arXiv subjects

Laure Ciesla

Publications and source records attributed to Laure Ciesla.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

JWST CEERS probes the role of stellar mass and morphology in obscuring galaxies

In recent years, observations have uncovered a population of massive galaxies that are invisible or very faint in deep optical/near-infrared (near-IR) surveys but brighter at longer wavelengths. However, the nature of these optically dark or faint galaxies (OFGs; one of several names given to these objects) is highly uncertain. In this work, we investigate the drivers of dust attenuation in the JWST era. In particular, we study the role of stellar mass, size, and orientation in obscuring star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $3 < z < 7.5$, focusing on the question of why OFGs and similar galaxies are so faint at optical/near-IR wavelengths. We find that stellar mass is the primary proxy for dust attenuation, among the properties studied. Effective radius and axis ratio do not show a clear link with dust attenuation, with the effect of orientation being close to random. However, there is a subset of highly dust attenuated ($A_V > 1$, typically) SFGs, of which OFGs are a specific case. For this subset, we find that the key distinctive feature is their compact size (for massive systems with $\log (M_{*}/M_{\odot}) > 10$); OFGs exhibit a 30% smaller effective radius than the average SFG at the same stellar mass and redshift. On the contrary, OFGs do not exhibit a preference for low axis ratios (i.e., edge-on disks). The results in this work show that stellar mass is the primary proxy for dust attenuation and compact stellar light profiles behind the thick dust columns obscuring typical massive SFGs.

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arXiv2023

ALMA FIR View of Ultra High-redshift Galaxy Candidates at $z\sim$ 11-17: Blue Monsters or Low-$z$ Red Interlopers?

We present ALMA Band~7 observations of a remarkably bright galaxy candidate at $z_{\rm phot}$=$16.7^{+1.9}_{-0.3}$ ($M_{\rm UV}$=$-21.6$), S5-z17-1, identified in JWST Early Release Observation data of Stephen's Quintet. We do not detect the dust continuum at 866~$μ$m, ruling out the possibility that \targb\ is a low-$z$ dusty starburst with a star-formation rate of $\gtrsim 30$~$M_{\odot}$~yr$^{-1}$. We detect a 5.1$σ$ line feature at $338.726\pm0.007$~GHz exactly coinciding with the JWST source position, with a 2\% likelihood of the signal being spurious. The most likely line identification would be [OIII]52$μ$m at $z=16.01$ or [CII]158$μ$m at $z=4.61$, whose line luminosities do not violate the non-detection of the dust continuum in both cases. Together with three other $z\gtrsim$ 11--13 candidate galaxies recently observed with ALMA, we conduct a joint ALMA and JWST spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis and find that the high-$z$ solution at $z\sim$11--17 is favored in every candidate as a very blue (UV continuum slope of $\simeq-2.3$) and luminous ($M_{\rm UV}\simeq[-$24:$-21]$) system. Still, we find in several candidates that reasonable SED fits ($Δ$ $χ^{2}\lesssim4$) are reproduced by type-II quasar and/or quiescent galaxy templates with strong emission lines at $z\sim3$--5, where such populations predicted from their luminosity functions and EW([OIII]+H$β$) distributions are abundant in survey volumes used for the identification of the $z\sim$11--17 candidates. While these recent ALMA observation results have strengthened the likelihood of the high-$z$ solutions, lower-$z$ possibilities are not completely ruled out in several of the $z\sim$11--17 candidates, indicating the need to consider the relative surface densities of the lower-$z$ contaminants in the ultra high-$z$ galaxy search.

