arXiv subjects

Camilla Pacifici

Publications and source records attributed to Camilla Pacifici.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

UVI colour gradients of 0.4<z<1.4 star-forming main sequence galaxies in CANDELS: dust extinction and star formation profiles

This paper uses radial colour profiles to infer the distributions of dust, gas and star formation in z=0.4-1.4 star-forming main sequence galaxies. We start with the standard UVJ-based method to estimate dust extinction and specific star formation rate (sSFR). By replacing J with I band, a new calibration method suitable for use with ACS+WFC3 data is created (i.e. UVI diagram). Using a multi-wavelength multi-aperture photometry catalogue based on CANDELS, UVI colour profiles of 1328 galaxies are stacked in stellar mass and redshift bins. The resulting colour gradients, covering a radial range of 0.2--2.0 effective radii, increase strongly with galaxy mass and with global $A_V$. Colour gradient directions are nearly parallel to the Calzetti extinction vector, indicating that dust plays a more important role than stellar population variations. With our calibration, the resulting $A_V$ profiles fall much more slowly than stellar mass profiles over the measured radial range. sSFR gradients are nearly flat without central quenching signatures, except for $M_*>10^{10.5} M_{\odot}$, where central declines of 20--25 per cent are observed. Both sets of profiles agree well with previous radial sSFR and (continuum) $A_V$ measurements. They are also consistent with the sSFR profiles and, if assuming a radially constant gas-to-dust ratio, gas profiles in recent hydrodynamic models. We finally discuss the striking findings that SFR scales with stellar mass density in the inner parts of galaxies, and that dust content is high in the outer parts despite low stellar-mass surface densities there.

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arXiv2017

z~2: An Epoch of Disk Assembly

We explore the evolution of the internal gas kinematics of star-forming galaxies from the peak of cosmic star-formation at $z\sim2$ to today. Measurements of galaxy rotation velocity $V_{rot}$, which quantify ordered motions, and gas velocity dispersion $σ_g$, which quantify disordered motions, are adopted from the DEEP2 and SIGMA surveys. This sample covers a continuous baseline in redshift from $z=2.5$ to $z=0.1$, spanning 10 Gyrs. At low redshift, nearly all sufficiently massive star-forming galaxies are rotationally supported ($V_{rot}>σ_g$). By $z=2$, the percentage of galaxies with rotational support has declined to 50$\%$ at low stellar mass ($10^{9}-10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$) and 70$\%$ at high stellar mass ($10^{10}-10^{11}M_{\odot}$). For $V_{rot}\,>\,3\,σ_g$, the percentage drops below 35$\%$ for all masses. From $z\,=\,2$ to now, galaxies exhibit remarkably smooth kinematic evolution on average. All galaxies tend towards rotational support with time, and it is reached earlier in higher mass systems. This is mostly due to an average decline in $σ_g$ by a factor of 3 since a redshift of 2, which is independent of mass. Over the same time period, $V_{rot}$ increases by a factor of 1.5 for low mass systems, but does not evolve for high mass systems. These trends in $V_{rot}$ and $σ_g$ with time are at a fixed stellar mass and should not be interpreted as evolutionary tracks for galaxy populations. When galaxy populations are linked in time with abundance matching, not only does $σ_g$ decline with time as before, but $V_{rot}$ strongly increases with time for all galaxy masses. This enhances the evolution in $V_{rot}/σ_g$. These results indicate that $z\,=\,2$ is a period of disk assembly, during which the strong rotational support present in today's massive disk galaxies is only just beginning to emerge.

