No Arabic abstract
The goal of the Gemini Deep Deep Survey (GDDS) is to study an unbiased sample of K<20.6 galaxies in the redshift range 0.8<z<2.0. Here we determine the statistical properties of the heavy element enrichment in the interstellar medium (ISM) of a subsample of 13 galaxies with 1.34<z<1.97 and UV absolute magnitude M_2000 < -19.65. The sample contains 38% of the total number of identified galaxies in the first two fields of the survey with z>1.3. The selected objects have colors typical of irregular and Sbc galaxies. Strong [OII] emission indicates high star formation activity in the HII regions (SFR~13-106 M_sun/yr). The high S/N composite spectrum shows strong ISM MgII and FeII absorption, together with weak MnII and MgI lines. The FeII column density, derived using the curve of growth analysis, is logN_FeII = 15.54^{+0.23}_{-0.13}. This is considerably larger than typical values found in damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) along QSO sight lines, where only 10 out of 87 (~11%) have logN_FeII > 15.2. High FeII column densities are observed in the z=2.72 Lyman break galaxy cB58 (logN_FeII ~ 15.25) and in gamma-ray burst host galaxies (logN_FeII ~ 14.8-15.9). Given our measured FeII column density and assuming a moderate iron dust depletion (delta_Fe ~ 1 dex), we derive an optical dust extinction A_V ~ 0.6. If the HI column density is log N(HI)<21.7 (as in 98% of DLAs), then the mean metallicity is Z/Z_sun > 0.2. The high completeness of the GDDS sample implies that these results are typical of star-forming galaxies in the 1<z<2 redshift range, an epoch which has heretofore been particularly challenging for observational programs.
We investigate rest-frame near-infrared (NIR) morphologies of a sample of 139 galaxies with M_{s} >= 1 x 10^{10} M_{sun} at z=0.8-1.2 in the GOODS-North field using our deep NIR imaging data (MOIRCS Deep Survey, MODS). We focus on Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs), which dominate high star formation rate (SFR) density at z~1, in the sample identified by cross-correlating with the Spitzer/MIPS 24um source catalog. We perform two-dimensional light profile fitting of the z~1 galaxies in the Ks-band (rest-frame J-band) with a single component Sersic model. We find that at z~1, ~90% of LIRGs have low Sersic indices (n<2.5, similar to disk-like galaxies) in the Ks-band, and those disk-like LIRGs consist of ~60% of the whole disk-like sample above M_{s} >= 3 x 10^{10} M_{sun}. The z~1 disk-like LIRGs are comparable or ~20% small at a maximum in size compared to local disk-like galaxies in the same stellar mass range. If we examine rest-frame UV-optical morphologies using the HST/ACS images, the rest-frame B-band sizes of the z~1 disk-like galaxies are comparable to those of the local disk-like galaxies as reported by previous studies on size evolution of disk-like galaxies in the rest-frame optical band. Measuring color gradients (galaxy sizes as a function of wavelength) of the z~1 and local disk-like galaxies, we find that the z~1 disk-like galaxies have 3-5 times steeper color gradient than the local ones. Our results indicate that (i) more than a half of relatively massive disk-like galaxies at z~1 are in violent star formation epochs observed as LIRGs, and also (ii) most of those LIRGs are constructing their fundamental disk structure vigorously. The high SFR density in the universe at z~1 may be dominated by such star formation in disk region in massive galaxies.
