arXiv subjects

H. Nayyeri

Publications and source records attributed to H. Nayyeri.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Massive molecular gas reservoir in a luminous sub-millimeter galaxy during cosmic noon

We present multi-band observations of an extremely dusty star-forming lensed galaxy (HERS1) at $z=2.553$. High-resolution maps of \textit{HST}/WFC3, SMA, and ALMA show a partial Einstein-ring with a radius of $\sim$3$^{\prime\prime}$. The deeper HST observations also show the presence of a lensing arc feature associated with a second lens source, identified to be at the same redshift as the bright arc based on a detection of the [NII] 205$μ$m emission line with ALMA. A detailed model of the lensing system is constructed using the high-resolution HST/WFC3 image, which allows us to study the source plane properties and connect rest-frame optical emission with properties of the galaxy as seen in sub-millimeter and millimeter wavelengths. Corrected for lensing magnification, the spectral energy distribution fitting results yield an intrinsic star formation rate of about $1000\pm260$ ${\rm M_{\odot}}$yr$^{-1}$, a stellar mass ${\rm M_*}=4.3^{+2.2}_{-1.0}\times10^{11} {\rm M_{\odot}}$, and a dust temperature ${\rm T}_{\rm d}=35^{+2}_{-1}$ K. The intrinsic CO emission line ($J_{\rm up}=3,4,5,6,7,9$) flux densities and CO spectral line energy distribution are derived based on the velocity-dependent magnification factors. We apply a radiative transfer model using the large velocity gradient method with two excitation components to study the gas properties. The low-excitation component has a gas density $n_{\rm H_2}=10^{3.1\pm0.6}$ cm$^{-3}$ and kinetic temperature ${\rm T}_{\rm k}=19^{+7}_{-5}$ K and a high-excitation component has $n_{\rm H_2}=10^{2.8\pm0.3}$ cm$^{-3}$ and ${\rm T}_{\rm k}=550^{+260}_{-220}$ K. Additionally, HERS1 has a gas fraction of about $0.4\pm0.2$ and is expected to last 250 Myr. These properties offer a detailed view of a typical sub-millimeter galaxy during the peak epoch of star-formation activity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

SCUBA-2 overdensities associated with candidate protoclusters selected from Planck data

We measure the 850-$μ$m source densities of 46 candidate protoclusters selected from the Planck High-z catalogue (PHz) and the Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS) that were followed up with Herschel-SPIRE and SCUBA-2. This paper aims to search for overdensities of 850-$μ$m sources in order to select the fields that are most likely to be genuine protoclusters. Of the 46 candidate protoclusters, 25 have significant overdensities ($>$5 times the field counts), 11 have intermediate overdensities (3--5 times the field counts) and 10 have no overdensity ($<$3 times the field counts) of 850-$μ$m sources. We find that the enhanced number densities are unlikely to be the result of sample variance. Compared with the number counts of another sample selected from Planck's compact source catalogues, this [PHz+PCCS]-selected sample has a higher fraction of candidate protoclusters with significant overdensities, though both samples show overdensities of 850-$μ$m sources above intermediate level. Based on the estimated star-formation rate densities (SFRDs), we suggest that both samples can efficiently select protoclusters with starbursting galaxies near the redshift at which the global field SFRD peaks ($2 < z < 3$). Based on the confirmation of overdensities found here, future follow-up observations on other PHz targets may greatly increase the number of genuine DSFG-rich clusters/protoclusters.

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arXiv2019

Magnification, dust and time-delay constraints from the first resolved strongly lensed Type Ia supernova

We report lensing magnifications, extinction, and time-delay estimates for the first resolved, multiply-imaged Type Ia supernova iPTF16geu, at $z = 0.409$, using $Hubble\,Space\,Telescope$ ($HST$) observations in combination with supporting ground-based data. Multi-band photometry of the resolved images provides unique information about the differential dimming due to dust in the lensing galaxy. Using $HST$ and Keck AO reference images taken after the SN faded, we obtain a total lensing magnification for iPTF16geu of $μ= 67.8^{+2.6}_{-2.9}$, accounting for extinction in the host and lensing galaxy. As expected from the symmetry of the system, we measure very short time-delays for the three fainter images with respect to the brightest one: -0.23 $\pm$ 0.99, -1.43 $\pm$ 0.74 and 1.36 $\pm$ 1.07 days. Interestingly, we find large differences between the magnifications of the four supernova images, even after accounting for uncertainties in the extinction corrections: $Δm_1 = -3.88^{+0.07}_{-0.06}$, $Δm_2 = -2.99^{+0.09}_{-0.08}$, $Δm_3 = -2.19^{+0.14}_{-0.15}$ and $Δm_4 = -2.40^{+0.14}_{-0.12}$ mag, discrepant with model predictions suggesting similar image brightnesses. A possible explanation for the large differences is gravitational lensing by substructures, micro- or millilensing, in addition to the large scale lens causing the image separations. We find that the inferred magnification is insensitive to the assumptions about the dust properties in the host and lens galaxy.