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arXiv2016

The Bursty Star Formation Histories of Low-mass Galaxies at $0.4<z<1$ Revealed by Star Formation Rates Measured from H$β$ and FUV

We investigate the burstiness of star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies at $0.4<z<1$ by using the ratio of star formation rates (SFRs) measured from H$β$ and FUV (1500 Å) (H$β$--to--FUV ratio). Our sample contains 164 galaxies down to stellar mass (M*) of $10^{8.5} M_\odot$ in the CANDELS GOODS-N region, where Team Keck Redshift Survey DEIMOS spectroscopy and HST/WFC3 F275W images from CANDELS and Hubble Deep UV Legacy Survey are available. When the {\it ratio} of H$β$- and FUV-derived SFRs is measured, dust extinction correction is negligible (except for very dusty galaxies) with the Calzetti attenuation curve. The H$β$--to--FUV ratio of our sample increases with M* and SFR. The median ratio is $\sim$0.7 at M*$\sim10^{8.5} M_\odot$ (or SFR$\sim 0.5 M_\odot/yr$) and increases to $\sim$1 at M*$\sim10^{10} M_\odot$ (or SFR $\sim 10 M_\odot/yr$). At M*$<10^{9.5} M_\odot$, our median H$β$--to--FUV ratio is lower than that of local galaxies at the same M*, implying a redshift evolution. Bursty SFH on a timescale of a few tens of megayears on galactic scales provides a plausible explanation of our results, and the importance of the burstiness increases as M* decreases. Due to sample selection effects, our H$β$--to--FUV ratio may be an upper limit of the true value of a complete sample, which strengthens our conclusions. Other models, e.g., non-universal initial mass function or stochastic star formation on star cluster scales, are unable to plausibly explain our results.

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arXiv2016

The evolution of star formation histories of quiescent galaxies

Although there has been much progress in understanding how galaxies evolve, we still do not understand how and when they stop forming stars and become quiescent. We address this by applying our galaxy spectral energy distribution models, which incorporate physically motivated star formation histories (SFHs) from cosmological simulations, to a sample of quiescent galaxies at $0.2<z<2.1$. A total of 845 quiescent galaxies with multi-band photometry spanning rest-frame ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths are selected from the CANDELS dataset. We compute median SFHs of these galaxies in bins of stellar mass and redshift. At all redshifts and stellar masses, the median SFHs rise, reach a peak, and then decline to reach quiescence. At high redshift, we find that the rise and decline are fast, as expected because the Universe is young. At low redshift, the duration of these phases depends strongly on stellar mass. Low-mass galaxies ($\log(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot})\sim9.5$) grow on average slowly, take a long time to reach their peak of star formation ($\gtrsim 4$ Gyr), and the declining phase is fast ($\lesssim 2$ Gyr). Conversely, high-mass galaxies ($\log(M_{\ast}/M_{\odot})\sim11$) grow on average fast ($\lesssim 2$ Gyr), and, after reaching their peak, decrease the star formation slowly ($\gtrsim 3$ Gyr). These findings are consistent with galaxy stellar mass being a driving factor in determining how evolved galaxies are, with high-mass galaxies being the most evolved at any time (i.e., downsizing). The different durations we observe in the declining phases also suggest that low- and high-mass galaxies experience different quenching mechanisms that operate on different timescales.

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arXiv2016

Kinematic Downsizing at z~2

We present results from a survey of the internal kinematics of 49 star-forming galaxies at z$\,\sim\,$2 in the CANDELS fields with the Keck/MOSFIRE spectrograph (SIGMA, Survey in the near-Infrared of Galaxies with Multiple position Angles). Kinematics (rotation velocity $V_{rot}$ and integrated gas velocity dispersion $σ_g$) are measured from nebular emission lines which trace the hot ionized gas surrounding star-forming regions. We find that by z$\,\sim\,$2, massive star-forming galaxies ($\log\,M_*/M_{\odot}\gtrsim10.2$) have assembled primitive disks: their kinematics are dominated by rotation, they are consistent with a marginally stable disk model, and they form a Tully-Fisher relation. These massive galaxies have values of $V_{rot}/σ_g$ which are factors of 2-5 lower than local well-ordered galaxies at similar masses. Such results are consistent with findings by other studies. We find that low mass galaxies ($\log\,M_*/M_{\odot}\lesssim10.2$) at this epoch are still in the early stages of disk assembly: their kinematics are often supported by gas velocity dispersion and they fall from the Tully-Fisher relation to significantly low values of $V_{rot}$. This "kinematic downsizing" implies that the process(es) responsible for disrupting disks at z$\,\sim\,$2 have a stronger effect and/or are more active in low mass systems. In conclusion, we find that the period of rapid stellar mass growth at z$\,\sim\,$2 is coincident with the nascent assembly of low mass disks and the assembly and settling of high mass disks.

