ABSTRACT
We investigate the contribution of clumps and satellites to the galaxy mass assembly. We analysed spatially resolved HubbleSpace Telescope observations (imaging and slitless spectroscopy) of ...53 star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1–3. We created continuum and emission line maps and pinpointed residual ‘blobs’ detected after subtracting the galaxy disc. Those were separated into compact (unresolved) and extended (resolved) components. Extended components have sizes ∼2 kpc and comparable stellar mass and age as the galaxy discs, whereas the compact components are 1.5 dex less massive and 0.4 dex younger than the discs. Furthermore, the extended blobs are typically found at larger distances from the galaxy barycentre than the compact ones. Prompted by these observations and by the comparison with simulations, we suggest that compact blobs are in situ formed clumps, whereas the extended ones are accreting satellites. Clumps and satellites enclose, respectively, ∼20 per cent and ≲80 per cent of the galaxy stellar mass, ∼30 per cent and ∼20 per cent of its star formation rate. Considering the compact blobs, we statistically estimated that massive clumps (M⋆ ≳ 109 M⊙) have lifetimes of ∼650 Myr, and the less massive ones (108 < M⋆ < 109 M⊙) of ∼145 Myr. This supports simulations predicting long-lived clumps (lifetime ≳ 100 Myr). Finally, ≲30 per cent (13 per cent) of our sample galaxies are undergoing single (multiple) merger(s), they have a projected separation ≲10 kpc, and the typical mass ratio of our satellites is 1:5 (but ranges between 1:10 and 1:1), in agreement with literature results for close pair galaxies.
We investigate the CO excitation of normal (near-IR selected BzK) star-forming (SF) disk galaxies at z = 1.5 using IRAM Plateau de Bure observations of the CO2–1, CO3–2, and CO5–4 transitions for ...four galaxies, including VLA observations of CO1–0 for three of them, with the aim of constraining the average state of H2 gas. By exploiting previous knowledge of the velocity range, spatial extent, and size of the CO emission, we measure reliable line fluxes with a signal-to-noise ratio >4–7 for individual transitions. While the average CO spectral line energy distribution (SLED) has a subthermal excitation similar to the Milky Way (MW) up to CO3–2, we show that the average CO5–4 emission is four times stronger than assuming MW excitation. This demonstrates that there is an additional component of more excited, denser, and possibly warmer molecular gas. The ratio of CO5–4 to lower-J CO emission is lower than in local (ultra-)luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and high-redshift starbursting submillimeter galaxies, however, and appears to be closely correlated with the average intensity of the radiation field ⟨ U ⟩ and with the star formation surface density, but not with the star formation efficiency. The luminosity of the CO5–4 transition is found to be linearly correlated with the bolometric infrared luminosity over four orders of magnitudes. For this transition, z = 1.5 BzK galaxies follow the same linear trend as local spirals and (U)LIRGs and high-redshift star-bursting submillimeter galaxies. The CO5–4 luminosity is thus empirically related to the dense gas and might be a more convenient way to probe it than standard high-density tracers that are much fainter than CO. We see excitation variations among our sample galaxies that can be linked to their evolutionary state and clumpiness in optical rest-frame images. In one galaxy we see spatially resolved excitation variations, where the more highly excited part of the galaxy corresponds to the location of massive SF clumps. This provides support to models that suggest that giant clumps are the main source of the high-excitation CO emission in high-redshift disk-like galaxies.
We present a parameterless approach to predict the shape of the infrared (IR) luminosity function (LF) at redshifts z < or =, slant 2. It requires no tuning and relies on only three observables: (1) ...the redshift evolution of the stellar mass function for star-forming galaxies, (2) the evolution of the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of main-sequence galaxies, and (3) the double-Gaussian decomposition of the sSFR distribution at fixed stellar mass into a contribution (assumed redshift- and mass-invariant) from main-sequence and starburst activity. This self-consistent and simple framework provides a powerful tool for predicting cosmological observables: observed IR LFs are successfully matched at all z < or =, slant 2, suggesting a constant or only weakly redshift-dependent contribution (8%-14%) of starbursts to the SFR density. We separate the contributions of main-sequence and starburst activity to the global IR LF at all redshifts. The luminosity threshold above which the starburst component dominates the IR LF rises from log(L sub(IR)/L sub(middot in circle)) = 11.4 to 12.8 over 0 < z < 2, reflecting our assumed (1+z) super(2.8) -evolution of sSFR in main-sequence galaxies.