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arXiv2023

A z=1.85 galaxy group in CEERS: evolved, dustless, massive intra-halo light and a brightest group galaxy in the making

We present CEERS JWST/NIRCam imaging of a massive galaxy group at z=1.85, to explore the early JWST view on massive group formation in the distant Universe. The group contains >16 members (including 6 spectros. confirmations) down to log10(Mstar/Msun)=8.5, including the brightest group galaxy (BGG) in the process of actively assembling at this redshift. The BGG is comprised of multiple merging components extending ~3.6" (30kpc) across the sky. The BGG contributes 69% of the group's total galactic stellar mass, with one of the merging components containing 76% of the total mass of the BGG and a SFR>1810Msun/yr. Most importantly, we detect intra-halo light (IHL) in several HST and JWST/NIRCam bands, allowing us to construct a state-of-the-art rest-frame UV-NIR Spectral Energy Distribution of the IHL for the first time at this high redshift. This allows stellar population characterisation of both the IHL and member galaxies, as well as the morphology distribution of group galaxies vs. their star-formation activity when coupled with Herschel data. We create a stacked image of the IHL, giving us a sensitivity to extended emission of 28.5 mag/arcsec2 at rest-frame 1um. We find that the IHL is extremely dust poor (Av~0), containing an evolved stellar population of log10(t50/yr)=8.8, corresponding to a formation epoch for 50% of the stellar material 0.63Gyr before z=1.85. There is no evidence of ongoing star-formation in the IHL. The IHL in this group at z=1.85 contributes ~10% of the total stellar mass, comparable with what is observed in local clusters. This suggests that the evolution of the IHL fraction is more self-similar with redshift than predicted by some models, challenging our understanding of IHL formation during the assembly of high-redshift clusters. JWST is unveiling a new side of group formation at this redshift, which will evolve into Virgo-like structures in the local Universe.

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arXiv2023

The hidden side of cosmic star formation at z > 3: Bridging optically-dark and Lyman break galaxies with GOODS-ALMA

Our current understanding of the cosmic star formation history at z>3 is primarily based on UV-selected galaxies (i.e., LBGs). Recent studies of H-dropouts have revealed that we may be missing a large proportion of star formation that is taking place in massive galaxies at z>3. In this work, we extend the H-dropout criterion to lower masses to select optically dark/faint galaxies (OFGs), in order to complete the census between LBGs and H-dropouts. Our criterion (H> 26.5 mag & [4.5] < 25 mag) combined with a de-blending technique is designed to select not only extremely dust-obscured massive galaxies but also normal star-forming galaxies. In total, we identified 27 OFGs at z_phot > 3 (z_med=4.1) in the GOODS-ALMA field, covering a wide distribution of stellar masses with log($M_{\star}$/$M_{\odot}$) = 9.4-11.1. We find that up to 75% of the OFGs with log($M_{\star}$/$M_{\odot}$) = 9.5-10.5 were neglected by previous LBGs and H-dropout selection techniques. After performing stacking analyses, the OFGs exhibit shorter gas depletion timescales, slightly lower gas fractions, and lower dust temperatures than typical star-forming galaxies. Their SFR_tot (SFR_ IR+SFR_UV) is much larger than SFR_UVcorr (corrected for dust extinction), with SFR_tot/SFR_UVcorr = $8\pm1$, suggesting the presence of hidden dust regions in the OFGs that absorb all UV photons. The average dust size measured by a circular Gaussian model fit is R_e(1.13 mm)=1.01$\pm$0.05 kpc. We find that the cosmic SFRD at z>3 contributed by massive OFGs is at least two orders of magnitude higher than the one contributed by equivalently massive LBGs. Finally, we calculate the combined contribution of OFGs and LBGs to the cosmic SFRD at z=4-5 to be 4 $\times$ 10$^{-2}$ $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-3}$, which is about 0.15 dex (43%) higher than the SFRD derived from UV-selected samples alone at the same redshift.