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arXiv2016

Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift

Dust attenuation affects nearly all observational aspects of galaxy evolution, yet very little is known about the form of the dust-attenuation law in the distant Universe. Here, we model the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies at z = 1.5--3 from CANDELS with rest-frame UV to near-IR imaging under different assumptions about the dust law, and compare the amount of inferred attenuated light with the observed infrared (IR) luminosities. Some individual galaxies show strong Bayesian evidence in preference of one dust law over another, and this preference agrees with their observed location on the plane of infrared excess (IRX, $L_{\text{TIR}}/L_{\text{UV}}$) and UV slope ($β$). We generalize the shape of the dust law with an empirical model, $A_{λ,δ}=E(B-V)\ k_λ (λ/λ_V)^δ$ where $k_λ$ is the dust law of Calzetti et al. (2000), and show that there exists a correlation between the color excess ${E(B-V)}$ and tilt $δ$ with ${δ=(0.62\pm0.05)\log(E(B-V))}$+ ${(0.26~\pm~0.02)}$. Galaxies with high color excess have a shallower, starburst-like law, and those with low color excess have a steeper, SMC-like law. Surprisingly, the galaxies in our sample show no correlation between the shape of the dust law and stellar mass, star-formation rate, or $β$. The change in the dust law with color excess is consistent with a model where attenuation is caused by by scattering, a mixed star-dust geometry, and/or trends with stellar population age, metallicity, and dust grain size. This rest-frame UV-to-near-IR method shows potential to constrain the dust law at even higher ($z>3$) redshifts.

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arXiv2016

Timing the evolution of quiescent and star-forming local galaxies

Constraining the star formation histories (SFHs) of individual galaxies is crucial to understanding the mechanisms that regulate their evolution. Here, we combine multi-wavelength (ultraviolet, optical, and infrared) measurements of a very large sample of galaxies (~230,000) at z<0.16, with physically motivated models of galaxy spectral energy distributions to extract constraints on galaxy physical parameters (such as stellar mass and star formation rate) as well as individual SFHs. In particular, we set constraints on the timescales in which galaxies form a certain percentage of their total stellar mass (namely, 10, 50 and 90%). The large statistics allows us to average such measurements over different populations of galaxies (quiescent and star-forming) and in narrow ranges of stellar mass. As in the downsizing scenario, we confirm that low-mass galaxies have more extended SFHs than high-mass galaxies. We also find that at the same observed stellar mass, galaxies that are now quiescent evolve more rapidly than galaxies that are currently still forming stars. This suggests that stellar mass is not the only driver of galaxy evolution, but plays along with other factors such as merger events and other environmental effects.

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arXiv2015

The 3D-HST Survey: Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/G141 grism spectra, redshifts, and emission line measurements for $\sim 100,000$ galaxies