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arXiv2019

SCUBA-2 observations of candidate starbursting protoclusters selected by Planck and Herschel-SPIRE

We present SCUBA-2 850-$μ$m observations of 13 candidate starbursting protoclusters selected using Planck and Herschel data. The cumulative number counts of the 850-$μ$m sources in 9/13 of these candidate protoclusters show significant overdensities compared to the field, with the probability $<$10$^{-2}$ assuming the sources are randomly distributed in the sky. Using the 250-, 350-, 500- and 850-$μ$m flux densities, we estimate the photometric redshifts of individual SCUBA-2 sources by fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) templates with an MCMC method. The photometric redshift distribution, peaking at $2 2$ protoclusters and the peak of the cosmic star-formation rate density (SFRD). We find that the 850-$μ$m sources in our candidate protoclusters have infrared luminosities of $L_{\mathrm{IR}}\gtrsim$10$^{12}L_{\odot}$ and star-formation rates of SFR=(500-1,500)$M_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$. By comparing with results in the literature considering only Herschel photometry, we conclude that our 13 candidate protoclusters can be categorised into four groups: six of them being high-redshift starbursting protoclusters, one being a lower-redshift cluster/protocluster, three being protoclusters that contain lensed DSFG(s) or are rich in 850-$μ$m sources, and three regions without significant Herschel or SCUBA-2 source overdensities. The total SFRs of the candidate protoclusters are found to be comparable or higher than those of known protoclusters, suggesting our sample contains some of the most extreme protocluster population. We infer that cross-matching Planck and Herschel data is a robust method for selecting candidate protoclusters with overdensities of 850-$μ$m sources.

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arXiv2019

Discovery of a giant and luminous Lya+CIV+HeII nebula at z=3.326 with extreme emission line ratios

We present the discovery of HLock01-LAB, a luminous and large Lya nebula at z=3.326. Medium-band imaging and long-slit spectroscopic observations with the Gran Telescopio Canarias reveal extended emission in the Lya 1215Å, CIV1550Å, and HeII 1640Ålines over ~100kpc, and a total luminosity L(Lya)=(6.4+/-0.1)x10^44 erg s^-1. HLock01-LAB presents an elongated morphology aligned with two faint radio sources contained within the central ~8kpc of the nebula. The radio structures are consistent to be faint radio jets or lobes of a central galaxy, whose spectrum shows nebular emission characteristic of a type-II active galactic nucleus (AGN). The continuum emission of the AGN at short wavelengths is, however, likely dominated by stellar emission of the host galaxy, for which we derive a stellar mass M* = 2.3x10^11 Msun. The detection of extended emission in CIV and CIII] indicates that the gas within the nebula is not primordial. Feedback may have enriched the halo at at least 50 kpc from the nuclear region. Using rest-frame UV emission-line diagnostics, we find that the gas in the nebula is likely heated by the AGN. Nevertheless, at the center of the nebula we find extreme emission line ratios of Lya/CIV~60 and Lya/HeII~80, one of the highest values measured to date, and well above the standard values of photoionization models (Lya/HeII~30 for case B photoionization). Our data suggest that jet-induced shocks are likely responsible for the increase of the electron temperature and, thus, the observed Lya enhancement in the center of the nebula. This scenario is further supported by the presence of radio structures and perturbed kinematics in this region. The large Lya luminosity in HLock01-LAB is likely due to a combination of AGN photoionization and jet-induced shocks, highlighting the diversity of sources of energy powering Lya nebulae. [abridged]

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arXiv2019

CO, H2O, H2O+ line and dust emission in a z = 3.63 strongly lensed starburst merger at sub-kiloparsec scales