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arXiv2023

Dusty Starbursts Masquerading as Ultra-high Redshift Galaxies in JWST CEERS Observations

Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) candidates at z>10 are rapidly being identified in JWST/NIRCam observations. Due to the (redshifted) break produced by neutral hydrogen absorption of rest-frame UV photons, these sources are expected to drop out in the bluer filters while being well detected in redder filters. However, here we show that dust-enshrouded star-forming galaxies at lower redshifts (z<7) may also mimic the near-infrared (near-IR) colors of z>10 LBGs, representing potential contaminants in LBG candidate samples. First, we analyze CEERS-DSFG-1, a NIRCam dropout undetected in the F115W and F150W filters but detected at longer wavelengths. Combining the JWST data with (sub)millimeter constraints, including deep NOEMA interferometric observations, we show that this source is a dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) at z~5.1. We also present a tentative 2.6sigma SCUBA-2 detection at 850um around a recently identified z~16 LBG candidate in the same field and show that, if the emission is real and associated with this candidate, the available photometry is consistent with a z~5 dusty galaxy with strong nebular emission lines despite its blue near-IR colors. Further observations on this candidate are imperative to mitigate the low confidence of this tentative submillimeter emission and its positional uncertainty. Our analysis shows that robust (sub)millimeter detections of NIRCam dropout galaxies likely imply z=4-6 redshift solutions, where the observed near-IR break would be the result of a strong rest-frame optical Balmer break combined with high dust attenuation and strong nebular line emission, rather than the rest-frame UV Lyman break. This provides evidence that DSFGs may contaminate searches for ultra high-redshift LBG candidates from JWST observations.

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arXiv2022

The Physical Conditions of Emission-Line Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn from JWST/NIRSpec Spectroscopy in the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations

We present rest-frame optical emission-line flux ratio measurements for five $z>5$ galaxies observed by the JWST Near-Infared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) in the SMACS 0723 Early Release Observations. We add several quality-control and post-processing steps to the NIRSpec pipeline reduction products in order to ensure reliable relative flux calibration of emission lines that are closely separated in wavelength, despite the uncertain \textit{absolute} spectrophotometry of the current version of the reductions. Compared to $z\sim3$ galaxies in the literature, the $z>5$ galaxies have similar [OIII]$λ$5008/H$β$ ratios, similar [OIII]$λ$4364/H$γ$ ratios, and higher ($\sim$0.5 dex) [NeIII]$λ$3870/[OII]$λ$3728 ratios. We compare the observations to MAPPINGS V photoionization models and find that the measured [NeIII]$λ$3870/[OII]$λ$3728, [OIII]$λ$4364/H$γ$, and [OIII]$λ$5008/H$β$ emission-line ratios are consistent with an interstellar medium that has very high ionization ($\log(Q) \simeq 8-9$, units of cm~s$^{-1}$), low metallicity ($Z/Z_\odot \lesssim 0.2$), and very high pressure ($\log(P/k) \simeq 8-9$, units of cm$^{-3}$). The combination of [OIII]$λ$4364/H$γ$ and [OIII]$λ$(4960+5008)/H$β$ line ratios indicate very high electron temperatures of $4.1<\log(T_e/{\rm K})<4.4$, further implying metallicities of $Z/Z_\odot \lesssim 0.2$ with the application of low-redshift calibrations for ``$T_e$-based'' metallicities. These observations represent a tantalizing new view of the physical conditions of the interstellar medium in galaxies at cosmic dawn.

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arXiv2022

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ~ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging

We report the discovery of a candidate galaxy with a photo-z of z~12 in the first epoch of the JWST Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. Following conservative selection criteria we identify a source with a robust z_phot = 11.8^+0.3_-0.2 (1-sigma uncertainty) with m_F200W=27.3, and >7-sigma detections in five filters. The source is not detected at lambda < 1.4um in deep imaging from both HST and JWST, and has faint ~3-sigma detections in JWST F150W and HST F160W, which signal a Ly-alpha break near the red edge of both filters, implying z~12. This object (Maisie's Galaxy) exhibits F115W-F200W > 1.9 mag (2-sigma lower limit) with a blue continuum slope, resulting in 99.6% of the photo-z PDF favoring z > 11. All data quality images show no artifacts at the candidate's position, and independent analyses consistently find a strong preference for z > 11. Its colors are inconsistent with Galactic stars, and it is resolved (r_h = 340 +/- 14 pc). Maisie's Galaxy has log M*/Msol ~ 8.5 and is highly star-forming (log sSFR ~ -8.2 yr^-1), with a blue rest-UV color (beta ~ -2.5) indicating little dust though not extremely low metallicity. While the presence of this source is in tension with most predictions, it agrees with empirical extrapolations assuming UV luminosity functions which smoothly decline with increasing redshift. Should followup spectroscopy validate this redshift, our Universe was already aglow with galaxies less than 400 Myr after the Big Bang.