We show that there has been a dramatic decline in the abundance of massive galaxies with strong Hdelta stellar absorption lines from z=1.2 to the present. These ``Hdelta-strong, or HDS, galaxies have undergone a recent and rapid break in their star-formation activity. Combining data from the Gemini Deep Deep and the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys to make mass-matched samples (M*>=10^10.2 Msun), with 25 and 50,255 galaxies, respectively), we find that the fraction of galaxies in an HDS phase has decreased from about 50% at z=1.2 to a few percent today. This decrease in fraction is due to an actual decrease in the number density of massive HDS systems by a factor of 2-4, coupled with an increase in the number density of massive galaxies by about 30 percent. We show that this result depends only weakly on the threshold chosen for the Hdelta equivalent width to define HDS systems (if greater than 4 A) and corresponds to a (1+z)^{2.5pm 0.7} evolution. Spectral synthesis studies of the high-redshift population using the PEGASE code, treating Hdelta_A, EW[OII], Dn4000, and rest-frame colors, favor models in which the Balmer absorption features in massive Hdelta-strong systems are the echoes of intense episodes of star-formation that faded about 1 Gyr prior to the epoch of observation. The z=1.4-2 epoch appears to correspond to a time at which massive galaxies are in transition from a mode of sustained star formation to a relatively quiescent mode with weak and rare star-formation episodes. We argue that the most likely local descendants of the distant massive HDS galaxies are passively evolving massive galaxies in the field and small groups.
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 $z approx 1.3$.
This paper is the second in a series presenting the results of our deep H$alpha$-line survey towards protoclusters at $z>2$, based on narrow-band imaging with the Subaru Telescope. This work investigates massive galaxies in a protocluster region associated with a radio galaxy (PKS 1138$-$262), the Spiderweb galaxy, at $z=2.2$. Our 0.5 mag deeper narrow-band imaging than previous surveys collects a total of 68 H$alpha$ emitters (HAE). 17 out of the 68 are newly discovered protocluster members. First, a very high characteristic stellar mass of M$_star^ast=10^{11.73}$ M$_odot$ is measured from a Schechter function fit to the mass distribution of HAEs. Together with the Chandra X-ray data, we find that four out of six massive HAEs (M$_star>10^{11}$ M$_odot$) show bright X-ray emission, suggesting that they host active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Their mass estimates, therefore, would be affected by the nuclear emission from AGNs. Notably, the X-ray detected HAEs are likely positioned near the boundary between star-forming and quiescent populations in the rest-frame $UVJ$ plane. Moreover, our deep narrow-band data succeed in probing the bright H$alpha$ (+[Nii]) line nebula of the Spiderweb galaxy extending over $sim100$ physical kpc. These results suggest that the massive galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster are on the way to becoming the bright red sequence objects seen in local galaxy clusters, where AGNs might play an essential role in their quenching processes. Though a more statistical database is needed to build a general picture.
We present 279 galaxy cluster candidates at $z > 1.3$ selected from the 94 deg$^{2}$ Spitzer South Pole Telescope Deep Field (SSDF) survey. We use a simple algorithm to select candidate high-redshift clusters of galaxies based on Spitzer/IRAC mid-infrared data combined with shallow all-sky optical data. We identify distant cluster candidates in SSDF adopting an overdensity threshold that results in a high purity (80%) cluster sample based on tests in the Spitzer Deep, Wide-Field Survey of the Bootes field. Our simple algorithm detects all three $1.4 < z leq 1.75$ X-ray detected clusters in the Bootes field. The uniqueness of the SSDF survey resides not just in its area, one of the largest contiguous extragalactic fields observed with Spitzer, but also in its deep, multi-wavelength coverage by the South Pole Telescope (SPT), Herschel/SPIRE and XMM-Newton. This rich dataset will allow direct or stacked measurements of Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect decrements or X-ray masses for many of the SSDF clusters presented here, and enable systematic study of the most distant clusters on an unprecedented scale. We measure the angular correlation function of our sample and find that these candidates show strong clustering. Employing the COSMOS/UltraVista photometric catalog in order to infer the redshift distribution of our cluster selection, we find that these clusters have a comoving number density $n_c = (0.7^{+6.3}_{-0.6}) times 10^{-7} h^{3} mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$ and a spatial clustering correlation scale length $r_0 = (32 pm 7) h^{-1} rm{Mpc}$. Assuming our sample is comprised of dark matter halos above a characteristic minimum mass, $M_{{rm min}}$, we derive that at $z=1.5$ these clusters reside in halos larger than $M_{{rm min}} = 1.5^{+0.9}_{-0.7} times 10^{14} h^{-1} M_{odot}$. (abridged)