No Arabic abstract
We investigate whether the mean star formation activity of star-forming galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 in the GOODS-S field can be reproduced by simple evolution models of these systems. In this case, such models might be used as first order references for studies at higher z to decipher when and to what extent a secular evolution is sufficient to explain the star formation history in galaxies. We selected star-forming galaxies at z=0 and at z=0.7 in IR and in UV to have access to all the recent star formation. We focused on galaxies with a stellar mass ranging between 10^{10} and 10^{11} M_sun for which the results are not biased by the selections. We compared the data to chemical evolution models developed for spiral galaxies and originally built to reproduce the main characteristics of the Milky Way and nearby spirals without fine-tuning them for the present analysis. We find a shallow decrease in the specific star formation rate (SSFR) when the stellar mass increases. The evolution of the SSFR characterizing both UV and IR selected galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 is consistent with the models built to reproduce the present spiral galaxies. There is no need to strongly modify of the physical conditions in galaxies to explain the average evolution of their star formation from z=0 to z=0.7. We use the models to predict the evolution of the star formation rate and the metallicity on a wider range of redshift and we compare these predictions with the results of semi-analytical models.
We use a 24 micron selected sample containing more than 8,000 sources to study the evolution of star-forming galaxies in the redshift range from z=0 to z~3. We obtain photometric redshifts for most of the sources in our survey using a method based on empirically-built templates spanning from ultraviolet to mid-infrared wavelengths. The accuracy of these redshifts is better than 10% for 80% of the sample. The derived redshift distribution of the sources detected by our survey peaks at around z=0.6-1.0 (the location of the peak being affected by cosmic variance), and decays monotonically from z~1 to z~3. We have fitted infrared luminosity functions in several redshift bins in the range 0<z<~3. Our results constrain the density and/or luminosity evolution of infrared-bright star-forming galaxies. The typical infrared luminosity (L*) decreases by an order of magnitude from z~2 to the present. The cosmic star formation rate (SFR) density goes as (1+z)^{4.0pm0.2} from z=0 to z=0.8. From z=0.8 to z~1.2, the SFR density continues rising with a smaller slope. At 1.2<z<3, the cosmic SFR density remains roughly constant. The SFR density is dominated at low redshift (z<0.5) by galaxies which are not very luminous in the infrared (L_TIR<1.e11 L_sun, where L_TIR is the total infrared luminosity, integrated from 8 to 1000 micron). The contribution from luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (L_TIR>1.e11 L_sun) to the total SFR density increases steadily from z~0 up to z~2.5, forming at least half of the newly-born stars by z~1.5. Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (L_TIR>1.e12 L_sun) play a rapidly increasing role for z>~1.3.
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 analyze the infrared (IR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 10micron < lambda(rest) < 100micron for ~600 galaxies at z~0.7 in the extended Chandra Deep Field South by stacking their Spitzer 24, 70 and 160micron images. We place interesting constraints on the average IR SED shape in two bins: the brightest 25% of z~0.7 galaxies detected at 24micron, and the remaining 75% of individually-detected galaxies. Galaxies without individual detections at 24micron were not well-detected at 70micron and 160micron even through stacking. We find that the average IR SEDs of z~0.7 star-forming galaxies fall within the diversity of z~0 templates. While dust obscuration Lir/Luv seems to be only a function of star formation rate (SFR; ~ Lir+Luv), not of redshift, the dust temperature of star-forming galaxies (with SFR ~ 10 solar mass per year) at a given IR luminosity was lower at z~0.7 than today. We suggest an interpretation of this phenomenology in terms of dust geometry: intensely star-forming galaxies at z~0 are typically interacting, and host dense centrally-concentrated bursts of star formation and warm dust temperatures. At z~0.7, the bulk of intensely star-forming galaxies are relatively undisturbed spirals and irregulars, and we postulate that they have large amounts of widespread lower-density star formation, yielding lower dust temperatures for a given IR luminosity. We recommend what IR SEDs are most suitable for modeling intermediate redshift galaxies with different SFRs.
We use measurements of the stellar mass function, galaxy clustering, and galaxy-galaxy lensing within the COSMOS survey to constrain the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) of star forming and quiescent galaxies over the redshift range z=[0.2,1.0]. For massive galaxies, M*>~10^10.6 Msol, our results indicate that star-forming galaxies grow proportionately as fast as their dark matter halos while quiescent galaxies are outpaced by dark matter growth. At lower masses, there is minimal difference in the SHMRs, implying that the majority low-mass quiescent galaxies have only recently been quenched of their star formation. Our analysis also affords a breakdown of all COSMOS galaxies into the relative numbers of central and satellite galaxies for both populations. At z=1, satellite galaxies dominate the red sequence below the knee in the stellar mass function. But the number of quiescent satellites exhibits minimal redshift evolution; all evolution in the red sequence is due to low-mass central galaxies being quenched of their star formation. At M*~10^10 Msol, the fraction of central galaxies on the red sequence increases by a factor of ten over our redshift baseline, while the fraction of quenched satellite galaxies at that mass is constant with redshift. We define a migration rate to the red sequence as the time derivative of the passive galaxy abundances. We find that the migration rate of central galaxies to the red sequence increases by nearly an order of magnitude from z=1 to z=0. These results imply that the efficiency of quenching star formation for centrals is increasing with cosmic time, while the mechanisms that quench the star formation of satellite galaxies in groups and clusters is losing efficiency.
We carried out extremely sensitive Submillimeter Array (SMA) 340 GHz (860 micron) continuum imaging of a complete sample of SCUBA 850 micron sources (>4 sigma) with fluxes >3 mJy in the GOODS-N. Using these data and new SCUBA-2 data, we do not detect 4 of the 16 SCUBA sources, and we rule out the original SCUBA fluxes at the 4 sigma level. Three more resolve into multiple fainter SMA galaxies, suggesting that our understanding of the most luminous high-redshift dusty galaxies may not be as reliable as we thought. 10 of the 16 independent SMA sources have spectroscopic redshifts (optical/infrared or CO) to z=5.18. Using a new, ultradeep 20 cm image obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (rms of 2.5 microJy), we find that all 16 of the SMA sources are detected at >5 sigma. Using Herschel far-infrared (FIR) data, we show that the five isolated SMA sources with Herschel detections are well described by an Arp 220 spectral energy distribution template in the FIR. They also closely obey the local FIR-radio correlation, a result that does not suffer from a radio bias. We compute the contribution from the 16 SMA sources to the universal star formation rate (SFR) per comoving volume. With individual SFRs in the range 700-5000 solar masses per year, they contribute ~30% of the extinction-corrected ultraviolet-selected SFR density from z=1 to at least z=5. Star formation histories determined from extinction-corrected ultraviolet populations and from submillimeter galaxy populations only partially overlap, due to the extreme ultraviolet faintness of some submillimeter galaxies.