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.
Abstract
We use the energy-balance code magphys to determine stellar and dust masses, and dust corrected star formation rates for over 200 000 GAMA galaxies, 170 000 G10-COSMOS galaxies, and 200 000 ...3D-HST galaxies. Our values agree well with previously reported measurements and constitute a representative and homogeneous data set spanning a broad range in stellar-mass (108–1012 M⊙), dust-mass (106–109 M⊙), and star formation rates (0.01–100 M⊙yr−1), and over a broad redshift range (0.0 < z < 5.0). We combine these data to measure the cosmic star formation history (CSFH), the stellar-mass density (SMD), and the dust-mass density (DMD) over a 12 Gyr timeline. The data mostly agree with previous estimates, where they exist, and provide a quasi-homogeneous data set using consistent mass and star formation estimators with consistent underlying assumptions over the full time range. As a consequence our formal errors are significantly reduced when compared to the historic literature. Integrating our CSFH we precisely reproduce the SMD
with an interstellar medium replenishment factor of 0.50 ± 0.07, consistent with our choice of Chabrier initial mass function plus some modest amount of stripped stellar mass. Exploring the cosmic dust density evolution, we find a gradual increase in dust density with lookback time. We build a simple phenomenological model from the CSFH to account for the dust-mass evolution, and infer two key conclusions: (1) For every unit of stellar mass which is formed 0.0065–0.004 units of dust mass is also formed. (2) Over the history of the Universe approximately 90–95 per cent of all dust formed has been destroyed and/or ejected.
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.
We present single-Sérsic two-dimensional (2D) model fits to 167 600 galaxies modelled independently in the ugrizYJHK bandpasses using reprocessed Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven (SDSS ...DR7) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Large Area Survey imaging data available from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) data base. In order to facilitate this study we developed Structural Investigation of Galaxies via Model Analysis (sigma), an r wrapper around several contemporary astronomy software packages including source extractor, psf extractor and galfit 3. sigma produces realistic 2D model fits to galaxies, employing automatic adaptive background subtraction and empirical point spread function measurements on the fly for each galaxy in GAMA. Using these results, we define a common coverage area across the three GAMA regions containing 138 269 galaxies. We provide Sérsic magnitudes truncated at 10r
e which show good agreement with SDSS Petrosian and GAMA photometry for low Sérsic index systems (n < 4), and much improved photometry for high Sérsic index systems (n > 4), recovering as much as Δm= 0.5 mag in the r band. We employ a K-band Sérsic index/u−r colour relation to delineate the massive (n > ∼2) early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the late-type galaxies (LTGs). The mean Sérsic index of these ETGs shows a smooth variation with wavelength, increasing by 30 per cent from g through K. LTGs exhibit a more extreme change in Sérsic index, increasing by 52 per cent across the same range. In addition, ETGs and LTGs exhibit a 38 and 25 per cent decrease, respectively, in half-light radius from g through K. These trends are shown to arise due to the effects of dust attenuation and stellar population/metallicity gradients within galaxy populations.
We present scaling relations between structural properties of nuclear star clusters and their host galaxies for a sample of early-type dwarf galaxies observed as part of the Hubble Space Telescope ...(HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Coma Cluster Survey. We have analysed the light profiles of 200 early-type dwarf galaxies in the magnitude range 16.0 < m
F814W
< 22.6 mag, corresponding to −19.0 < M
F814W
< −12.4 mag. Nuclear star clusters are detected in 80 per cent of the galaxies, thus doubling the sample of HST-observed early-type dwarf galaxies with nuclear star clusters. We confirm that the nuclear star cluster detection fraction decreases strongly towards faint magnitudes. The luminosities of nuclear star clusters do not scale linearly with host galaxy luminosity. A linear fit yields
$L_{\rm nuc} \sim L_{\rm gal}^{0.57\pm 0.05}$
. The nuclear star cluster–host galaxy luminosity scaling relation for low-mass early-type dwarf galaxies is consistent with formation by globular cluster (GC) accretion. We find that at similar luminosities, galaxies with higher Sérsic indices have slightly more luminous nuclear star clusters. Rounder galaxies have on average more luminous clusters. Some of the nuclear star clusters are resolved, despite the distance of Coma. We argue that the relation between nuclear star cluster mass and size is consistent with both formation by GC accretion and in situ formation. Our data are consistent with GC inspiralling being the dominant mechanism at low masses, although the observed trend with Sérsic index suggests that in situ star formation is an important second-order effect.
Abstract We measure the evolution of the rest-frame near-ultraviolet (NUV)− V colors for early-type galaxies in clusters at 0 < z < 1.1 using data from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, ...CFHT Large Area U -band Deep Survey, and local Sloan Digital Sky Survey clusters observed with Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Our results show that there is an excess in the ultraviolet spectrum in most quiescent galaxies (compared to the expectations from models fitting their optical/infrared colors and spectra) below z ∼ 0.6, beyond which the excess UV emission fades rapidly. This evolution of the UV color is only consistent with the presence of a highly evolved, hot horizontal branch subpopulation in these galaxies (among the majority of cool and optically bright stars), comprising on average 10% of the total stellar mass and forming at z > 3. The blue UV colors of early-type galaxies at low–intermediate redshifts are likely driven by this subpopulation being enriched in helium up to ∼44%. At z > 0.8 (when the extra UV component has not yet appeared) the data allow us to constrain the star formation histories of galaxies by fitting models to the evolution of their UV colors: we find that the epoch at which the stellar populations formed lies in the range 3 < z form < 10 (corresponding to 0.5–2.2 Gyr after the Big Bang) with a star formation e -folding timescale of τ = 0.35–0.7 Gyr, suggesting that these galaxies formed the majority of stars at very high redshift, with a brief yet intense burst of star formation activity. The star formation history and chemical evolution of early-type galaxies resemble those of globular clusters, albeit on much larger scales.
