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Register a new userExtremely red galaxies: dust attenuation and classification
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We re-address the classification criterion for extremely red galaxies (ERGs) of Pozzetti and Mannucci (2000 -- PM00), which aims to separate, in the Ic-K (or Rc-K) vs. J-K colour--colour diagram, passively evolving, old (> 1 Gyr) stellar populations in a dust-free environment, associated with ellipticals (Es), from dusty starburst galaxies (DSGs), both at 1 < z < 2. We explore a category of objects not considered previously, i.e., galaxies forming in this redshift range on short (0.1 Gyr) timescales and observed also in their early, dusty post-starburst phase. We also investigate the impact of structure of the dusty medium and dust amount on the observed optical/near-IR colours of high-z DSGs/DPSGs, through multiple-scattering radiative transfer calculations for a dust/stars configuration and an extinction function calibrated with nearby dusty starbursts. As a main result, we find that dusty post-starburst galaxies (DPSGs), with ages between 0.2 and 1 Gyr, at 1.3 < z < 2 mix with Es at 1 < z < 2 for a large range in dust amount. This ``intrusion is a source of concern for the present two-colour classification of ERGs. On the other hand, we confirm, in agreement with PM00, that DSGs are well separated from Es, both at 1 < z < 2, in the Ic-K vs. J-K colour--colour diagram, whatever the structure (two-phase clumpy or homogeneous) of their dusty medium and their dust amount are. This result holds under the new hypothesis of high-z Es being as dusty as nearby ones. Thus the interpretation of the optical/near-IR colours of high-z Es may suffer from a multiple degeneracy among age, metallicity, dust and redshift. We also find that DPSGs at z around 1 mix with DSGs at 1 < z < 2, as a function of dust amount and structure of the dusty medium. All these results help explaining the complexity of the ERG classification... (Abridged)
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We investigate which conditions of dust attenuation and stellar populations allow models of dusty, continuously star-forming, bulge-less disk galaxies at 0.8<z<3.2 to meet the different colour selection criteria of high-z ``red galaxies (e.g. Rc-K>5.3, Ic-K>4, J-K>2.3). As a main novelty, we use stellar population models that include the thermally pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution. The star formation rate of the models declines exponentially as a function of time, the e-folding time being longer than 3 Gyr. In addition, we use calculations of radiative transfer of the stellar and scattered radiation through different dusty interstellar media in order to explore the wide parameter space of dust attenuation. We find that synthetic disks can exhibit red optical/near-infrared colours because of reddening by dust, but only if they have been forming stars for at least about 1 Gyr. Extremely few models barely exhibit Rc-K>5.3, if the inclination i=90 deg and if the opacity 2*tauV>6. Hence, Rc-K-selected galaxies at 1<z<2 most probably are either systems with an old, passively evolving bulge or starbursts. Synthetic disks at 1<z<2 exhibit 4<Ic-K<4.8, if they are seen edge on (i.e. at i about 90 deg) and if 2*tauV>0.5. This explains the large fraction of observed, edge-on disk-like galaxies with Ks<19.5 and F814W-Ks>4. Finally, models with 2<z<3.2 exhibit 2.3<J-K<3, with no bias towards i about 90 deg and for a large range in opacity (e.g. 2*tauV>1 for i about 70 deg). In conclusion, red disk-like galaxies at 0.8<z<3.2 may not necessarily be dustier than nearby disk galaxies (with 0.5<2*tauV<2) and/or much older than about 1 Gyr. This result is due both to a realistic description of dust attenuation and to the emission contribution by TP-AGB stars... (Abridged)
We present a study of the classification of z ~1 extremely red objects (EROs), using a combination of HST/ACS, Spitzer/IRAC, and ground-based images of the COSMOS field. Our sample includes about 5300 EROs with i-Ks>2.45 (AB, equivalently I-Ks=4 in Vega) and Ks<=21.1 (AB). For EROs in our sample, we compute, using the ACS F814W images, their concentration, asymmetry, as well as their Gini coefficient and the second moment of the brightest 20% of their light. Using those morphology parameters and the Spitzer/IRAC [3.6]-[8.0] color, the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting method, we classify EROs into two classes: old galaxies (OGs) and young, dusty starburst galaxies (DGs). We found that the fraction of OGs and DGs in our sample is similar, about 48 percentages of EROs in our sample are OGs, and 52 percentages of them are DGs. To reduce the redundancy of these three different classification methods, we performed a principal component analysis on the measurements of EROs, and find that morphology parameters and SEDs are efficient in segregating OGs and DGs. The [3.6]-[8.0] color, which depends on reddening, redshift, and photometric accuracy, is difficult to separate EROs around the discriminating line between starburst and elliptical. We investigate the dependence of the fraction of EROs on their observational properties, and the results suggest that DGs become increasingly important at fainter magnitudes, redder colors, and higher redshifts.