We present reduced data and data products from the 3D-HST survey, a 248-orbit HST Treasury program. The survey obtained WFC3 G141 grism spectroscopy in four of the five CANDELS fields: AEGIS, COSMOS, GOODS-S, and UDS, along with WFC3 $H_{140}$ imaging, parallel ACS G800L spectroscopy, and parallel $I_{814}$ imaging. In a previous paper (Skelton et al. 2014) we presented photometric catalogs in these four fields and in GOODS-N, the fifth CANDELS field. Here we describe and present the WFC3 G141 spectroscopic data, again augmented with data from GO-1600 in GOODS-N. The data analysis is complicated by the fact that no slits are used: all objects in the WFC3 field are dispersed, and many spectra overlap. We developed software to automatically and optimally extract interlaced 2D and 1D spectra for all objects in the Skelton et al. (2014) photometric catalogs. The 2D spectra and the multi-band photometry were fit simultaneously to determine redshifts and emission line strengths, taking the morphology of the galaxies explicitly into account. The resulting catalog has 98,663 measured redshifts and line strengths down to $JH_{IR}\leq 26$ and 22,548 with $JH_{IR}\leq 24$, where we comfortably detect continuum emission. Of this sample 5,459 galaxies are at $z>1.5$ and 9,621 are at $0.7<z<1.5$, where H$α$ falls in the G141 wavelength coverage. Based on comparisons with ground-based spectroscopic redshifts, and on analyses of paired galaxies and repeat observations, the typical redshift error for $JH_{IR}\leq 24$ galaxies in our catalog is $σ_z \approx 0.003 \times (1+z)$, i.e., one native WFC3 pixel. The $3σ$ limit for emission line fluxes of point sources is $1.5\times10^{-17}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. We show various representations of the full dataset, as well as individual examples that highlight the range of spectra that we find in the survey.

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arXiv2014

Recent stellar mass assembly of low-mass star-forming galaxies at redshifts 0.3 < z < 0.9

The epoch when low-mass star forming galaxies (LMSFGs) form the bulk of their stellar mass is uncertain. While some models predict an early formation, others favor a delayed scenario until later ages of the universe. We present constraints on the star formation histories (SFHs) of a sample of LMSFGs obtained through the analysis of their spectral energy distributions using a novel approach that (1) consistently combines photometric (broadband) and spectroscopic (equivalent widths of emission lines) data, and (2) uses physically motivated SFHs with non-uniform variations of the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of time. The sample includes 31 spectroscopically confirmed LMSFGs (7.3 < log M*/Msun < 8.0) at 0.3 < z_spec < 0.9 in the Extended-Chandra Deep Field-South field (E-CDF-S). Among them, 24 were selected with photometric stellar mass log M*/Msun < 8.0, 0.3 < z_phot < 1.0, and NB816 < 26 AB mag; the remaining 7 were selected as blue compact dwarfs (BCDs) within the same photometric redshift and magnitude ranges. We also study a secondary sample of 43 more massive spectroscopically confirmed galaxies (8.0 < log M*/Msun < 9.1), selected with the same criteria. The SFRs and stellar masses derived for both samples place our targets on the standard main sequence of star forming galaxies. The median SFH of LMSFGs at intermediate redshifts appears to form 90% of the median stellar mass inferred for the sample in the 0.5-1.8 Gyr immediately preceding the observation. These results suggest a recent stellar mass assembly for LMSFGs, consistent with the cosmological downsizing trends. We find similar median SFH timescales for the more massive secondary sample.

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arXiv2014

On the importance of using appropriate spectral models to derive physical properties of galaxies at 0.7<z<2.8

Interpreting observations of distant galaxies in terms of constraints on physical parameters - such as stellar mass, star-formation rate (SFR) and dust optical depth - requires spectral synthesis modelling. We analyse the reliability of these physical parameters as determined under commonly adopted `classical' assumptions: star-formation histories assumed to be exponentially declining functions of time, a simple dust law and no emission-line contribution. Improved modelling techniques and data quality now allow us to use a more sophisticated approach, including realistic star-formation histories, combined with modern prescriptions for dust attenuation and nebular emission (Pacifici et al. 2012). We present a Bayesian analysis of the spectra and multi-wavelength photometry of 1048 galaxies from the 3D-HST survey in the redshift range 0.7<z<2.8 and in the stellar mass range 9<log(M/Mo)<12. We find that, using the classical spectral library, stellar masses are systematically overestimated (~0.1 dex) and SFRs are systematically underestimated (~0.6 dex) relative to our more sophisticated approach. We also find that the simultaneous fit of photometric fluxes and emission-line equivalent widths helps break a degeneracy between SFR and optical depth of the dust, reducing the uncertainties on these parameters. Finally, we show how the biases of classical approaches can affect the correlation between stellar mass and SFR for star-forming galaxies (the `Star-Formation Main Sequence'). We conclude that the normalization, slope and scatter of this relation strongly depend on the adopted approach and demonstrate that the classical, oversimplified approach cannot recover the true distribution of stellar mass and SFR.

