We report an expanded sample of visual morphological classifications from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey phase two, which now includes 7556 objects (previously 3727 in phase one). We define a ...local (z < 0.06) sample and classify galaxies into E, S0-Sa, SB0-SBa, Sab-Scd, SBab-SBcd, Sd-Irr, and ‘little blue spheroid’ types. Using these updated classifications, we derive stellar mass function fits to individual galaxy populations divided both by morphological class and more general spheroid- or disc-dominated categories with a lower mass limit of log(M
*/M⊙) = 8 (one dex below earlier morphological mass function determinations). We find that all individual morphological classes and the combined spheroid-/bulge-dominated classes are well described by single Schechter stellar mass function forms. We find that the total stellar mass densities for individual galaxy populations and for the entire galaxy population are bounded within our stellar mass limits and derive an estimated total stellar mass density of ρ* = 2.5 × 108 M⊙ Mpc−3 h
0.7, which corresponds to an approximately 4 per cent fraction of baryons found in stars. The mass contributions to this total stellar mass density by galaxies that are dominated by spheroidal components (E and S0-Sa classes) and by disc components (Sab-Scd and Sd-Irr classes) are approximately 70 and 30 per cent, respectively.
ABSTRACT
We use the eagle simulations to study the connection between the quenching time-scale, τQ, and the physical mechanisms that transform star-forming galaxies into passive galaxies. By ...quantifying τQ in two complementary ways – as the time over which (i) galaxies traverse the green valley on the colour–mass diagram, or (ii) leave the main sequence of star formation and subsequently arrive on the passive cloud in specific star formation rate (SSFR)-mass space – we find that the τQ distribution of high-mass centrals, low-mass centrals, and satellites are divergent. In the low stellar mass regime where M⋆ < 109.6 M⊙, centrals exhibit systematically longer quenching time-scales than satellites (≈4 Gyr compared to ≈2 Gyr). Satellites with low stellar mass relative to their halo mass cause this disparity, with ram pressure stripping quenching these galaxies rapidly. Low-mass centrals are quenched as a result of stellar feedback, associated with long τQ ≳ 3 Gyr. At intermediate stellar masses where $10^{9.7}\lt M_{\star }\lt 10^{10.3}\, \rm M_{\odot }$, τQ are the longest for both centrals and satellites, particularly for galaxies with higher gas fractions. At $M_{\star }\gtrsim 10^{10.3}\, \rm M_{\odot }$, galaxy merger counts and black hole activity increase steeply for all galaxies. Quenching time-scales for centrals and satellites decrease with stellar mass in this regime to τQ ≲ 2 Gyr. In anticipation of new intermediate redshift observational galaxy surveys, we analyse the passive and star-forming fractions of galaxies across redshift, and find that the τQ peak at intermediate stellar masses is responsible for a peak (inflection point) in the fraction of green valley central (satellite) galaxies at z ≈ 0.5–0.7.
ABSTRACT
We combine the shark semi-analytic model of galaxy formation with the prospect software tool for spectral energy distribution (SED) generation to study the multiwavelength emission of ...galaxies from the far-ultraviolet (FUV) to the far-infrared (FIR) at 0 ≤ z ≤ 10. We produce a physical model for the attenuation of galaxies across cosmic time by combining a local Universe empirical relation to compute the dust mass of galaxies from their gas metallicity and mass, attenuation curves derived from radiative transfer calculations of galaxies in the eagle hydrodynamic simulation suite, and the properties of shark galaxies. We are able to produce a wide range of galaxies, from the z = 8 star-forming galaxies with almost no extinction, z = 2 submillimetre galaxies, down to the normal star-forming and red-sequence galaxies at z = 0. Quantitatively, we find that shark reproduces the observed (i) z = 0 FUV-to-FIR, (ii) 0 ≤ z ≤ 3 rest-frame K-band, and (iii) 0 ≤ z ≤ 10 rest-frame FUV luminosity functions, (iv) z ≤ 8 UV slopes, (v) the FUV-to-FIR number counts (including the widely disputed 850 μm), (vi) redshift distribution of bright $850\, \mu$m galaxies, and (vii) the integrated cosmic SED from z = 0 to 1 to an unprecedented level. This is achieved without the need to invoke changes in the stellar initial mass function, dust-to-metal mass ratio, or metal enrichment time-scales. Our model predicts star formation in galaxy discs to dominate in the FUV-to-optical, while bulges dominate at the NIR at all redshifts. The FIR sees a strong evolution in which discs dominate at z ≤ 1 and starbursts (triggered by both galaxy mergers and disc instabilities, in an even mix) dominate at higher redshifts, even out to z = 10.
