ABSTRACT
The mass and structural assembly of galaxies is a matter of intense debate. Current theoretical models predict the existence of a linear relationship between galaxy size (Re) and the host ...dark matter halo virial radius (Rh). By making use of semi-empirical models compared to the size distributions of central galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we provide robust constraints on the normalization and scatter of the Re−Rh relation. We explore the parameter space of models in which the Re−Rh relation is mediated by either the spin parameter or the concentration of the host halo, or a simple constant the nature of which is in principle unknown. We find that the data require extremely tight relations for both early-type and late-type galaxies (ETGs, LTGs), especially for more massive galaxies. These constraints challenge models based solely on angular momentum conservation, which predict significantly wider distributions of galaxy sizes and no trend with stellar mass, if taken at face value. We discuss physically motivated alterations to the original models that bring the predictions into better agreement with the data. We argue that the measured tight size distributions of SDSS disc galaxies can be reproduced by semi-empirical models in which the Re−Rh connection is mediated by the stellar specific angular momenta jstar. We find that current cosmological models of galaxy formation broadly agree with our constraints for LTGs, and justify the strong link between Re and jstar that we propose, however the tightness of the Re−Rh relation found in such ab initio theoretical models for ETGs is in tension with our semi-empirical findings.
ABSTRACT
The origin of the quenching in galaxies is still highly debated. Different scenarios and processes are proposed. We use multiband (400–1600 nm) bulge–disc decompositions of massive galaxies ...in the redshift range 0 < z < 2 to explore the distribution and the evolution of galaxies in the $\log \, {\rm SFR-log}\: M_{*}$ plane as a function of the stellar mass weighted bulge-to-total ratio ($B/T_{M_{*}}$) and also for internal galaxy components (bulge/disc) separately. We find evidence of a clear link between the presence of a bulge and the flattening of the main sequence in the high-mass end. All bulgeless galaxies ($B/T_{M_{*}}$ < 0.2) lie on the main sequence, and there is little evidence of a quenching channel without bulge growth. Galaxies with a significant bulge component ($B/T_{M_{*}}$ > 0.2) are equally distributed in number between star forming and passive regions. The vast majority of bulges in the main-sequence galaxies are quiescent, while star formation is localized in the disc component. Our current findings underline a strong correlation between the presence of the bulge and the star formation state of the galaxy. A bulge, if present, is often quiescent, independently of the morphology or the star formation activity of the host galaxy. Additionally, if a galaxy is quiescent, with a large probability, is hosting a bulge. Conversely, if the galaxy has a discy shape is highly probable to be star forming.
ABSTRACT
We use the TNG100 simulation of the IllustrisTNG project to investigate the stellar specific angular momenta (j*) of ∼12 000 central galaxies at z = 0 in a full cosmological context, with ...stellar masses (M*) ranging from 109 to $10^{12} \, {\rm M}_{\odot }$. We find that the j*–M* relations for early-type and late-type galaxies in IllustrisTNG are in good overall agreement with observations, and that these galaxy types typically ‘retain’ ∼10–20 and ∼50–60 per cent of their host haloes’ specific angular momenta, respectively, with some dependence on the methodology used to measure galaxy morphology. We present results for kinematic as well as visual-like morphological measurements of the simulated galaxies. Next, we explore the scatter in the j*–M* relation with respect to the spin of the dark matter halo and the mass of the supermassive black hole (BH) at the galactic centre. We find that galaxies residing in faster spinning haloes, as well as those hosting less massive BHs, tend to have a higher specific angular momentum. We also find that, at fixed galaxy or halo mass, halo spin and BH mass are anticorrelated with each other, probably as a consequence of more efficient gas flow towards the galactic centre in slowly rotating systems. Finally, we show that halo spin plays an important role in determining galaxy sizes – larger discs form at the centres of faster rotating haloes – although the trend breaks down for massive galaxies with $M_{\ast } \gtrsim 10^{11} \, {\rm M}_{\odot }$, roughly the mass scale at which a galaxy’s stellar mass becomes dominated by accreted stars.