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arXiv2014

How dead are dead galaxies? Mid-Infrared fluxes of quiescent galaxies at redshift 0.3 < z < 2.5: implications for star formation rates and dust heating

We investigate the star formation rates of quiescent galaxies at high redshift (0.3 < z < 2.5) using 3D-HST WFC3 grism spectroscopy and Spitzer mid-infrared data. We select quiescent galaxies on the basis of the widely used UVJ color-color criteria. Spectral energy distribution fitting (rest frame optical and near-IR) indicates very low star formation rates for quiescent galaxies (sSFR ~ 10^-12 yr^-1). However, SED fitting can miss star formation if it is hidden behind high dust obscuration and ionizing radiation is re-emitted in the mid-infrared. It is therefore fundamental to measure the dust-obscured SFRs with a mid-IR indicator. We stack the MIPS-24um images of quiescent objects in five redshift bins centered on z = 0.5, 0.9, 1.2, 1.7, 2.2 and perform aperture photometry. Including direct 24um detections, we find sSFR ~ 10^-11.9 * (1+z)^4 yr^-1. These values are higher than those indicated by SED fitting, but at each redshift they are 20-40 times lower than those of typical star forming galaxies. The true SFRs of quiescent galaxies might be even lower, as we show that the mid-IR fluxes can be due to processes unrelated to ongoing star formation, such as cirrus dust heated by old stellar populations and circumstellar dust. Our measurements show that star formation quenching is very efficient at every redshift. The measured SFR values are at z > 1.5 marginally consistent with the ones expected from gas recycling (assuming that mass loss from evolved stars refuels star formation) and well above that at lower redshifts.

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arXiv2014

3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses

The 3D-HST and CANDELS programs have provided WFC3 and ACS spectroscopy and photometry over ~900 square arcminutes in five fields: AEGIS, COSMOS, GOODS-North, GOODS-South, and the UKIDSS UDS field. All these fields have a wealth of publicly available imaging datasets in addition to the HST data, which makes it possible to construct the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of objects over a wide wavelength range. In this paper we describe a photometric analysis of the CANDELS and 3D-HST HST imaging and the ancillary imaging data at wavelengths 0.3um to 8um. Objects were selected in the WFC3 near-IR bands, and their SEDs were determined by carefully taking the effects of the point spread function in each observation into account. A total of 147 distinct imaging datasets were used in the analysis. The photometry is made available in the form of six catalogs: one for each field, as well as a master catalog containing all objects in the entire survey. We also provide derived data products: photometric redshifts, determined with the EAZY code, and stellar population parameters determined with the FAST code. We make all the imaging data that were used in the analysis available, including our reductions of the WFC3 imaging in all five fields. 3D-HST is a spectroscopic survey with the WFC3 and ACS grisms, and the photometric catalogs presented here constitute a necessary first step in the analysis of these grism data. All the data presented in this paper are available through the 3D-HST website.

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arXiv2014

Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy of Extreme Starbursts Across Cosmic Time: The Role of Dwarf Galaxies in the Star Formation History of the Universe

