arXiv subjects

S. Genel

Publications and source records attributed to S. Genel.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

CASCO: Cosmological and AStrophysical parameters from Cosmological simulations and Observations III. The physics behind the emergence of the golden mass scale

We investigate the origin and evolution of the "golden mass" (halo mass $\sim10^{12} \, \rm M_{\odot}$, stellar mass $\sim5 \times 10^{10} \, \rm M_{\odot}$), linked to peak star formation efficiency, using \textsc{camels} simulations based on IllustrisTNG. Exploring a range of SN/AGN feedback strengths and cosmologies ($\Omega_{\rm m}, \sigma_8$), we find a U-shaped relation between dark-to-stellar mass ratio and stellar mass, with a minimum at the golden mass, in line with observations. Cosmology affects the normalization of this relation, while feedback shapes its form and the emergence of the golden mass. Stronger SN feedback lowers its value; AGN feedback, especially radiative efficiency, alters the high-mass slope and shifts the golden mass. The golden mass appears earlier with stronger feedback, which quenches star formation more rapidly. Passive galaxies retain the U-shape; star-forming ones show decreasing dark matter fraction with stellar mass, with possible reversal at low redshift. Global stellar fractions also exhibit a U-shaped trend: in passive galaxies, the golden mass shifts to lower masses or vanishes; in star-forming ones, it emerges only at low redshift. Feedback governs the golden mass up to $z \sim 1.5-2$, with a secondary role from cold streams and virial shocks. We speculate that at $z \gtrsim 1.5-2$, a single stream-regulated scale governs galaxy growth, which later bifurcates into two: a low-mass scale tied to gas richness and a higher-mass golden mass regulating efficiency and quenching. (abridged)

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arXiv2019

The Hubble Sequence at $z\sim0$ in the IllustrisTNG simulation with deep learning

We analyze the optical morphologies of galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation at $z\sim0$ with a Convolutional Neural Network trained on visual morphologies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We generate mock SDSS images of a mass complete sample of $\sim12,000$ galaxies in the simulation using the radiative transfer code SKIRT and include PSF and noise to match the SDSS r-band properties. The images are then processed through the exact same neural network used to estimate SDSS morphologies to classify simulated galaxies in four morphological classes (E, S0/a, Sab, Scd). The CNN model finds that $\sim95\%$ of the simulated galaxies fall in one the four main classes with high confidence. The mass-size relations of the simulated galaxies divided by morphological type also reproduce well the slope and the normalization of observed relations which confirms the realism of optical morphologies in the TNG suite. However, the Stellar Mass Functions decomposed into different morphologies still show significant discrepancies with observations both at the low and high mass end. We find that the high mass end of the SMF is dominated in TNG by massive disk galaxies while early-type galaxies dominate in the observations according to the CNN classifications. The present work highlights the importance of detailed comparisons between observations and simulations in comparable conditions.

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arXiv2018

The SINS/zC-SINF survey of z~2 galaxy kinematics: SINFONI adaptive optics-assisted data and kiloparsec-scale emission line properties

We present the "SINS/zC-SINF AO survey" of 35 star-forming galaxies, the largest sample with deep adaptive optics-assisted (AO) near-infrared integral field spectroscopy at z~2. The observations, taken with SINFONI at the Very Large Telescope, resolve the Ha and [NII] line emission and kinematics on scales of ~1.5 kpc. In stellar mass, star formation rate, rest-optical colors and size, the AO sample is representative of its parent seeing-limited sample and probes the massive (M* ~ 2x10^9 - 3x10^11 Msun), actively star-forming (SFR ~ 10-600 Msun/yr) part of the z~2 galaxy population over a wide range in colors ((U-V)_rest ~ 0.15-1.5 mag) and half-light radii (R_e,H ~ 1-8.5 kpc). The sample overlaps largely with the "main sequence" of star-forming galaxies in the same redshift range to a similar K_AB = 23 magnitude limit; it has ~0.3 dex higher median specific SFR, ~0.1 mag bluer median (U-V)_rest color, and ~10% larger median rest-optical size. We describe the observations, data reduction, and extraction of basic flux and kinematic properties. With typically 3-4 times higher resolution and 4-5 times longer integrations (up to 23hr) than the seeing-limited datasets of the same objects, the AO data reveal much more detail in morphology and kinematics. The now complete AO observations confirm the majority of kinematically-classified disks and the typically elevated disk velocity dispersions previously reported based on subsets of the data. We derive typically flat or slightly negative radial [NII]/Ha gradients, with no significant trend with global galaxy properties, kinematic nature, or the presence of an AGN. Azimuthal variations in [NII]/Ha are seen in several sources and are associated with ionized gas outflows, and possible more metal-poor star-forming clumps or small companions. [Abridged]