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arXiv2022

Starbursts with suppressed velocity dispersion revealed in a forming cluster at z=2.51

One of the most prominent features of galaxy clusters is the presence of a dominant population of massive ellipticals in their cores. Stellar archaeology suggests that these gigantic beasts assembled most of their stars in the early Universe via starbursts. However, the role of dense environments and their detailed physical mechanisms in triggering starburst activities remain unknown. Here we report spatially resolved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the CO $J= 3-2$ emission line, with a resolution of about 2.5 kiloparsecs, toward a forming galaxy cluster core with starburst galaxies at $z=2.51$. In contrast to starburst galaxies in the field often associated with galaxy mergers or highly turbulent gaseous disks, our observations show that the two starbursts in the cluster exhibit dynamically cold (rotation-dominated) gas-rich disks. Their gas disks have extremely low velocity dispersion ($σ_{\mathrm{0}} \sim 20-30$ km s$^{-1}$), which is three times lower than their field counterparts at similar redshifts. The high gas fraction and suppressed velocity dispersion yield gravitationally unstable gas disks, which enables highly efficient star formation. The suppressed velocity dispersion, likely induced by the accretion of corotating and coplanar cold gas, might serve as an essential avenue to trigger starbursts in massive halos at high redshifts.

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arXiv2022

Fitting AGN/galaxy X-ray-to-radio SEDs with CIGALE and improvement of the code

Modern and future surveys effectively provide a panchromatic view for large numbers of extragalactic objects. Consistently modeling these multiwavelength survey data is a critical but challenging task for extragalactic studies. The Code Investigating GALaxy Emission (CIGALE) is an efficient PYTHON code for spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Recently, a major extension of CIGALE (named X-CIGALE) has been developed to account for AGN/galaxy X-ray emission and improve AGN modeling at UV-to-IR wavelengths. Here, we apply X-CIGALE to different samples, including COSMOS spectroscopic type 2 AGNs, CDF-S X-ray detected normal galaxies, SDSS quasars, and COSMOS radio objects. From these tests, we identify several weaknesses of X-CIGALE and improve the code accordingly. These improvements are mainly related to AGN intrinsic X-ray anisotropy, X-ray binary emission, AGN accretion-disk SED shape, and AGN radio emission. These updates improve the fit quality and allow new interpretation of the results, based on which we discuss physical implications. For example, we find that AGN intrinsic X-ray anisotropy is moderate, and can be modeled as $L_X(θ) \propto 1+\cos θ$, where $θ$ is the viewing angle measured from the AGN axis. We merge the new code into the major branch of CIGALE, and publicly release this new version as CIGALE v2022.0 on https://cigale.lam.fr

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arXiv2021

BlueMUSE: Project Overview and Science Cases

We present the concept of BlueMUSE, a blue-optimised, medium spectral resolution, panoramic integral field spectrograph based on the MUSE concept and proposed for the Very Large Telescope. With an optimised transmission down to 350 nm, a larger FoV (1.4 x 1.4 arcmin$^2$) and a higher spectral resolution compared to MUSE, BlueMUSE will open up a new range of galactic and extragalactic science cases allowed by its specific capabilities, beyond those possible with MUSE. For example a survey of massive stars in our galaxy and the Local Group will increase the known population of massive stars by a factor $>$100, to answer key questions about their evolution. Deep field observations with BlueMUSE will also significantly increase samples of Lyman-alpha emitters, spanning the era of Cosmic Noon. This will revolutionise the study of the distant Universe: allowing the intergalactic medium to be detected unambiguously in emission, enabling the study of the exchange of baryons between galaxies and their surroundings. By 2030, at a time when the focus of most of the new large facilities (ELT, JWST) will be on the infra-red, BlueMUSE will be a unique facility, outperforming any ELT instrument in the Blue/UV. It will have a strong synergy with ELT, JWST as well as ALMA, SKA, Euclid and Athena.

