closer to edge-on generally display redder colors and lower [OII]3727 luminosity per unit mass as a consequence of the reddening due to dust within the disks. We conclude that the two main features seen in UVJ color space correspond closely to the traditional morphological classes of early and late-type galaxies.
We study the rest-frame ultra-violet sizes of massive (~0.8 x 10^11 M_Sun) galaxies at 3.4<z<4.2, selected from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE), by fitting single Sersic profiles to HST/WFC3/F160W images from the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). Massive quiescent galaxies are very compact, with a median circularized half-light radius r_e = 0.63 +/- 0.18 kpc. Removing 5/16 (31%) sources with signs of AGN activity does not change the result. Star-forming galaxies have r_e = 2.0 +/- 0.60 kpc, 3.2 +/- 1.3 x larger than quiescent galaxies. Quiescent galaxies at z~4 are on average 6.0 +- 0.17 x smaller than at z~0 and 1.9 +/- 0.7 x smaller than at z~2. Star-forming galaxies of the same stellar mass are 2.4 +/- 0.7 x smaller than at z~0. Overall, the size evolution at 0<z<4 is well described by a powerlaw, with r_e = 5.08 +/- 0.28 (1+z)^(-1.44+/-0.08) kpc for quiescent and r_e = 6.02 +/- 0.28 (1+z)^(-0.72+/-0.05) kpc for star-forming galaxies. Compact star-forming galaxies are rare in our sample: we find only 1/14 (7%) with r_e / (M / 10^11 M_Sun)^0.75 < 1.5, whereas 13/16 (81%) of the quiescent galaxies is compact. The number density of compact quiescent galaxies at z~4 is 1.8 +/- 0.8 x 10^-5 Mpc^-3 and increases rapidly, by >5 x, between 2<z<4. The paucity of compact star-forming galaxies at z~4 and their large rest-frame ultra-violet median sizes suggest that the formation phase of compact cores is very short and/or highly dust obscured.
Large photometric surveys provide a rich source of observations of quiescent galaxies, including a surprisingly large population at z>1. However, identifying large, but clean, samples of quiescent galaxies has proven difficult because of their near-degeneracy with interlopers such as dusty, star-forming galaxies. We describe a new technique for selecting quiescent galaxies based upon t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), an unsupervised machine learning algorithm for dimensionality reduction. This t-SNE selection provides an improvement both over UVJ, removing interlopers which otherwise would pass color selection, and over photometric template fitting, more strongly towards high redshift. Due to the similarity between the colors of high- and low-redshift quiescent galaxies, under our assumptions t-SNE outperforms template fitting in 63% of trials at redshifts where a large training sample already exists. It also may be able to select quiescent galaxies more efficiently at higher redshifts than the training sample.
We study how star formation is regulated in low-mass field dwarf galaxies ($10^5 leq M_{star} leq 10^6 , text{M}_{odot}$), using cosmological high-resolution ($3 , text{pc}$) hydrodynamical simulations. Cosmic reionization quenches star formation in all our simulated dwarfs, but three galaxies with final dynamical masses of $3 times 10^{9} ,text{M}_{odot}$ are subsequently able to replenish their interstellar medium by slowly accreting gas. Two of these galaxies re-ignite and sustain star formation until the present day at an average rate of $10^{-5} , text{M}_{odot} , text{yr}^{-1}$, highly reminiscent of observed low-mass star-forming dwarf irregulars such as Leo T. The resumption of star formation is delayed by several billion years due to residual feedback from stellar winds and Type Ia supernovae; even at $z=0$, the third galaxy remains in a temporary equilibrium with a large gas content but without any ongoing star formation. Using the genetic modification approach, we create an alternative mass growth history for this gas-rich quiescent dwarf and show how a small $(0.2,mathrm{dex})$ increase in dynamical mass can overcome residual stellar feedback, re-igniting star formation. The interaction between feedback and mass build-up produces a diversity in the stellar ages and gas content of low-mass dwarfs, which will be probed by combining next-generation HI and imaging surveys.
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