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arXiv2017

Strongly baryon-dominated disk galaxies at the peak of galaxy formation ten billion years ago

In cold dark matter cosmology, the baryonic components of galaxies are thought to be mixed with and embedded in non-baryonic and non-relativistic dark matter, which dominates the total mass of the galaxy and its dark matter halo. In the local Universe, the mass of dark matter within a galactic disk increases with disk radius, becoming appreciable and then dominant in the outer, baryonic regions of the disks of star-forming galaxies. This results in rotation velocities of the visible matter within the disk that are constant or increasing with disk radius. Comparison between the dynamical mass and the sum of stellar and cold gas mass at the peak epoch of galaxy formation, inferred from ancillary data, suggest high baryon factions in the inner, star-forming regions of the disks. Although this implied baryon fraction may be larger than in the local Universe, the systematic uncertainties (stellar initial mass function, calibration of gas masses) render such comparisons inconclusive in terms of the mass of dark matter. Here we report rotation curves for the outer disks of six massive star-forming galaxies, and find that the rotation velocities are not constant, but decrease with radius. We propose that this trend arises because of two main factors: first, a large fraction of the massive, high-redshift galaxy population was strongly baryon dominated, with dark matter playing a smaller part than in the local Universe; and second, the large velocity dispersion in high-redshift disks introduces a substantial pressure term that leads to a decrease in rotation velocity with increasing radius. The effect of both factors appears to increase with redshift. Qualitatively, the observations suggest that baryons in the early Universe efficiently condensed at the centres of dark matter halos when gas fractions were high, and dark matter was less concentrated. [Abridged]

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arXiv2014

The role of massive halos in the Star Formation History of the Universe

The most striking feature of the Cosmic Star Formation History (CSFH) of the Universe is a dramatic drop of the star formation (SF) activity, since z~1. In this work we investigate if the very same process of assembly and growth of structures is one of the major drivers of the observed decline. We study the contribution to the CSFH of galaxies in halos of different masses. This is done by studying the total SFR-halo mass-redshift plane from redshift 0 to redshift z~1.6 in a sample of 57 groups and clusters by using the deepest available mid- and far-infrared surveys conducted with Spitzer MIPS and Herschel PACS and SPIRE. Our results show that low mass groups provide a 60-80% contribution to the CSFH at z~1. Such contribution declines faster than the CSFH in the last 8 billion years to less than 10% at z<0.3, where the overall SF activity is sustained by lower mass halos. More massive systems provide only a marginal contribution (<10%) at any epoch. A simplified abundance matching method shows that the large contribution of low mass groups at z~1 is due to a large fraction (>50%) of very massive, highly star forming Main Sequence galaxies. Below z~1 a quenching process must take place in massive halos to cause the observed faster suppression of their SF activity. Such process must be a slow one though, as most of the models implementing a rapid quenching of the SF activity in accreting satellites significantly underpredicts the observed SF level in massive halos at any redshift. Starvation or the transition from cold to hot accretion would provide a quenching timescale of 1 Gyrs more consistent with the observations. Our results suggest a scenario in which, due to the structure formation process, more and more galaxies experience the group environment and, thus, the associated quenching process. This leads to the progressive suppression of their SF activity shaping the CSFH below z~1.