Near infrared slitless spectroscopy with the Wide Field Camera 3, onboard the Hubble Space Telescope, offers a unique opportunity to study low-mass galaxy populations at high-redshift ($z\sim$1-2). While most high$-z$ surveys are biased towards massive galaxies, we are able to select sources via their emission lines that have very-faint continua. We investigate the star formation rate (SFR)-stellar mass ($M_{\star}$) relation for about 1000 emission-line galaxies identified over a wide redshift range of $0.3 \lesssim z \lesssim 2.3$. We use the H$_α$ emission as an accurate SFR indicator and correct the broadband photometry for the strong nebular contribution to derive accurate stellar masses down to $M_{\star} \sim 10^{7} M_{\odot}$. We focus here on a subsample of galaxies that show extremely strong emission lines (EELGs) with rest-frame equivalent widths ranging from 200 to 1500 Å. This population consists of outliers to the normal SFR-$M_{\star}$ sequence with much higher specific SFRs ($> 10$ Gyr$^{-1}$). While on-sequence galaxies follow a continuous star formation process, EELGs are thought to be caught during an extreme burst of star formation that can double their stellar mass in less than $100$ Myr. The contribution of starbursts to the total star formation density appears to be larger than what has been reported for more massive galaxies in previous studies. In the complete mass range $8.2 <$ log($M_{\star}/M_{\odot}$) $< 10$ and a SFR lower completeness limit of about 2 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ (10 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$) at $z\sim1$ ($z \sim 2$), we find that starbursts having EW$_{rest}$(H$_α$)$>$ 300, 200, and 100 A contribute up to $\sim13$, 18, and 34 %, respectively, to the total SFR of emission-line selected sample at $z\sim1-2$. The comparison with samples of massive galaxies shows an increase in the contribution of starbursts towards lower masses.

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arXiv2014

The Nature of Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at z=1-2: Kinematics and Metallicities from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

We present near-infrared spectroscopy of a sample of 22 Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at redshifts 1.3 < z < 2.3, confirming that these are low-mass (M* = 10^8 - 10^9 M_sun) galaxies undergoing intense starburst episodes (M*/SFR ~ 10-100 Myr). The sample is selected by [O III] or Hα emission line flux and equivalent width using near-infrared grism spectroscopy from the 3D-HST survey. High-resolution NIR spectroscopy is obtained with LBT/LUCI and VLT/X-SHOOTER. The [O III]/Hβ line ratio is high (> 5) and [N II]/Hα is always significantly below unity, which suggests a low gas-phase metallicity. We are able to determine gas-phase metallicities for 7 of our objects using various strong-line methods, with values in the range 0.05-0.30 Z_sun and with a median of 0.15 Z_sun; for 3 of these objects we detect [O III]λ4363 which allows for a direct constraint on the metallicity. The velocity dispersion, as measured from the nebular emission lines, is typically ~50 km/s. Combined with the observed star-forming activity, the Jeans and Toomre stability criteria imply that the gas fraction must be large (> 2/3), consistent with the difference between our dynamical and stellar mass estimates. The implied gas depletion time scale (several hundred Myr) is substantially longer than the inferred mass-weighted ages (~50 Myr), which further supports the emerging picture that most stars in low-mass galaxies form in short, intense bursts of star formation.

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arXiv2014

AGN Emission Line Diagnostics and the Mass-Metallicity Relation up to Redshift z~2: the Impact of Selection Effects and Evolution

Emission line diagnostic diagrams probing the ionization sources in galaxies, such as the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram, have been used extensively to distinguish AGN from purely star-forming galaxies. Yet, they remain poorly understood at higher redshifts. We shed light on this issue with an empirical approach based on a z~0 reference sample built from ~300,000 SDSS galaxies, from which we mimic selection effects due to typical emission line detection limits at higher redshift. We combine this low-redshift reference sample with a simple prescription for luminosity evolution of the global galaxy population to predict the loci of high-redshift galaxies on the BPT and Mass-Excitation (MEx) diagnostic diagrams. The predicted bivariate distributions agree remarkably well with direct observations of galaxies out to z~1.5, including the observed stellar mass-metallicity (MZ) relation evolution. As a result, we infer that high-redshift star-forming galaxies are consistent with having "normal" ISM properties out to z~1.5, after accounting for selection effects and line luminosity evolution. Namely, their optical line ratios and gas-phase metallicities are comparable to that of low-redshift galaxies with equivalent emission-line luminosities. In contrast, AGN narrow-line regions may show a shift toward lower metallicities at higher redshift. While a physical evolution of the ISM conditions is not ruled out for purely star-forming galaxies, and may be more important starting at z>2, we find that reliably quantifying this evolution is hindered by selections effects. The recipes provided here may serve as a basis for future studies toward this goal. Code to predict the loci of galaxies on the BPT and MEx diagnostic diagrams, and the MZ relation as a function of emission line luminosity limits, is made publicly available.