ABSTRACT
We reliably extend the stellar mass–size relation over 0.2 ≤ z ≤ 2 to low stellar mass galaxies by combining the depth of Hubble Frontier Fields with the large volume covered by CANDELS. ...Galaxies are simultaneously modelled in multiple bands using the tools developed by the MegaMorph project, allowing robust size (i.e. half-light radius) estimates even for small, faint, and high redshift galaxies. We show that above 107 M⊙, star-forming galaxies are well represented by a single power law on the mass–size plane over our entire redshift range. Conversely, the stellar mass–size relation is steep for quiescent galaxies with stellar masses $\ge 10^{10.3}\, {\rm M}_\odot$ and flattens at lower masses, regardless of whether quiescence is selected based on star-formation activity, rest-frame colours, or structural characteristics. This flattening occurs at sizes of ∼1 kpc at z ≤ 1. As a result, a double power law is preferred for the stellar mass–size relation of quiescent galaxies, at least above 10$^7\, {\rm M}_\odot$. We find no strong redshift dependence in the slope of the relation of star-forming galaxies as well as of high mass quiescent galaxies. We also show that star-forming galaxies with stellar masses $\ge 10^{9.5}\, {\rm M}_\odot$ and quiescent galaxies with stellar masses $\ge 10^{10.3}\, {\rm M}_\odot$ have undergone significant size growth since z ∼ 2, as expected; however, low mass galaxies have not. Finally, we supplement our data with predominantly quiescent dwarf galaxies from the core of the Fornax cluster, showing that the stellar mass–size relation is continuous below 10$^7\, {\rm M}_\odot$, but a more complicated functional form is necessary to describe the relation.
Abstract
We present a catalog of about 25,000 images of massive (
M
⋆
≥ 10
9
M
⊙
) galaxies at redshifts 3 ≤
z
≤ 6 from the TNG50 cosmological simulation, tailored for observations at multiple ...wavelengths carried out with JWST. The synthetic images were created with the SKIRT radiative transfer code, including the effects of dust attenuation and scattering. The noiseless images were processed with the
mirage
simulator to mimic the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) observational strategy (e.g., noise, dithering pattern, etc.) of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey. In this paper, we analyse the predictions of the TNG50 simulation for the size evolution of galaxies at 3 ≤
z
≤ 6 and the expectations for CEERS to probe that evolution. In particular, we investigate how sizes depend on the wavelength, redshift, mass, and angular resolution of the images. We find that the effective radius accurately describes the three-dimensional half-mass–radius of the TNG50 galaxies. Sizes observed at 2
μ
m are consistent with those measured at 3.56
μ
m at all redshifts and masses. At all masses, the population of higher-
z
galaxies is more compact than their lower-
z
counterparts. However, the intrinsic sizes are smaller than the mock observed sizes for the most massive galaxies, especially at
z
≲ 4. This discrepancy between the mass and light distributions may point to a transition in the galaxy morphology at
z
= 4–5, where massive compact systems start to develop more extended stellar structures.
22
22
Data publicly released at
https://www.tng-project.org/costantin22
.
We carry out a systematic investigation of the total mass density profile of massive ( log M star M 11.3 ) early-type galaxies and its dependence on galactic properties and host halo mass with the ...aid of a variety of lensing/dynamical data and large mock galaxy catalogs. The latter are produced via semi-empirical models that, by design, are based on just a few basic input assumptions. Galaxies with measured stellar masses, effective radii, and Sérsic indices, are assigned, via abundance matching relations, host dark matter halos characterized by a typical ΛCDM profile. Our main results are as follows. (1) In line with observational evidence, our semi-empirical models naturally predict that the total, mass-weighted density slope at the effective radius γ′ is not universal, steepening for more compact and/or massive galaxies, but flattening with increasing host halo mass. (2) Models characterized by a Salpeter or variable initial mass function (IMF) and uncontracted dark matter profiles are in good agreement with the data, while a Chabrier IMF and/or adiabatic contractions/expansions of the dark matter halos are highly disfavored. (3) Currently available data on the mass density profiles of very massive galaxies ( log M star M 12 ), with M halo 3 × 10 14 M , favor instead models with a stellar profile flatter than a Sérsic one in the very inner regions (r 3-5 kpc), and a cored NFW or Einasto dark matter profile with median halo concentration a factor of ∼2 or 1.3, respectively, higher than those typically predicted by N-body numerical simulations.