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arXiv2013

Nebular Excitation in z~2 Star-forming Galaxies from the SINS and LUCI Surveys: The Influence of Shocks and AGN

Based on high-resolution, spatially resolved data of 10 z~2 star-forming galaxies from the SINS/zC-SINF survey and LUCI data for 12 additional galaxies, we probe the excitation properties of high-z galaxies and the impact of active galactic nuclei (AGN), shocks and photoionization. We explore how these spatially-resolved line ratios can inform our interpretation of integrated emission line ratios obtained at high redshift. Many of our galaxies fall in the `composite' region of the z~0 [NII]/Ha versus [OIII]/Hb diagnostic (BPT) diagram, between star-forming galaxies and those with AGN. Based on our resolved measurements, we find that some of these galaxies likely host an AGN, while others appear to be affected by the presence of shocks possibly caused by an outflow or from enhanced ionization parameter as compared with HII regions in normal local star-forming galaxies. We find that the Mass-Excitation (MEx) diagnostic, which separates purely star-forming and AGN hosting local galaxies in the [OIII]/Hb versus stellar mass plane, does not properly separate z~2 galaxies classified according to the BPT diagram. However, if we shift the galaxies based on the offset between the local and z~2 mass-metallicity relation (i.e. to the mass they would have at z~0 with the same metallicity), we find better agreement between the MEx and BPT diagnostics. Finally, we find that metallicity calibrations based on [NII]/Ha are more biased by shocks and AGN at high-z than the [OIII]/Hb/[NII]/Ha calibration.

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arXiv2011

How well can we Measure the Intrinsic Velocity Dispersion of Distant Disk Galaxies?

The kinematics of distant galaxies, from z=0.1 to z>2, play a key role in our understanding of galaxy evolution from early times to the present. One of the important parameters is the intrinsic, or local, velocity dispersion of a galaxy, which allows one to quantify the degree of non-circular motions such as pressure support. However, this is difficult to measure because the observed dispersion includes the effects of (often severe) beam smearing on the velocity gradient. Here we investigate four methods of measuring the dispersion that have been used in the literature, to assess their effectiveness at recovering the intrinsic dispersion. We discuss the biasses inherent in each method, and apply them to model disk galaxies in order to determine which methods yield meaningful quantities, and under what conditions. All the mean weighted dispersion estimators are affected by (residual) beam smearing. In contrast, the dispersion recovered by fitting a spatially and spectrally convolved disk model to the data is unbiassed by the beam smearing it is trying to compensate. Because of this, and because the bias it does exhibit depends only on the signal-to-noise, it can be considered reliable. However, at very low signal-to-noise, all methods should be used with caution.

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arXiv2011

Constraints on the assembly and dynamics of galaxies. II. Properties of kiloparsec-scale clumps in rest-frame optical emission of z ~ 2 star-forming galaxies

We study the properties of luminous stellar clumps identified in deep, high resolution HST/NIC2 F160W imaging at 1.6um of six z~2 star-forming galaxies with existing near-IR integral field spectroscopy from SINFONI at the VLT. Individual clumps contribute ~0.5%-15% of the galaxy-integrated rest-frame ~5000A emission, with median of about 2%; the total contribution of clump light ranges from 10%-25%. The median intrinsic clump size and stellar mass are ~1kpc and log(Mstar[Msun])~9, in the ranges for clumps identified in rest-UV or line emission in other studies. The clump sizes and masses in the subset of disks are broadly consistent with expectations for clump formation via gravitational instabilities in gas-rich, turbulent disks given the host galaxies' global properties. By combining the NIC2 data with ACS/F814W imaging available for one source, and AO-assisted SINFONI Halpha data for another, we infer modest color, M/L, and stellar age variations within each galaxy. In these two objects, sets of clumps identified at different wavelengths do not fully overlap; NIC2-identified clumps tend to be redder/older than ACS- or Halpha-identified clumps without rest-frame optical counterparts. There is evidence for a systematic trend of older ages at smaller galactocentric radii among the clumps, consistent with scenarios where inward migration of clumps transports material towards the central regions. From constraints on a bulge-like component at radii <1-3kpc, none of the five disks in our sample appears to contain a compact massive stellar core, and we do not discern a trend of bulge stellar mass fraction with stellar age of the galaxy. Further observations are necessary to probe the build-up of stellar bulges and the role of clumps in this process.