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arXiv2021

The Evolving Interstellar Medium of Star-Forming Galaxies, as traced by $\texttt{Stardust}$

We analyse the far-infrared properties of $\sim$ 5,000 star-forming galaxies at $z<4.5$, drawn from the deepest, super-deblended catalogues in the GOODS-N and COSMOS fields. We develop a novel panchromatic SED fitting algorithm, $\texttt{Stardust}$, that models the emission from stars, AGN, and infrared dust emission, without relying on energy balance assumptions. Our code provides robust estimates of the UV-optical and FIR physical parameters, such as the stellar mass ($M_*$), dust mass ($M_{\rm dust}$), infrared luminosities ($L_{\rm IR}$) arising from AGN and star formation activity, and the average intensity of the interstellar radiation field ($\langle U \rangle$). Through a set of simulations we quantify the completeness of our data in terms of $M_{\rm dust}$, $L_{\rm IR}$ and $\langle U \rangle$, and subsequently characterise the distribution and evolution of these parameters with redshift. We focus on the dust-to-stellar mass ratio ($f_{\rm dust}$), which we parametrise as a function of cosmic age, stellar mass, and specific star formation rate. The $f_{\rm dust}$ is found to increase by a factor of 10 from $z=0$ to $z=2$ and appears to remain flat at higher$-z$, mirroring the evolution of the gas fraction. We also find a growing fraction of warm to cold dust with increasing distance from the main sequence, indicative of more intense interstellar radiation fields, higher star formation efficiencies and more compact star forming regions for starburst galaxies. Finally, we construct the dust mass functions (DMF) of star-forming galaxies up to $z=1$ by transforming the stellar mass function to DMF through the scaling relations derived here. The evolution of $f_{\rm dust}$ and the recovered DMFs are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions of the Horizon-AGN and IllustrisTNG simulations.

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arXiv2021

Investigating the delay between dust radiation and star-formation in local and distant quenching galaxies

We investigate the timescale with which the IR luminosity decreases after a complete and rapid quenching of star formation using observations of local and high-redshift galaxies. From SED modelling, we derive the time since quenching of a subsample of 14 galaxies from the Herschel Reference Survey suffering from ram-pressure stripping due to the environment of the Virgo cluster and of a subsample of 7 rapidly quenched COSMOS galaxies selected through a state-of-the-art statistical method already tested on the determination of galaxies' star formation history. Three out of the 7 COSMOS galaxies have an optical spectra with no emission line, confirming their quenched nature. Present physical properties of the two samples are obtained as well as the past L$_{IR}$ of these galaxies, just before their quenching, from the long-term SFH properties. This past L$_{IR}$ is shown to be consistent with the L$_{IR}$ of reference samples of normally star-forming galaxies with same $M_*$ and $z$ than each of our quenched galaxies. We put constraints on the present to past L$_{IR}$ ratio as a function of quenching time. The two samples probe different dynamical ranges in terms of quenching age with the HRS galaxies exhibiting longer timescales (0.2-3\,Gyr) compared to the COSMOS one ($<100$\,Myr). Assuming an exponential decrease of the L$_{IR}$ after quenching, the COSMOS quenched galaxies are consistent with short e-folding times less than a couple of hundreds of Myr while the properties of the HRS quenched galaxies are compatible with timescales of several hundreds of Myr. For the HRS sample, this result is consistent with ram pressure stripping due to the environment. For the COSMOS sample, different quenching processes are acting on short to intermediate timescales. Processes such as galaxy mergers, disk instabilities or environmental effects can produce such strong star formation variability.

