A Multi-wavelength View of the Star Formation Activity at z~3


الملخص بالإنكليزية

We present a multi-wavelength, UV-to-radio analysis for a sample of massive (M$_{ast}$ $sim$ 10$^{10}$ M$_odot$) IRAC- and MIPS 24$mu$m-detected Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) with spectroscopic redshifts z$sim$3 in the GOODS-North field (L$_{rm UV}$$>1.8times$L$^{ast}_{z=3}$). For LBGs without individual 24$mu$m detections, we employ stacking techniques at 24$mu$m, 1.1mm and 1.4GHz, to construct the average UV-to-radio spectral energy distribution and find it to be consistent with that of a Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG) with L$rm_{IR}$=4.5$^{+1.1}_{-2.3}$$times 10^{11}$ L$_{odot}$ and a specific star formation rate (SSFR) of 4.3 Gyr$^{-1}$ that corresponds to a mass doubling time $sim$230 Myrs. On the other hand, when considering the 24$mu$m-detected LBGs we find among them galaxies with L$rm_{IR}> 10^{12}$ L$_{odot}$, indicating that the space density of $zsim$3 UV-selected Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) is $sim$(1.5$pm$0.5)$times 10^{-5}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. We compare measurements of star formation rates (SFRs) from data at different wavelengths and find that there is tight correlation (Kendalls $tau >$ 99.7%) and excellent agreement between the values derived from dust-corrected UV, mid-IR, mm and radio data for the whole range of L$rm_{IR}$ up to L$rm_{IR}$ $sim$ 10$^{13}$ L$_{odot}$. This range is greater than that for which the correlation is known to hold at z$sim$2, possibly due to the lack of significant contribution from PAHs to the 24$mu$m flux at $zsim$3. The fact that this agreement is observed for galaxies with L$rm_{IR}$ $>$ 10$^{12}$ L$_{odot}$ suggests that star-formation in UV-selected ULIRGs, as well as the bulk of star-formation activity at this redshift, is not embedded in optically thick regions as seen in local ULIRGs and submillimeter-selected galaxies at $z=2$.

تحميل البحث