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arXiv2010

The SINS survey of z~2 galaxy kinematics: properties of the giant star forming clumps

We have studied the properties of giant star forming clumps in five z~2 star-forming disks with deep SINFONI AO spectroscopy at the ESO VLT. The clumps reside in disk regions where the Toomre Q-parameter is below unity, consistent with their being bound and having formed from gravitational instability. Broad H{\alpha}/[NII] line wings demonstrate that the clumps are launching sites of powerful outflows. The inferred outflow rates are comparable to or exceed the star formation rates, in one case by a factor of eight. Typical clumps may lose a fraction of their original gas by feedback in a few hundred million years, allowing them to migrate into the center. The most active clumps may lose much of their mass and disrupt in the disk. The clumps leave a modest imprint on the gas kinematics. Velocity gradients across the clumps are 10-40 km/s/kpc, similar to the galactic rotation gradients. Given beam smearing and clump sizes, these gradients may be consistent with significant rotational support in typical clumps. Extreme clumps may not be rotationally supported; either they are not virialized, or they are predominantly pressure supported. The velocity dispersion is spatially rather constant and increases only weakly with star formation surface density. The large velocity dispersions may be driven by the release of gravitational energy, either at the outer disk/accreting streams interface, and/or by the clump migration within the disk. Spatial variations in the inferred gas phase oxygen abundance are broadly consistent with inside-out growing disks, and/or with inward migration of the clumps.

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arXiv2010

On the evolution of the intrinsic scatter in black hole versus galaxy mass relations

We present results on the evolution of the intrinsic scatter of black hole masses considering different implementations of a model in which black holes only grow via mergers. We demonstrate how merger driven growth affects the correlations between black hole mass and host bulge mass. The simple case of an initially log-normal distributed scatter in black hole and bulge masses combined with random merging within the galaxy population results in a decreasing scatter with merging generation/number as predicted by the Central-limit theorem. In general we find that the decrease in scatter {\sigma} is well approximated by {\sigma}merg(m) = {\sigma}ini \times (m + 1)^(-a/2) with a = 0.42 for a range of mean number of mergers m < 50. For a large mean number of mergers (m > 100) we find a convergence to a = 0.61. This is valid for a wide range of different initial distributions, refill-scenarios or merger mass-ratios. Growth scenarios based on halo merger trees of a (100 Mpc)^3 dark matter LambdaCDM-simulation show a similar behaviour with a scatter decrease of a = 0.30 with typical number of mergers m < 50 consistent with random merging (best matching model: a = 0.34). Assuming a present day scatter of 0.3 dex in black hole mass and a mean number of mergers not exceeding m = 50 our results imply a scatter of 0.6 dex at z = 3 and thus a possible scenario in which overmassive (and undermassive) black holes at high redshift are a consequence of a larger intrinsic scatter in black hole mass. A simple toy model connecting the growth of black holes to the growth of LambdaCDM dark matter halos via mergers, neglecting any contribution from accretion, yields a consistent M\cdot -MBulge relation at z = 0 - if we assume the correct initial relation.

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arXiv2009

The Impact of cold gas accretion above a mass floor on galaxy scaling relations

Using the cosmological baryonic accretion rate and normal star formation efficiencies, we present a very simple model for star-forming galaxies (SFGs) that accounts for the mass and redshift dependencies of the SFR-Mass and Tully-Fisher relations from z=2 to the present. The time evolution follows from the fact that each modelled galaxy approaches a steady state where the SFR follows the (net) cold gas accretion rate. The key feature of the model is a halo mass floor M_{min}~10^{11} below which accretion is quenched in order to simultaneously account for the observed slopes of the SFR-Mass and Tully-Fischer relations. The same successes cannot be achieved via a star-formation threshold (or delay) nor by varying the SF efficiency or the feedback efficiency. Combined with the mass ceiling for cold accretion due to virial shock heating, the mass floor M_{min} explains galaxy "downsizing", where more massive galaxies formed earlier and over a shorter period of time. It turns out that the model also accounts for the observed galactic baryon and gas fractions as a function of mass and time, and the cosmic SFR density from z~6 to z=0, which are all resulting from the mass floor M_{min}. The model helps to understand that it is the cosmological decline of accretion rate that drives the decrease of cosmic SFR density between z~2 and z=0 and the rise of the cosmic SFR density allows us to put a constraint on our main parameter M_{min}~10^{11} solar masses. Among the physical mechanisms that could be responsible for the mass floor, we view that photo-ionization feedback (from first in-situ hot stars) lowering the cooling efficiency is likely to play a large role.