Using ALMA, we report high angular-resolution observations of the redshift z=3.63 galaxy, G09v1.97, one of the most luminous strongly lensed galaxies discovered by the H-ATLAS survey. We present 0"2-0"4 resolution images of the rest-frame 188 and 419$μ$m dust continuum and the CO(6-5), H2O(211-202) and J=2 H2O+ line emission. We also report the detection of H$_2^{18}$O in this source. The dust continuum and molecular gas emission are resolved into a nearly complete ~1"5 diameter Einstein ring plus a weaker image in the center, which is caused by a special dual deflector lensing configuration. The observed line profiles of the CO, H2O and H2O+ lines are strikingly similar. In the source plane, we reconstruct the dust continuum images and the spectral cubes of the line emission at sub-kpc scales. The reconstructed dust emission in the source plane is dominated by a compact disk with an effective radius of 0.7kpc plus an overlapping extended disk with a radius twice as large. While the average magnification for the dust continuum is $μ$~10-11, the magnification of the line emission varies 5 to 22 across different velocity components. The emission lines have similar spatial and kinematic distributions. The molecular gas and dust content reveal that G09v1.97 is a gas-rich major merger in its pre-coalescence phase. Both of the merging companions are intrinsically ULIRGs with LIR reaching $\gtrsim 4\times10^{12}L_\odot$, and the total LIR of G09v1.97 is $1.4\times10^{13}L_\odot$. The approaching southern galaxy shows no obvious kinematic structure with a semi-major half-light radius a_s=0.4kpc, while the receding galaxy resembles an a_s=1.2kpc rotating disk. The two galaxies are separated by a projected distance of 1.3kpc, bridged by weak line emission that is co-spatially located with the cold-dust-emission peak, suggesting a large amount of cold ISM in the interacting region. (abridged)

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arXiv2018

The DEIMOS 10k spectroscopic survey catalog of the COSMOS field

We present a catalog of 10718 objects in the COSMOS field observed through multi-slit spectroscopy with the Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) on the Keck II telescope in the wavelength range ~5500-9800A. The catalog contains 6617 objects with high-quality spectra (two or more spectral features), and 1798 objects with a single spectroscopic feature confirmed by the photometric redshift. For 2024 typically faint objects we could not obtain reliable redshifts. The objects have been selected from a variety of input catalogs based on multi-wavelength observations in the field, and thus have a diverse selection function, which enables the study of the diversity in the galaxy population. The magnitude distribution of our objects is peaked at I_AB~23 and K_AB~21, with a secondary peak at K_AB~24. We sample a broad redshift distribution in the range 0 0.65 with chance probabilities <4xE-4$, some of which are clearly related to protocluster structures of sizes >10 Mpc. An object-to-object comparison with a multitude of other spectroscopic samples in the same field shows that our DEIMOS sample is among the best in terms of fraction of spectroscopic failures and relative redshift accuracy. We have determined the fraction of spectroscopic blends to about 0.8% in our sample. This is likely a lower limit and at any rate well below the most pessimistic expectations. Interestingly, we find evidence for strong lensing of Ly-alpha background emitters within the slits of 12 of our target galaxies, increasing their apparent density by about a factor of 4.

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arXiv2018

Modelling high resolution ALMA observations of strongly lensed highly star forming galaxies detected by Herschel

We have modelled high resolution ALMA imaging of six strong gravitationally lensed galaxies detected by the Herschel Space Observatory. Our modelling recovers mass properties of the lensing galaxies and, by determining magnification factors, intrinsic properties of the lensed sub-millimetre sources. We find that the lensed galaxies all have high ratios of star formation rate to dust mass, consistent with or higher than the mean ratio for high redshift sub-millimetre galaxies and low redshift ultra-luminous infra-red galaxies. Source reconstruction reveals that most galaxies exhibit disturbed morphologies. Both the cleaned image plane data and the directly observed interferometric visibilities have been modelled, enabling comparison of both approaches. In the majority of cases, the recovered lens models are consistent between methods, all six having mass density profiles that are close to isothermal. However, one system with poor signal to noise shows mildly significant differences.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

ALMA observations of lensed Herschel sources : Testing the dark-matter halo paradigm