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arXiv2020

Space Project for Astrophysical and Cosmological Exploration (SPACE), an ESA stand-alone mission and a possible contribution to the Origins Space Telescope

We propose a new mission called Space Project for Astrophysical and Cosmological Exploration (SPACE) as part on the ESA long term planning Voyage 2050 programme. SPACE will study galaxy evolution at the earliest times, with the key goals of charting the formation of the heavy elements, measuring the evolution of the galaxy luminosity function, tracing the build-up of stellar mass in galaxies over cosmic time, and finding the first super-massive black holes (SMBHs) to form. The mission will exploit a unique region of the parameter space, between the narrow ultra-deep surveys with HST and JWST, and shallow wide-field surveys such as Roman Space Telescope and EUCLID, and should yield by far the largest sample of any current or planned mission of very high redshift galaxies at z > 10 which are sufficiently bright for detailed follow-up spectroscopy. Crucially, we propose a wide-field spectroscopic near-IR + mid-IR capability which will greatly enhance our understanding of the first galaxies by detecting and identifying a statistical sample of the first galaxies and the first SMBH, and to chart the metal enrichment history of galaxies in the early Universe - potentially finding signatures of the very first stars to form from metal-free primordial gas. The wide-field and wavelength range of SPACE will also provide us a unique opportunity to study star formation by performing a wide survey of the Milky Way in the near-IR + mid-IR. This science project can be enabled either by a stand-alone ESA-led M mission or by an instrument for an L mission (with ESA and/or NASA, JAXA and other international space agencies) with a wide-field (sub-)millimetre capability at wavelength > 500 microns.

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arXiv2019

Revealing the dust attenuation properties on resolved scales in NGC628 with SWIFT UVOT data

Understanding how dust attenuation laws vary between and within galaxies is a key question if we want to reliably measure the physical properties of galaxies at both global and local scales. To shed new light on this question, we present a detailed study of the slope and bump strength of the attenuation law in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC628 at the resolved spatial scale of 325 pc. To do so, we have modelled a broad multi-wavelength dataset from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR) with the state-of-the-art SED fitting code CIGALE, including SWIFT UVOT data for which we have developed a new optimized reduction pipeline. We find that the median dust attenuation curve of NGC628 is fairly steep, but not as steep as the SMC curve, and has a sub-MW-type UV bump. We observe intriguing variations within the galaxy, with regions of high $A_V$ exhibiting a shallower attenuation curve. We argue that the flattening of the curve is due to a dominance of absorption-over-scattering events at higher $A_V$. No trend between the bump strength and the IRAC 8.0 micron emission was found. However, this does not necessarily rule out PAHs as the main contributors to the UV bump.

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arXiv2018

Revealing environmental dependence of molecular gas content in a distant X-ray cluster at z=2.51

We present a census of the molecular gas properties of galaxies in the most distant known X-ray cluster, CLJ1001, at z=2.51, using deep observations of CO(1-0) with JVLA. In total 14 cluster members with $M_{*} > 10^{10.5} M_{\odot}$ are detected, including all the massive star-forming members within the virial radius, providing the largest galaxy sample in a single cluster at $z > 2$ with CO(1-0) measurements. We find a large variety in the gas content of these cluster galaxies, which is correlated with their relative positions (or accretion states), with those closer to the cluster core being increasingly gas-poor. Moreover, despite their low gas content, the galaxies in the cluster center exhibit an elevated star formation efficiency (SFE=SFR/$M_{\rm gas}$) compared to field galaxies, suggesting that the suppression on the SFR is likely delayed compared to that on the gas content. Their gas depletion time is around $t_{\rm dep} \sim 400$ Myrs, comparable to the cluster dynamical time. This implies that they will likely consume all their gas within a single orbit around the cluster center, and form a passive cluster core by $z\sim2$. This result is one of the first direct pieces of evidence for the influence of environment on the gas reservoirs and SFE of $z > 2$ cluster galaxies, thereby providing new insights into the rapid formation and quenching of the most massive galaxies in the early universe.