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arXiv2009

The SINS survey: SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies

We present the SINS survey with SINFONI of high redshift galaxies. With 80 objects observed and 63 detected, SINS is the largest survey of spatially resolved gas kinematics, morphologies, and physical properties of star-forming galaxies at z~1-3. We describe the selection of the targets, the observations, and the data reduction. We then focus on the "SINS Halpha sample" of 62 rest-UV/optically-selected sources at 1.3 ~10 star-forming galaxies at z~1.5-2.5, with some bias towards bluer systems compared to pure K-selected samples due to the requirement of secure optical redshift. The sample spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass and in absolute and specific star formation rates, with median values of approximately log(M*/Msun) = 10.5, 70 Msun/yr, and 3/Gyr. The ionized gas distribution and kinematics are spatially resolved on scales ranging from 1.5 kpc for adaptive optics assisted observations to typically 4-5 kpc for seeing-limited data. The Halpha morphologies tend to be irregular and/or clumpy. About one-third are rotation-dominated yet turbulent disks, another third comprises compact and velocity dispersion-dominated objects, and the remaining galaxies are clear interacting/merging systems; the fraction of rotation-dominated systems increases among the more massive part of the sample. The Halpha luminosities and equivalent widths suggest on average roughly twice higher dust attenuation towards the HII regions relative to the bulk of the stars, and comparable current and past-averaged star formation rates. [Abridged]

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arXiv2009

High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies: Angular Momentum and Baryon Fraction, Turbulent Pressure Effects and the Origin of Turbulence

The structure of a sample of high-redshift (z=2), rotating galaxies with high star formation rates and turbulent gas velocities of sigma=40-80 km/s is investigated. Fitting the observed disk rotational velocities and radii with a Mo, Mao, White (1998) (MMW) model requires unusually large disk spin parameters lambda_d>0.1 and disk-to-dark halo mass fraction m_d=0.2, close to the cosmic baryon fraction. The galaxies segregate into dispersion-dominated systems with 1 200 km/s, vmax/sigma>3 and rd=4-8 kpc. For the dispersion-dominated sample, radial pressure gradients partly compensate the gravitational force, reducing the rotational velocities. Including this pressure effect in the MMW model, dispersion-dominated galaxies can be fitted well with spin parameters lf lambda_d=0.03-0.05 for high disk mass fractions of m_d=0.2 and with lambda_d=0.01-0.03 for m_d=0.05. These values are in good agreement with cosmological expectations. For the rotation-dominated sample however pressure effects are small and better agreement with theoretically expected disk spin parameters can only be achieved if the dark halo mass contribution in the visible disk regime (2-3*rd) is smaller than predicted by the MMW model. We argue that these galaxies can still be embedded in standard cold dark matter halos if the halos did not contract adiabatically in response to disk formation. It is shown that the observed high turbulent gas motions of the galaxies are consistent with a Toomre instability parameter Q=1 which is equal to the critical value, expected for gravitational disk instability to be the major driver of turbulence. The dominant energy source of turbulence is then the potential energy of the gas in the disk.