Submillimeter/millimeter observations of dusty star-forming galaxies with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have shown that dust continuum emission generally occurs in compact ...regions smaller than the stellar distribution. However, it remains to be understood how systematic these findings are. Studies often lack homogeneity in the sample selection, target discontinuous areas with inhomogeneous sensitivities, and suffer from modest
u
v
coverage coming from single array configurations. GOODS-ALMA is a 1.1 mm galaxy survey over a continuous area of 72.42 arcmin
2
at a homogeneous sensitivity. In this version 2.0, we present a new low resolution dataset and its combination with the previous high resolution dataset from the survey, improving the
u
v
coverage and sensitivity reaching an average of
σ
= 68.4 μJy beam
−1
. A total of 88 galaxies are detected in a blind search (compared to 35 in the high resolution dataset alone), 50% at
S
/
N
peak
≥ 5 and 50% at 3.5 ≤
S
/
N
peak
≤ 5 aided by priors. Among them, 13 out of the 88 are optically dark or faint sources (
H
- or
K
-band dropouts). The sample dust continuum sizes at 1.1 mm are generally compact, with a median effective radius of
R
e
= 0
.
″
10 ± 0
.
″
05 (a physical size of
R
e
= 0.73 ± 0.29 kpc at the redshift of each source). Dust continuum sizes evolve with redshift and stellar mass resembling the trends of the stellar sizes measured at optical wavelengths, albeit a lower normalization compared to those of late-type galaxies. We conclude that for sources with flux densities
S
1.1 mm
> 1 mJy, compact dust continuum emission at 1.1 mm prevails, and sizes as extended as typical star-forming stellar disks are rare. The
S
1.1 mm
< 1 mJy sources appear slightly more extended at 1.1 mm, although they are still generally compact below the sizes of typical star-forming stellar disks.
ABSTRACT We present an analysis of a deep (1 = 13 Jy) cosmological 1.2 mm continuum map based on ASPECS, the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. In the 1 arcmin2 covered by ...ASPECS we detect nine sources at significance at 1.2 mm. Our ALMA-selected sample has a median redshift of , with only one galaxy detected at z > 2 within the survey area. This value is significantly lower than that found in millimeter samples selected at a higher flux density cutoff and similar frequencies. Most galaxies have specific star formation rates (SFRs) similar to that of main-sequence galaxies at the same epoch, and we find median values of stellar mass and SFRs of and yr−1, respectively. Using the dust emission as a tracer for the interstellar medium (ISM) mass, we derive depletion times that are typically longer than 300 Myr, and we find molecular gas fractions ranging from ∼0.1 to 1.0. As noted by previous studies, these values are lower than those using CO-based ISM estimates by a factor of ∼2. The 1 mm number counts (corrected for fidelity and completeness) are in agreement with previous studies that were typically restricted to brighter sources. With our individual detections only, we recover 55% 4% of the extragalactic background light (EBL) at 1.2 mm measured by the Planck satellite, and we recover 80% 7% of this EBL if we include the bright end of the number counts and additional detections from stacking. The stacked contribution is dominated by galaxies at , with stellar masses of (1-3) × 1010 M . For the first time, we are able to characterize the population of galaxies that dominate the EBL at 1.2 mm.
ABSTRACT We investigate the physical conditions of ionized gas in high-z star-forming galaxies using diagnostic diagrams based on the rest-frame optical emission lines. The sample consists of 701 ...galaxies with an H detection at , from the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph (FMOS)-COSMOS survey, that represent the normal star-forming population over the stellar mass range , with those at being well sampled. We confirm an offset of the average location of star-forming galaxies in the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram ( versus ), primarily toward higher , compared with local galaxies. Based on the S ii ratio, we measure an electron density ( ), which is higher than that of local galaxies. Based on comparisons to theoretical models, we argue that changes in emission-line ratios, including the offset in the BPT diagram, are caused by a higher ionization parameter both at fixed stellar mass and at fixed metallicity, with additional contributions from a higher gas density and possibly a hardening of the ionizing radiation field. Ionization due to active galactic nuclei is ruled out as assessed with Chandra. As a consequence, we revisit the mass-metallicity relation using and a new calibration including as recently introduced by Dopita et al. Consistent with our previous results, the most massive galaxies ( ) are fully enriched, while those at lower masses have metallicities lower than local galaxies. Finally, we demonstrate that the stellar masses, metallicities, and star formation rates of the FMOS sample are well fit with a physically motivated model for the chemical evolution of star-forming galaxies.