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arXiv2018

Starbursts in and out of the star-formation main sequence

We use high-resolution continuum images obtained at 870microns with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to probe the surface density of star-formation in z~2 galaxies and study the different physical properties between galaxies within and above the star-formation main sequence of galaxies. This sample of eight star-forming galaxies at z~2 selected among the most massive Herschel galaxies in the GOODS-South field is supplemented with eleven galaxies from the public data of the 1.3 mm survey of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. ALMA reveals systematically dense concentrations of dusty star-formation close to the center of the stellar component of the galaxies. We identify two different starburst regimes: (i) the classical population of starbursts located above the SFR-M* main sequence, with enhanced gas fractions and short depletion times and (ii) a sub-population of galaxies located within the scatter of the main sequence that experience compact star formation with depletion timescales typical of starbursts of ~150 Myr. In both starburst populations, the far infrared and UV are distributed in distinct regions and dust-corrected star formation rates estimated using UV-optical-NIR data alone underestimate the total star formation rate. Starbursts hidden in the main sequence show instead the lowest gas fractions of our sample and could represent the last stage of star-formation before they become passive. Being Herschel-selected, these main sequence galaxies are located in the high-mass end of the main sequence, hence we do not know whether these "starbursts hidden in the main sequence" also exist below 10^11 Msun. Active galactic nuclei are found to be ubiquitous in these compact starbursts, suggesting that the triggering mechanism also feeds the central black hole or that the active nucleus triggers star formation.

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arXiv2017

Dust temperature and mid-to-total infrared color distributions for star-forming galaxies at 0<z<4

We present a new, publicly available library of dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs). These SEDs are characterized by only three parameters: the dust mass (Mdust), the dust temperature (Tdust), and the mid-to-total infrared color (IR8=LIR/L8). The latter measures the relative contribution of PAH molecules to the LIR. We used this library to model star-forming galaxies at 0.5 1, 3.2, 3.8, and 5.7, respectively. Starburst galaxies above the MS have LIR significantly underestimated and Mdust overestimated. These results can be used immediately to interpret more accurately the large amount of archival data from Spitzer, Herschel and ALMA. [abridged]

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arXiv2017

On the SFR-M$_*$ main sequence archetypal star-formation history and analytical models

We derive the SFH of MS galaxies showing how the SFH peak of a galaxy depends on its seed mass at e.g. z=5. Following the MS, galaxies undergo a drastic slow down of their stellar mass growth after reaching the peak of their SFH. According to abundance matching, these masses correspond to hot and massive DM halos which state could results in less efficient gas inflows on the galaxies and thus could be at the origin of the limited stellar mass growth. As a result, galaxies on the MS can enter the passive region of the UVJ diagram while still forming stars. The ability of the classical analytical SFHs to retrieve the SFR of galaxies from SED fitting is studied. Due to mathematical limitations, the exp-declining and delayed SFH struggle to model high SFR which starts to be problematic at z>2. The exp-rising and log-normal SFHs exhibit the opposite behavior with the ability to reach very high SFR, and thus model starburst galaxies, but not low values such as those expected at low redshift for massive galaxies. We show that these four analytical forms recover the SFR of MS galaxies with an error dependent on the model and the redshift. They are, however, sensitive enough to probe small variations of SFR within the MS but all the four fail to recover the SFR of rapidly quenched galaxies. However, these SFHs lead to an artificial gradient of age, parallel to the MS which is not exhibited by a simulated sample. This gradient is also produced on real data, using a sample of GOODS-South galaxies at 1.5<z<1.2. We propose a SFH composed of a delayed form to model the bulk of stellar population plus a flexibility in the recent SFH. This SFH provides very good estimates of the SFR of MS, starbursts, and rapidly quenched galaxies at all z. Furthermore, used on the GOODS-South sample, the age gradient disappears, showing its dependency on the SFH assumption made to perform the SED fitting.

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