Abstract
We explore the properties of galaxies in the proximity (within a ∼2 Mpc radius sphere) of Type I quasars at 0.1 <
z
<0.35, to check whether and how an active galaxy influences the properties ...of its neighbors. We further compare these with the properties of neighbors around inactive galaxies of the same mass and redshift within the same volume of space, using the Galaxy and Mass Assembly spectroscopic survey. Our observations reveal no significant difference in properties such as the number of neighbors, morphologies, stellar mass, star formation rates, and star formation history between the neighbors of quasars and those of the comparison sample. This implies that quasar activity in a host galaxy does not significantly affect its neighbors (e.g., via interactions with the jets). Our results suggest that quasar host galaxies do not strongly differ from the average galaxy within the specified mass and redshift range. Additionally, the implication of the relatively minor importance of the environmental effect on and from quasars is that nuclear activity is more likely triggered by internal and secular processes.
Abstract
The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed a very different galaxyscape from that shown by optical surveys which presents a challenge for galaxy-evolution models. The Herschel surveys ...reveal (1) that there was rapid galaxy evolution in the very recent past and (2) that galaxies lie on a single Galaxy Sequence (GS) rather than a star-forming ‘main sequence’ and a separate region of ‘passive’ or ‘red-and-dead’ galaxies. The form of the GS is now clearer because far-infrared surveys such as the Herschel ATLAS pick up a population of optically red star-forming galaxies that would have been classified as passive using most optical criteria. The space-density of this population is at least as high as the traditional star-forming population. By stacking spectra of H-ATLAS galaxies over the redshift range 0.001 < z < 0.4, we show that the galaxies responsible for the rapid low-redshift evolution have high stellar masses, high star-formation rates but, even several billion years in the past, old stellar populations – they are thus likely to be relatively recent ancestors of early-type galaxies in the Universe today. The form of the GS is inconsistent with rapid quenching models and neither the analytic bathtub model nor the hydrodynamical EAGLE simulation can reproduce the rapid cosmic evolution. We propose a new gentler model of galaxy evolution that can explain the new Herschel results and other key properties of the galaxy population.
ABSTRACT
We use KiDS weak lensing data to measure variations in mean halo mass as a function of several key galaxy properties (namely stellar colour, specific star formation rate, Sérsic index, and ...effective radius) for a volume-limited sample of GAMA galaxies in a narrow stellar mass range M* ∼ (2–5) × 1010 M⊙. This mass range is particularly interesting, inasmuch as it is where bimodalities in galaxy properties are most pronounced, and near to the break in both the galaxy stellar mass function and the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR). In this narrow mass range, we find that both size and Sérsic index are better predictors of halo mass than either colour or SSFR, with the data showing a slight preference for Sérsic index. In other words, we find that mean halo mass is more tightly correlated with galaxy structure than either past star formation history or current star formation rate. Our results lead to an approximate lower bound on the dispersion in halo masses among log M* ≈ 10.5 galaxies: We find that the dispersion is ≳0.3 dex. This would imply either that offsets from the mean SHMR are closely coupled to size/structure or that the dispersion in the SHMR is larger than what past results have suggested. Our results thus provide new empirical constraints on the relationship between stellar and halo mass assembly at this particularly interesting mass range.
We report the morphological classification of 3727 galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey with M
r
< −17.4 mag and in the redshift range 0.025 < z < 0.06 (2.1 × 105 Mpc3) into E, S0-Sa, ...SB0-SBa, Sab-Scd, SBab-SBcd, Sd-Irr and little blue spheroid classes. Approximately 70 per cent of galaxies in our sample are disc-dominated systems, with the remaining ∼30 per cent spheroid dominated. We establish the robustness of our classifications, and use them to derive morphological-type luminosity functions and luminosity densities in the ugrizYJHK passbands, improving on prior studies that split by global colour or light profile shape alone. We find that the total galaxy luminosity function is best described by a double-Schechter function while the constituent morphological-type luminosity functions are well described by a single-Schechter function. These data are also used to derive the star formation rate densities for each Hubble class, and the attenuated and unattenuated (corrected for dust) cosmic spectral energy distributions, i.e. the instantaneous energy production budget. While the observed optical/near-IR energy budget is dominated 58:42 by galaxies with a significant spheroidal component, the actual energy production rate is reversed, i.e. the combined disc-dominated populations generate ∼1.3 times as much energy as the spheroid-dominated populations. On the grandest scale, this implies that chemical evolution in the local Universe is currently largely confined to mid-type spiral classes like our Milky Way.
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