With the advent of wide-area submillimeter surveys, a large number of high-redshift gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) has been revealed. Due to the simplicity of the selection criteria for candidate lensed sources in such surveys, identified as those with $S_{500μm} > 100$ mJy, uncertainties associated with the modelling of the selection function are expunged. The combination of these attributes makes submillimeter surveys ideal for the study of strong lens statistics. We carried out a pilot study of the lensing statistics of submillimetre-selected sources by making observations with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) of a sample of strongly-lensed sources selected from surveys carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory. We attempted to reproduce the distribution of image separations for the lensed sources using a halo mass function taken from a numerical simulation which contains both dark matter and baryons. We used three different density distributions, one based on analytical fits to the halos formed in the EAGLE simulation and two density distributions (Singular Isothermal Sphere (SIS) and SISSA) that have been used before in lensing studies. We found that we could reproduce the observed distribution with all three density distributions, as long as we imposed an upper mass transition of $\sim$$10^{13} M_{\odot}$ for the SIS and SISSA models, above which we assumed that the density distribution could be represented by an NFW profile. We show that we would need a sample of $\sim$500 lensed sources to distinguish between the density distributions, which is practical given the predicted number of lensed sources in the Herschel surveys.

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arXiv2017

Spitzer Observations of the North Ecliptic Pole

We present a photometric catalog for Spitzer Space Telescope warm mission observations of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP; centered at $\rm R.A.=18^h00^m00^s$, $\rm Decl.=66^d33^m38^s.552$). The observations are conducted with IRAC in 3.6 $μ$m and 4.5 $μ$m bands over an area of 7.04 deg$^2$ reaching 1$σ$ depths of 1.29 $μ$Jy and 0.79 $μ$Jy in the 3.6 $μ$m and 4.5 $μ$m bands respectively. The photometric catalog contains 380,858 sources with 3.6 $μ$m and 4.5 $μ$m band photometry over the full-depth NEP mosaic. Point source completeness simulations show that the catalog is 80% complete down to 19.7 AB. The accompanying catalog can be utilized in constraining the physical properties of extra-galactic objects, studying the AGN population, measuring the infrared colors of stellar objects, and studying the extra-galactic infrared background light.

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arXiv2017

Herschel and Hubble study of a lensed massive dusty starbursting galaxy at $z\sim3$

We present the results of combined deep Keck/NIRC2, HST/WFC3 near-infrared and Herschel far infrared observations of an extremely star forming dusty lensed galaxy identified from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS J133542.9+300401). The galaxy is gravitationally lensed by a massive WISE identified galaxy cluster at $z\sim1$. The lensed galaxy is spectroscopically confirmed at $z=2.685$ from detection of $\rm {CO (1 \rightarrow 0)}$ by GBT and from detection of $\rm {CO (3 \rightarrow 2)}$ obtained with CARMA. We use the combined spectroscopic and imaging observations to construct a detailed lens model of the background dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) which allows us to study the source plane properties of the target. The best-fit lens model provide magnification of $μ_{\rm star}=2.10\pm0.11$ and $μ_{\rm dust}=2.02\pm0.06$ for the stellar and dust components respectively. Multi-band data yields a magnification corrected star formation rate of $1900(\pm200)\,M_{\odot}{\rm yr^{-1}}$ and stellar mass of $6.8_{-2.7}^{+0.9}\times10^{11}\,M_{\odot}$ consistent with a main sequence of star formation at $z\sim2.6$. The CO observations yield a molecular gas mass of $8.3(\pm1.0)\times10^{10}\,M_{\odot}$, similar to the most massive star-forming galaxies, which together with the high star-formation efficiency are responsible for the intense observed star formation rates. The lensed DSFG has a very short gas depletion time scale of $\sim40$ Myr. The high stellar mass and small gas fractions observed indicate that the lensed DSFG likely has already formed most of its stellar mass and could be a progenitor of the most massive elliptical galaxies found in the local Universe.

