Investigating The Growing Population of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon


Abstract in English

We explore the buildup of quiescent galaxies using a sample of 28,469 massive ($M_star ge 10^{11}$M$_odot$) galaxies at redshifts $1.5<z<3.0$, drawn from a 17.5 deg$^2$ area (0.33 Gpc$^3$ comoving volume at these redshifts). This allows for a robust study of the quiescent fraction as a function of mass at $1.5<z<3.0$ with a sample $sim$40 times larger at log($M_{star}$/$rm M_{odot}$)$ge11.5$ than previous studies. We derive the quiescent fraction using three methods: specific star-formation rate, distance from the main sequence, and UVJ color-color selection. All three methods give similar values at $1.5<z<2.0$, however the results differ by up to a factor of two at $2.0<z<3.0$. At redshifts $1.5 < z < 3.0$ the quiescent fraction increases as a function of stellar mass. By $z=2$, only 3.3 Gyr after the Big Bang, the universe has quenched $sim$25% of $M_star = 10^{11}$M$_odot$ galaxies and $sim$45% of $M_star = 10^{12}$M$_odot$ galaxies. We discuss physical mechanisms across a range of epochs and environments that could explain our results. We compare our results with predictions from hydrodynamical simulations SIMBA and IllustrisTNG and semi-analytic models (SAMs) SAG, SAGE, and Galacticus. The quiescent fraction from IllustrisTNG is higher than our empirical result by a factor of $2-5$, while those from SIMBA and the three SAMs are lower by a factor of $1.5-10$ at $1.5<z<3.0$.

Download