No Arabic abstract
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.
Early quiescent galaxies at z~2 are known to be remarkably compact compared to their nearby counterparts. Possible progenitors of these systems include galaxies that are structurally similar, but are still rapidly forming stars. Here, we present Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the CO(1-0) line towards three such compact, star-forming galaxies at z~2.3, significantly detecting one. The VLA observations indicate baryonic gas fractions >~5 times lower and gas depletion times >~10 times shorter than normal, extended massive star-forming galaxies at these redshifts. At their current star formation rates, all three objects will deplete their gas reservoirs within 100Myr. These objects are among the most gas-poor objects observed at z>2, and are outliers from standard gas scaling relations, a result which remains true regardless of assumptions about the CO-H2 conversion factor. Our observations are consistent with the idea that compact, star-forming galaxies are in a rapid state of transition to quiescence in tandem with the build-up of the z~2 quenched population. In the detected compact galaxy, we see no evidence of rotation or that the CO-emitting gas is spatially extended relative to the stellar light. This casts doubt on recent suggestions that the gas in these compact galaxies is rotating and significantly extended compared to the stars. Instead, we suggest that, at least for this object, the gas is centrally concentrated, and only traces a small fraction of the total galaxy dynamical mass.
We study the origin and cosmic evolution of the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) in star-forming galaxies based on a full, numerical chemical evolution model. The model was designed to match the local MZRs for both gas and stars simultaneously. This is achieved by invoking a time-dependent metal enrichment process which assumes either a time-dependent metal outflow with larger metal loading factors in galactic winds at early times, or a time-dependent Initial Mass Function (IMF) with steeper slopes at early times. We compare the predictions from this model with data sets covering redshifts 0<z<3.5. The data suggests a two-phase evolution with a transition point around z ~ 1.5. Before that epoch the MZRgas has been evolving parallel with no evolution in the slope. After z ~ 1.5 the MZRgas started flattening until today. We show that the predictions of both the variable metal outflow and the variable IMF model match these observations very well. Our model also reproduces the evolution of the main sequence, hence the correlation between galaxy mass and star formation rate. We also compare the predicted redshift evolution of the MZRstar with data from the literature. As the latter mostly contains data of massive, quenched early-type galaxies, stellar metallicities at high redshifts tend to be higher in the data than predicted by our model. Data of stellar metallicities of lower-mass (< 10^11 solar mass), star-forming galaxies at high redshift is required to test our model.
We report a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) search for HI 21cm emission from a large sample of star-forming galaxies at $z approx 1.18 - 1.34$, lying in sub-fields of the DEEP2 Redshift Survey. The search was carried out by co-adding (stacking) the HI 21cm emission spectra of 857 galaxies, after shifting each galaxys HI 21cm spectrum to its rest frame. We obtain the $3sigma$ upper limit S$_{rm{HI}} < 2.5 mu$Jy on the average HI 21cm flux density of the 857 galaxies, at a velocity resolution of $approx 315$ km s$^{-1}$. This yields the $3sigma$ constraint M$_{rm{HI}} < 2.1 times 10^{10} times left[Delta {rm V}/315 rm{km/s} right]^{1/2} textrm{M}_odot$ on the average HI mass of the 857 stacked galaxies, the first direct constraint on the atomic gas mass of galaxies at $z > 1$. The implied limit on the average atomic gas mass fraction (relative to stars) is ${rm M}_{rm GAS}/{rm M}_* < 0.5$, comparable to the cold molecular gas mass fraction in similar star-forming galaxies at these redshifts. We find that the cosmological mass density of neutral atomic gas in massive star-forming galaxies at $z approx 1.3$ is $Omega_{rm GAS} < 3.7 times 10^{-4}$, significantly lower than $Omega_{rm GAS}$ estimates in both galaxies in the local Universe and damped Lyman-$alpha$ absorbers at $z geq 2.2$. Massive blue star-forming galaxies thus do not appear to dominate the neutral atomic gas content of the Universe at $z approx 1.3$.
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.
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.