The amount and complexity of data delivered by modern galaxy surveys has been steadily increasing over the past years. New facilities will soon provide imaging and spectra of hundreds of millions of ...galaxies. Extracting coherent scientific information from these large and multi-modal data sets remains an open issue for the community and data-driven approaches such as deep learning have rapidly emerged as a potentially powerful solution to some long lasting challenges. This enthusiasm is reflected in an unprecedented exponential growth of publications using neural networks, which have gone from a handful of works in 2015 to an average of one paper per week in 2021 in the area of galaxy surveys. Half a decade after the first published work in astronomy mentioning deep learning, and shortly before new big data sets such as Euclid and LSST start becoming available, we believe it is timely to review what has been the real impact of this new technology in the field and its potential to solve key challenges raised by the size and complexity of the new datasets. The purpose of this review is thus two-fold. We first aim at summarising, in a common document, the main applications of deep learning for galaxy surveys that have emerged so far. We then extract the major achievements and lessons learned and highlight key open questions and limitations, which in our opinion, will require particular attention in the coming years. Overall, state-of-the-art deep learning methods are rapidly adopted by the astronomical community, reflecting a democratisation of these methods. This review shows that the majority of works using deep learning up to date are oriented to computer vision tasks (e.g. classification, segmentation). This is also the domain of application where deep learning has brought the most important breakthroughs so far. However, we also report that the applications are becoming more diverse and deep learning is used for estimating galaxy properties, identifying outliers or constraining the cosmological model. Most of these works remain at the exploratory level though which could partially explain the limited impact in terms of citations. Some common challenges will most likely need to be addressed before moving to the next phase of massive deployment of deep learning in the processing of future surveys; for example, uncertainty quantification, interpretability, data labelling and domain shift issues from training with simulations, which constitutes a common practice in astronomy.
Abstract We combine deep imaging data from the CEERS early release JWST survey and Hubble Space Telescope imaging from CANDELS to examine the size–mass relation of star-forming galaxies and the ...morphology–quenching relation at stellar masses M ⋆ ≥ 10 9.5 M ⊙ over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 5.5. In this study with a sample of 2450 galaxies, we separate star-forming and quiescent galaxies based on their star formation activity and confirm that star-forming and quiescent galaxies have different morphologies out to z = 5.5, extending the results of earlier studies out to higher redshifts. We find that star-forming and quiescent galaxies have typical Sérsic indices of n ∼ 1.3 and n ∼ 4.3, respectively. Focusing on star-forming galaxies, we find that the slope of the size–mass relation is nearly constant with redshift, as was found previously, but shows a modest increase at z ∼ 4.2. The intercept in the size–mass relation declines out to z = 5.5 at rates that are similar to what earlier studies found. The intrinsic scatter in the size–mass relation is relatively constant out to z = 5.5.
Abstract
Galaxy morphology and its evolution over the cosmic epoch hold important clues for understanding the regulation of star formation (SF). However, studying the relationship between morphology ...and SF has been hindered by the availability of consistent data at different redshifts. Our sample, combining CANDELS (0.8 <
z
< 2.5) and the GALEX-SDSS-WISE Legacy Catalog (GSWLC;
z
∼ 0), has physical parameters derived using consistent SED fitting with flexible dust attenuation laws. We adopt visual classifications from Kartaltepe et al. and expand them to
z
∼ 0 using SDSS images matching the physical resolution of CANDELS rest-frame optical images and deep FUV GALEX images matching the physical resolution of the CANDELS rest-frame FUV images. Our main finding is that disks with SF clumps at
z
∼ 0 make a similar fraction (∼15%) of star-forming galaxies as at
z
∼ 2. The clumpy disk contribution to the SF budget peaks at
z
∼ 1, rather than
z
∼ 2, suggesting that the principal epoch of disk assembly continues to lower redshifts. Star-forming spheroids (“blue nuggets”), though less centrally concentrated than quenched spheroids, contribute significantly (∼15%) to the SF budget at
z
∼ 1–2, suggesting that compaction precedes quenching. Among green valley and quiescent galaxies, the pure spheroid fraction drops after
z
∼ 1, whereas spheroids with disks (S0-like) become dominant. Mergers at or nearing coalescence are enhanced in SFR relative to the main sequence at all redshifts by a factor of ∼2, but contribute ≲5% to the SF budget, with their contribution remaining small above the main sequence.
Abstract
An unprecedented array of new observational capabilities are starting to yield key constraints on models of the epoch of first light in the Universe. In this Letter we discuss the ...implications of the UV radiation background at cosmic dawn inferred by recent JWST observations for radio experiments aimed at detecting the redshifted 21 cm hyperfine transition of diffuse neutral hydrogen. Under the basic assumption that the 21 cm signal is activated by the Ly
α
photon field produced by metal-poor stellar systems, we show that a detection at the low frequencies of the EDGES and SARAS3 experiments may be expected from a simple extrapolation of the declining UV luminosity density inferred at
z
≲ 14 from JWST early galaxy data. Accounting for an early radiation excess above the cosmic microwave background suggests a shallower or flat evolution to simultaneously reproduce low- and high-
z
current UV luminosity density constraints, which cannot be entirely ruled out, given the large uncertainties from cosmic variance and the faint-end slope of the galaxy luminosity function at cosmic dawn. Our findings raise the intriguing possibility that a high star formation efficiency at early times may trigger the onset of intense Ly
α
emission at redshift
z
≲ 20 and produce a cosmic 21 cm absorption signal 200 Myr after the Big Bang.
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