Using GALFORM, a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation in the Lambda cold dark matter cosmology, we study the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) colours of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) in the redshift range 2.5 < z < 10. As the impact of dust on UV luminosity can be dramatic, our model includes a self-consistent computation of dust attenuation based on a radiative transfer model. We find that intrinsically brighter galaxies suffer stronger dust attenuation than fainter ones, though the relation has a large scatter. The model predicts galaxies with UV colours consistent with the colour selection regions designed to select LBGs in observational surveys. We find that the drop-out technique that selects LBGs based on two rest-frame UV colours is robust and effective, selecting more than 70 per cent of UV bright galaxies at a given redshift. We investigate the impact on the predicted UV colours of varying selected model parameters. We find that the UV colours are most sensitive to the modelling of dust attenuation and in particular, to the extinction curve used in the radiative transfer calculation. If we assume a Milky Way dust extinction curve, the predicted UV continuum slopes are, in general, bluer than observed. However, we find that the opposite is true when using the Small Magellanic Cloud dust extinction curve. This demonstrates the strong dependence of UV colours on dust properties and highlights the inadequacy of using the UV continuum slope as a tracer of dust attenuation without any further knowledge of the galaxy inclination or dust characteristics in high redshift galaxies.
We report Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI) 1.1 mm continuum imaging towards two extremely red H-[4.5]>4 (AB) galaxies at z>3, which we have previously discovered making use of Spitzer SEDS and Hubble Space Telescope CANDELS ultra-deep images of the Ultra Deep Survey field. One of our objects is detected on the PdBI map with a 4.3 sigma significance, corresponding to Snu(1.1mm)=(0.78 +/- 0.18) mJy. By combining this detection with the Spitzer 8 and 24 micron photometry for this source, and SCUBA2 flux density upper limits, we infer that this galaxy is a composite active galactic nucleus/star-forming system. The infrared (IR)-derived star formation rate is SFR~(200 +/- 100) Msun/yr, which implies that this galaxy is a higher-redshift analogue of the ordinary ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) more commonly found at z~2-3. In the field of the other target, we find a tentative 3.1 sigma detection on the PdBI 1.1 mm map, but 3.7 arcsec away of our target position, so it likely corresponds to a different object. In spite of the lower significance, the PdBI detection is supported by a close SCUBA2 3.3 sigma detection. No counterpart is found on either the deep SEDS or CANDELS maps, so, if real, the PdBI source could be similar in nature to the sub-millimetre source GN10. We conclude that the analysis of ultra-deep near- and mid-IR images offers an efficient, alternative route to discover new sites of powerful star formation activity at high redshifts.
The Phoenix Deep Survey (PDS) is a multiwavelength survey based on deep 1.4 GHz radio observations used to identify a large sample of star forming galaxies to z=1. Here we present an exploration of the evolutionary constraints on the star-forming population imposed by the 1.4 GHz source counts, followed by an analysis of the average properties of extremely red galaxies in the PDS, by using the stacking technique.
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