We look for correlated changes in stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) along filaments in the cosmic web by examining the stellar masses and UV-derived SFRs of 1799 ungrouped and unpaired ...spiral galaxies that reside in filaments. We devise multiple distance metrics to characterize the complex geometry of filaments, and find that galaxies closer to the cylindrical centre of a filament have higher stellar masses than their counterparts near the periphery of filaments, on the edges of voids. In addition, these peripheral spiral galaxies have higher SFRs at a given mass. Complementing our sample of filament spiral galaxies with spiral galaxies in tendrils and voids, we find that the average SFR of these objects in different large-scale environments are similar to each other with the primary discriminant in SFR being stellar mass, in line with previous works. However, the distributions of SFRs are found to vary with large-scale environment. Our results thus suggest a model in which in addition to stellar mass as the primary discriminant, the large-scale environment is imprinted in the SFR as a second-order effect. Furthermore, our detailed results for filament galaxies suggest a model in which gas accretion from voids on to filaments is primarily in an orthogonal direction. Overall, we find our results to be in line with theoretical expectations of the thermodynamic properties of the intergalactic medium in different large-scale environments.
ABSTRACT
We analyse the metallicity histories of ∼4500 galaxies from the GAMA survey at z < 0.06 modelled by the SED-fitting code ProSpect using an evolving metallicity implementation. These ...metallicity histories, in combination with the associated star formation histories, allow us to analyse the inferred gas-phase mass–metallicity relation. Furthermore, we extract the mass–metallicity relation at a sequence of epochs in cosmic history, to track the evolving mass–metallicity relation with time. Through comparison with observations of gas-phase metallicity over a large range of redshifts, we show that, remarkably, our forensic SED analysis has produced an evolving mass–metallicity relationship that is consistent with observations at all epochs. We additionally analyse the three-dimensional mass–metallicity–SFR space, showing that galaxies occupy a clearly defined plane. This plane is shown to be subtly evolving, displaying an increased tilt with time caused by general enrichment, and also the slowing down of star formation with cosmic time. This evolution is most apparent at lookback times greater than 7 Gyr. The trends in metallicity recovered in this work highlight that the evolving metallicity implementation used within the SED-fitting code ProSpect produces reasonable metallicity results over the history of a galaxy. This is expected to provide a significant improvement to the accuracy of the SED-fitting outputs.
ABSTRACT
We apply the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code ProSpect to multiwavelength imaging for ∼7000 galaxies from the GAMA survey at z < 0.06, in order to extract their star formation ...histories. We combine a parametric description of the star formation history with a closed-box evolution of metallicity where the present-day gas-phase metallicity of the galaxy is a free parameter. We show with this approach that we are able to recover the observationally determined cosmic star formation history (CSFH), an indication that stars are being formed in the correct epoch of the Universe, on average, for the manner in which we are conducting SED fitting. We also show the contribution to the CSFH of galaxies of different present-day visual morphologies and stellar masses. Our analysis suggests that half of the mass in present-day elliptical galaxies was in place 11 Gyr ago. In other morphological types, the stellar mass formed later, up to 6 Gyr ago for present-day irregular galaxies. Similarly, the most massive galaxies in our sample were shown to have formed half their stellar mass by 11 Gyr ago, whereas the least massive galaxies reached this stage as late as 4 Gyr ago (the well-known effect of ‘galaxy downsizing’). Finally, our metallicity approach allows us to follow the average evolution in gas-phase metallicity for populations of galaxies and extract the evolution of the cosmic metal mass density in stars and in gas, producing results in broad agreement with independent, higher redshift observations of metal densities in the Universe.