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arXiv2013

Confirmation of Small Dynamical and Stellar Masses for Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at z~2

Spectroscopic observations from the Large Binocular Telescope and the Very Large Telescope reveal kinematically narrow lines (~50 km/s) for a sample of 14 Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs) at redshifts 1.4 < z < 2.3. These measurements imply that the total dynamical masses of these systems are low (< 3x10^9 M_sun). Their large [O III] 5007 equivalent widths (500-1100 Angstroms) and faint blue continuum emission imply young ages of 10-100 Myr and stellar masses of 10^8-10^9 M_sun, confirming the presence of a violent starburst. The dynamical masses represent the first such determinations for low-mass galaxies at z > 1. The stellar mass formed in this vigorous starburst phase represents a large fraction of the total (dynamical) mass, without a significantly massive underlying population of older stars. The occurrence of such intense events in shallow potentials strongly suggests that supernova-driven winds must be of critical importance in the subsequent evolution of these systems.

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arXiv2012

The rise and fall of the star formation histories of blue galaxies at redshifts 0.2<z<1.4

Popular cosmological scenarios predict that galaxies form hierarchically from the merger of many progenitors, each with their own unique star formation history (SFH). We use a sophisticated approach to constrain the SFHs of 4517 blue (presumably star-forming) galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.2 < z < 1.4 from the All-Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). This consists in the Bayesian analysis of the observed galaxy spectral energy distributions with a comprehensive library of synthetic spectra assembled using realistic, hierarchical star formation and chemical enrichment histories from cosmological simulations. We constrain the SFH of each galaxy in our sample by comparing the observed fluxes in the B, R, I and Ks bands and rest-frame optical emission-line luminosities with those of one million model spectral energy distributions. We explore the dependence of the resulting SFHs on galaxy stellar mass and redshift. We find that the average SFHs of high-mass galaxies rise and fall in a roughly symmetric bell-shaped manner, while those of low-mass galaxies rise progressively in time, consistent with the typically stronger activity of star formation in low-mass compared to high-mass galaxies. For galaxies of all masses, the star formation activity rises more rapidly at high than at low redshift. These findings imply that the standard approximation of exponentially declining SFHs widely used to interpret observed galaxy spectral energy distributions may not be appropriate to constrain the physical parameters of star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshifts.

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arXiv2012

Relative merits of different types of rest-frame optical observations to constrain galaxy physical parameters

We present a new approach to constrain galaxy physical parameters from the combined interpretation of stellar and nebular emission in wide ranges of observations. This approach relies on the Bayesian analysis of any type of galaxy spectral energy distribution using a comprehensive library of synthetic spectra assembled using state-of-the-art models of star formation and chemical enrichment histories, stellar population synthesis, nebular emission and attenuation by dust. We focus on the constraints set by 5-band photometry and low- and medium-resolution spectroscopy at optical rest wavelengths on a set of physical parameters characterizing the stars and the interstellar medium. Since these parameters cannot be known a priori for any galaxy sample, we assess the accuracy to which they can be retrieved by simulating `pseudo-observations' using models with known parameters. Assuming that these models are good approximations of true galaxies, we find that the combined analysis of stellar and nebular emission in low-resolution galaxy spectra provides valuable constraints on all physical parameters. At higher resolution, the analysis of the combined stellar and nebular emission in 12,660 SDSS star-forming galaxies using our approach yields likelihood distributions of stellar mass, gas-phase oxygen abundance, optical depth of the dust and specific star formation rate similar to those obtained in previous separate analyses of the stellar and nebular emission at the original (twice higher) SDSS spectral resolution. We show that the constraints derived on galaxy physical parameters from these different types of observations depend sensitively on signal-to-noise ratio. Our approach can be extended to the analysis of any type of observation across the wavelength range covered by spectral evolution models. [abridged]

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