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arXiv2017

iPTF16geu: A multiply imaged, gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova

We report the discovery of a multiply-imaged gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernova, iPTF16geu (SN 2016geu), at redshift $z=0.409$. This phenomenon could be identified because the light from the stellar explosion was magnified more than fifty times by the curvature of space around matter in an intervening galaxy. We used high spatial resolution observations to resolve four images of the lensed supernova, approximately 0.3" from the center of the foreground galaxy. The observations probe a physical scale of $\sim$1 kiloparsec, smaller than what is typical in other studies of extragalactic gravitational lensing. The large magnification and symmetric image configuration implies close alignment between the line-of-sight to the supernova and the lens. The relative magnifications of the four images provide evidence for sub-structures in the lensing galaxy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2017

High dense gas fraction in intensely star-forming dusty galaxies at high redshift

We present ALMA and VLA detections of the dense molecular gas tracers HCN, HCO$^+$ and HNC in two lensed, high-redshift starbursts selected from the {\it Herschel}-ATLAS survey: {\it H}-ATLAS\,J090740.0$-$004200 (SDP.9, $z \sim 1.6$) and {\it H}-ATLAS\,J091043.1$-$000321 (SDP.11, $z \sim 1.8$). ALMA observed the $J = 3-2$ transitions in both sources, while the VLA observed the $J = 1-0$ transitions in SDP.9. We have detected all observed HCN and HCO$^+$ lines in SDP.9 and SDP.11, and also HNC(3--2) in SDP.9. The amplification factors for both galaxies have been determined from sub-arcsec resolution CO and dust emission observations carried out with NOEMA and the SMA. The HNC(1--0)/HCN(1--0) line ratio in SDP.9 suggests the presence of photon-dominated regions, as it happens to most local (U)LIRGs. The CO, HCN and HCO$^+$ SLEDs of SDP.9 are compatible to those found for many local, infrared (IR) bright galaxies, indicating that the molecular gas in local and high-redshift dusty starbursts can have similar excitation conditions. We obtain that the correlation between total IR ($L_{\rm IR}$) and dense line ($L_{\rm dense}$) luminosity in SDP.9 and SDP.11 and local star-forming galaxies can be represented by a single relation. The scatter of the $L_{\rm IR} - L_{\rm dense}$ correlation, together with the lack of sensitive dense molecular gas tracer observations for a homogeneous sample of high-redshift galaxies, prevents us from distinguishing differential trends with redshift. Our results suggest that the intense star formation found in some high-redshift dusty, luminous starbursts is associated with more massive dense molecular gas reservoirs and higher dense molecular gas fractions.

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arXiv2016

CANDELS Multiwavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS COSMOS Survey Field

We present a multi-wavelength photometric catalog in the COSMOS field as part of the observations by the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). The catalog is based on Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) observations of the COSMOS field (centered at RA: $10^h00^m28^s$, Dec:$+02^{\circ}12^{\prime}21^{\prime\prime}$). The final catalog has 38671 sources with photometric data in forty two bands from UV to the infrared ($\rm \sim 0.3-8\,μm$). This includes broad-band photometry from the HST, CFHT, Subaru, VISTA and Spitzer Space Telescope in the visible, near infrared and infrared bands along with intermediate and narrow-band photometry from Subaru and medium band data from Mayall NEWFIRM. Source detection was conducted in the WFC3 F160W band (at $\rm 1.6\,μm$) and photometry is generated using the Template FITting algorithm. We further present a catalog of the physical properties of sources as identified in the HST F160W band and measured from the multi-band photometry by fitting the observed spectral energy distributions of sources against templates.

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arXiv2016

The Herschel-ATLAS: a sample of 500μm-selected lensed galaxies over 600 square degrees

We present a sample of 80 candidate strongly lensed galaxies with flux density above 100mJy at 500μm extracted from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS), over an area of 600 square degrees. Available imaging and spectroscopic data allow us to confirm the strong lensing in 20 cases and to reject it in one case. For other 8 objects the lensing scenario is strongly supported by the presence of two sources along the same line of sight with distinct photometric redshifts. The remaining objects await more follow-up observations to confirm their nature. The lenses and the background sources have median redshifts z_L = 0.6 and z_S = 2.5, respectively, and are observed out to z_L = 1.2 and z_S = 4.2. We measure the number counts of candidate lensed galaxies at 500μm and compare them with theoretical predictions, finding a good agreement for a maximum magnification of the background sources in the range 10-20. These values are consistent with the magnification factors derived from the lens modelling of individual systems. The catalogue presented here provides sub- mm bright targets for follow-up observations aimed at exploiting gravitational lensing to study with un-precedented details the morphological and dynamical properties of dusty star forming regions in z >~ 1.5 galaxies.