We present the detection of multiple carbon monoxide CO line transitions with ALMA in a few tens of infrared-selected galaxies on and above the main sequence at
z
= 1.1−1.7. We reliably detected the ...emission of CO (5 − 4), CO (2 − 1), and CO (7 − 6)+C I(
3
P
2
−
3
P
1
) in 50, 33, and 13 galaxies, respectively, and we complemented this information with available CO (4 − 3) and C I(
3
P
1
−
3
P
0
) fluxes for part of the sample, and by modeling of the optical-to-millimeter spectral energy distribution. We retrieve a quasi-linear relation between
L
IR
and CO (5 − 4) or CO (7 − 6) for main-sequence galaxies and starbursts, corroborating the hypothesis that these transitions can be used as star formation rate (SFR) tracers. We find the CO excitation to steadily increase as a function of the star formation efficiency, the mean intensity of the radiation field warming the dust (⟨
U
⟩), the surface density of SFR (Σ
SFR
), and, less distinctly, with the distance from the main sequence (ΔMS). This adds to the tentative evidence for higher excitation of the CO+C I spectral line energy distribution (SLED) of starburst galaxies relative to that for main-sequence objects, where the dust opacities play a minor role in shaping the high-
J
CO transitions in our sample. However, the distinction between the average SLED of upper main-sequence and starburst galaxies is blurred, driven by a wide variety of intrinsic shapes. Large velocity gradient radiative transfer modeling demonstrates the existence of a highly excited component that elevates the CO SLED of high-redshift main-sequence and starbursting galaxies above the typical values observed in the disk of the Milky Way. This excited component is dense and it encloses ∼50% of the total molecular gas mass in main-sequence objects. We interpret the observed trends involving the CO excitation as to be mainly determined by a combination of large SFRs and compact sizes, as a large Σ
SFR
is naturally connected with enhanced dense molecular gas fractions and higher dust and gas temperatures, due to increasing ultraviolet radiation fields, cosmic ray rates, as well as dust and gas coupling. We release the full data compilation and the ancillary information to the community.
Using data from the mid-infrared to millimeter wavelengths for individual galaxies and for stacked ensembles at 0.5 < z < 2, we derive robust estimates of dust masses (M sub(dust)) for main-sequence ...(MS) galaxies, which obey a tight correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M sub(*)), and for starbursting galaxies that fall outside that relation. Exploiting the correlation of gas-to-dust mass with metallicity (M sub(gas)/M sub(dust)-Z), we use our measurements to constrain the gas content, CO-to-H sub(2) conversion factors ( alpha co), and star formation efficiencies (SFE) of these distant galaxies. For galaxies within the MS, we show that the variations of specific star formation rates (sSFRs = SFR/M sub(*)) are driven by varying gas fractions. These results motivate the construction of a universal set of SED templates for MS galaxies that are independent of their sSFR or M sub(*) but vary as a function of redshift with only one parameter, left angle bracketUright angle bracket.
We present high-fidelity, 30 mas (200 pc) resolution ALMA rest-frame 240 m observations of cold dust emission in three typical main-sequence star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at z ∼ 3 in the Hubble ...Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF). The cold dust is distributed within the smooth disklike central regions of star formation 1-3 kpc in diameter, despite their complex and disturbed rest-frame UV and optical morphologies. No dust substructures or clumps are seen down to 1-3 yr−1 (1 ) per 200 pc beam. No dust emission is observed at the locations of UV-emitting clumps, which lie 2-10 kpc from the bulk of star formation. Clumpy substructures can contribute no more than 1%-7% of the total star formation in these galaxies (3 upper limits). The lack of star-forming substructures in our HUDF galaxies is to be contrasted with the multiple substructures characteristic of submillimeter-selected galaxies (SMGs) at the same cosmic epoch, particularly the far-IR-bright SMGs with similarly high-fidelity ALMA observations of Hodge et al. Individual star-forming substructures in these SMGs contain ∼10%-30% of their total star formation. A substructure in these SMGs is often comparably bright in the far-infrared to (or in some cases brighter than) our typical SFGs, suggesting that these SMGs originate from a class of disruptive events involving multiple objects at the scale of our HUDF galaxies. The scale of the disruptive event found in our main-sequence SFGs, characterized by the lack of star-forming substructures at our resolution and sensitivity, could be less violent, e.g., gas-rich disk instability or minor mergers.
Abstract
We present ALMA observations at 107.291 GHz (band 3) and 214.532 GHz (band 6) of GMASS 0953, a star-forming galaxy at z = 2.226 hosting an obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN) that has ...been proposed as a progenitor of compact quiescent galaxies (QGs). We measure for the first time the size of the dust and molecular gas emission of GMASS 0953 that we find to be extremely compact (∼1 kpc). This result, coupled with a very high interstellar medium (ISM) density (n ∼ 105.5 cm−3), a low gas mass fraction (∼0.2), and a short gas depletion time-scale (∼150 Myr), implies that GMASS 0953 is experiencing an episode of intense star formation in its central region that will rapidly exhaust its gas reservoirs, likely aided by AGN-induced feedback, confirming its fate as a compact QG. Kinematic analysis of the CO(6–5) line shows evidence of rapidly rotating gas (Vrot = 320$^{+92}_{-53}$ km s−1), as observed also in a handful of similar sources at the same redshift. On-going quenching mechanisms could either destroy the rotation or leave it intact leading the galaxy to evolve into a rotating QG.
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