We build on a recent photometric decomposition analysis of 7506 Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey galaxies to derive stellar mass function fits to individual spheroid and disc component ...populations down to a lower mass limit of log(M
*/M⊙) = 8. We find that the spheroid/disc mass distributions for individual galaxy morphological types are well described by single Schechter function forms. We derive estimates of the total stellar mass densities in spheroids (ρspheroid = 1.24 ± 0.49 × 108 M⊙ Mpc −3h0.7) and discs (ρdisc = 1.20 ± 0.45 × 108 M⊙ Mpc −3h0.7), which translates to approximately 50 per cent of the local stellar mass density in spheroids and 48 per cent in discs. The remaining stellar mass is found in the dwarf ‘little blue spheroid’ class, which is not obviously similar in structure to either classical spheroid or disc populations. We also examine the variation of component mass ratios across galaxy mass and group halo mass regimes, finding the transition from spheroid to disc mass dominance occurs near galaxy stellar mass ∼1011 M⊙ and group halo mass ∼1012.5 M⊙
h
−1. We further quantify the variation in spheroid-to-total mass ratio with group halo mass for central and satellite populations as well as the radial variation of this ratio within groups.
ABSTRACT
We present catalogues of stellar masses, star formation rates (SFRs), and ancillary stellar population parameters for galaxies spanning 0 < z < 9 from the Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy ...Survey (DEVILS). DEVILS is a deep spectroscopic redshift survey with very high completeness, covering several premier deep fields including COSMOS (D10). Our stellar mass and SFR estimates are self-consistently derived using the spectral energy distribution (SED) modelling code ProSpect, using well-motivated parametrizations for dust attenuation, star formation histories, and metallicity evolution. We show how these improvements, and especially our physically motivated assumptions about metallicity evolution, have an appreciable systematic effect on the inferred stellar masses, at the level of ∼0.2 dex. To illustrate the scientific value of these data, we map the evolving galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) and the SFR–M⋆ relation for 0 < z < 4.25. In agreement with past studies, we find that most of the evolution in the SMF is driven by the characteristic density parameter, with little evolution in the characteristic mass and low-mass slopes. Where the SFR–M⋆ relation is indistinguishable from a power law at z > 2.6, we see evidence of a bend in the relation at low redshifts (z < 0.45). This suggests evolution in both the normalization and shape of the SFR–M⋆ relation since cosmic noon. It is significant that we only clearly see this bend when combining our new DEVILS measurements with consistently derived values for lower redshift galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey: this shows the power of having consistent treatment for galaxies at all redshifts.
Star-forming galaxies at high redshift show ubiquitously high-ionization parameters, as measured by the ratio of optical emission lines. We demonstrate that local (z < 0.2) sources selected as Lyman ...break analogues also manifest high line ratios with a typical O iii/H
$\beta =3.36^{+0.14}_{-0.04}$
– comparable to all but the highest ratios seen in star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2–4. We argue that the stellar population synthesis code bpass can explain the high-ionization parameters required through the ageing of rapidly formed star populations, without invoking any AGN contribution. Binary stellar evolution pathways prolong the age interval over which a starburst is likely to show elevated line ratios, relative to those predicted by single stellar evolution codes. As a result, model galaxies at near-solar metallicities and with ages of up to ∼100 Myr after a starburst typically have a line ratio O iii/Hβ ∼ 3, consistent with those seen in Lyman break galaxies and local sources with similar star formation densities. This emphasises the importance of including binary evolution pathways when simulating the nebular line emission of young or bursty stellar populations.
Abstract
We present the ∼800 star formation rate maps for the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey based on H α emission maps, corrected for dust attenuation via ...the Balmer decrement, that are included in the SAMI Public Data Release 1. We mask out spaxels contaminated by non-stellar emission using the O iii/H β, N ii/H α, S ii/H α, and O i/H α line ratios. Using these maps, we examine the global and resolved star-forming main sequences of SAMI galaxies as a function of morphology, environmental density, and stellar mass. Galaxies further below the star-forming main sequence are more likely to have flatter star formation profiles. Early-type galaxies split into two populations with similar stellar masses and central stellar mass surface densities. The main-sequence population has centrally concentrated star formation similar to late-type galaxies, while galaxies >3σ below the main sequence show significantly reduced star formation most strikingly in the nuclear regions. The split populations support a two-step quenching mechanism, wherein halo mass first cuts off the gas supply and remaining gas continues to form stars until the local stellar mass surface density can stabilize the reduced remaining fuel against further star formation. Across all morphologies, galaxies in denser environments show a decreased specific star formation rate from the outside in, supporting an environmental cause for quenching, such as ram-pressure stripping or galaxy interactions.
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