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arXiv2016

Candidate Gravitationally Lensed Dusty Star-forming Galaxies in the Herschel Wide Area Surveys

We present a list of candidate gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) from the HerMES Large Mode Survey (HeLMS) and the Herschel Stripe 82 Survey (HerS). Together, these partially overlapping surveys cover 372 deg$^{2}$ on the sky. After removing local spiral galaxies and known radio-loud blazars, our candidate list of lensed DSFGs is composed of 77 sources with 500 $μ$m flux densities ($S_{500}$) greater than 100 mJy. Such sources are dusty starburst galaxies similar to the first bright Sub Millimeter Galaxies (SMGs) discovered with SCUBA. We expect a large fraction of this list to be strongly lensed, with a small fraction made up of bright SMG-SMG mergers that appear as Hyper-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (HyLIRGs; $\rm L_{IR}>10^{13} L_{\odot}$). Thirteen of the 77 candidates have spectroscopic redshifts from CO spectroscopy with ground-based interferometers, putting them at $z>1$ and well above the redshift of the foreground lensing galaxies. The surface density of our sample is 0.21 $\pm$ 0.03 deg$^{-2}$. We present follow-up imaging of a few of the candidates confirming their lensing nature. The sample presented here is an ideal tool for higher resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations to understand detailed properties of starburst phenomena in distant galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Spitzer Imaging of Strongly-Lensed Herschel-Selected Dusty Star Forming Galaxies

We present the rest-frame optical spectral energy distribution and stellar masses of six Herschel- selected gravitationally lensed dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at 1 < z < 3. These galaxies were first identified with Herschel/SPIRE imaging data from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). The targets were observed with Spitzer/IRAC at 3.6 and 4.5um. Due to the spatial resolution of the IRAC observations at the level of 2 arcseconds, the lensing features of a background DSFG in the near-infrared are blended with the flux from the foreground lensing galaxy in the IRAC imaging data. We make use of higher resolution Hubble/WFC3 or Keck/NIRC2 Adaptive Optics imaging data to fit light profiles of the foreground lensing galaxy (or galaxies) as a way to model the foreground components, in order to successfully disentangle the foreground lens and background source flux densities in the IRAC images. The flux density measurements at 3.6 and 4.5um, once combined with Hubble/WFC3 and Keck/NIRC2 data, provide important constraints on the rest-frame optical spectral energy distribution of the Herschel-selected lensed DSFGs. We model the combined UV- to millimeter-wavelength SEDs to establish the stellar mass, dust mass, star-formation rate, visual extinction, and other parameters for each of these Herschel-selected DSFGs. These systems have inferred stellar masses in the range 8 x 10^10 to 4 x 10^11 Msun and star-formation rates of around 100 Msun yr-1. This puts these lensed sub-millimeter systems well above the SFR-M* relation observed for normal star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts. The high values of SFR inferred for these systems are consistent with a major merger-driven scenario for star formation.

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arXiv2014

Keck-I MOSFIRE spectroscopy of compact star-forming galaxies at z$\gtrsim$2: High velocity dispersions in progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies

We present Keck-I MOSFIRE near-infrared spectroscopy for a sample of 13 compact star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at redshift $2\leq z \leq2.5$ with star formation rates of SFR$\sim$100M$_{\odot}$ y$^{-1}$ and masses of log(M/M$_{\odot}$)$\sim10.8$. Their high integrated gas velocity dispersions of $σ_{\rm{int}}$=230$^{+40}_{-30}$ km s$^{-1}$, as measured from emission lines of H$_α$ and [OIII], and the resultant M$_{\star}-σ_{\rm{int}}$ relation and M$_{\star}$$-$M$_{\rm{dyn}}$ all match well to those of compact quiescent galaxies at $z\sim2$, as measured from stellar absorption lines. Since log(M$_{\star}$/M$_{\rm{dyn}}$)$=-0.06\pm0.2$ dex, these compact SFGs appear to be dynamically relaxed and more evolved, i.e., more depleted in gas and dark matter ($<$13$^{+17}_{-13}$\%) than their non-compact SFG counterparts at the same epoch. Without infusion of external gas, depletion timescales are short, less than $\sim$300 Myr. This discovery adds another link to our new dynamical chain of evidence that compact SFGs at $z\gtrsim2$ are already losing gas to become the immediate progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies by $z\sim2$.

astro-ph.GA↗