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arXiv2009

The halo merger rate in the Millennium Simulation and implications for observed galaxy merger fractions

We developed a new method to extract halo merger rates from the Millennium Simulation. First, by removing superfluous mergers that are artifacts of the FOF halo finder, we find a lower merger rate compared to previous work. The reductions are more significant at lower redshifts, lower halo masses, and minor mergers. Our approach agrees better with predictions from the EPS model. Second, we find that the FOF halo finder overestimates the halo mass by up to 50% for halos that are about to merge, which leads to an additional ~20% overestimate of the merger rate. Therefore, we define halo masses by including only gravitationally bound particles. We provide new best-fitting parameters for a global formula to account for these improvements. In addition, we extract the merger rate per progenitor halo, as well as per descendant halo. The former is the quantity that is related to observed galaxy merger fractions when they are measured via pair counting. At low mass/redshift the merger rate increases with mass and redshift. At high mass/redshift (for halos with masses a few times the "knee" of the mass function) these trends break down, and the merger rate per progenitor halo decreases with mass and increases only moderately with redshift. Defining the merger rate per progenitor halo also allows us to quantify the rate at which halos are being accreted onto larger halos. We provide an analytic formula to convert given merger rates per descendant halo into merger rates per progenitor halo. Finally, we perform a comparison between observed merger fractions and the fraction of halos that have undergone a major merger during the recent dynamical friction time, and find a fair agreement, within the large uncertainties of the observations. Our new halo merger trees are available at http://www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/MillenniumMergerTrees/.

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arXiv2009

The SINS survey: modeling the dynamics of z~2 galaxies and the high-z Tully-Fisher relation

We present the modeling of SINFONI integral field dynamics of 18 star forming galaxies at z ~ 2 from Halpha line emission. The galaxies are selected from the larger sample of the SINS survey, based on the prominence of ordered rotational motions with respect to more complex merger induced dynamics. The quality of the data allows us to carefully select systems with kinematics dominated by rotation, and to model the gas dynamics across the whole galaxy using suitable exponential disk models. We obtain a good correlation between the dynamical mass and the stellar mass, finding that large gas fractions Mgas~M*) are required to explain the difference between the two quantities. We use the derived stellar mass and maximum rotational velocity Vmax from the modeling to construct for the first time the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation at z ~ 2.2. The relation obtained shows a slope similar to what is observed at lower redshift, but we detect an evolution of the zero point. We find that at z ~ 2.2 there is an offset in log(M*) for a given rotational velocity of 0.41+-0.11 with respect to the local Universe. This result is consistent with the predictions of the latest N-body/hydrodynamical simulations of disk formation and evolution, which invoke gas accretion onto the forming disk in filaments and cooling flows. This scenario is in agreement with other dynamical evidence from SINS, where gas accretion from the halo is required to reproduce the observed properties of a large fraction of the z ~ 2 galaxies.

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arXiv2008

Mergers and Mass Accretion Rates in Galaxy Assembly: The Millennium Simulation Compared to Observations of z~2 Galaxies

Recent observations of UV-/optically selected, massive star forming galaxies at z~2 indicate that the baryonic mass assembly and star formation history is dominated by continuous rapid accretion of gas and internal secular evolution, rather than by major mergers. We use the Millennium Simulation to build new halo merger trees, and extract halo merger fractions and mass accretion rates. We find that even for halos not undergoing major mergers the mass accretion rates are plausibly sufficient to account for the high star formation rates observed in z~2 disks. On the other hand, the fraction of major mergers in the Millennium Simulation is sufficient to account for the number counts of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), in support of observational evidence that these are major mergers. When following the fate of these two populations in the Millennium Simulation to z=0, we find that subsequent mergers are not frequent enough to convert all z~2 turbulent disks into elliptical galaxies at z=0. Similarly, mergers cannot transform the compact SMGs/red sequence galaxies at z~2 into observed massive cluster ellipticals at z=0. We argue therefore, that secular and internal evolution must play an important role in the evolution of a significant fraction of z~2 UV-/optically and submillimeter selected galaxy populations.

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arXiv2008

From rings to bulges: evidence for rapid secular galaxy evolution at z~2 from integral field spectroscopy in the SINS survey

We present Ha integral field spectroscopy of well resolved, UV/optically selected z~2 star-forming galaxies as part of the SINS survey with SINFONI on the ESO VLT. Our laser guide star adaptive optics and good seeing data show the presence of turbulent rotating star forming rings/disks, plus central bulge/inner disk components, whose mass fractions relative to total dynamical mass appears to scale with [NII]/Ha flux ratio and star formation age. We propose that the buildup of the central disks and bulges of massive galaxies at z~2 can be driven by the early secular evolution of gas-rich proto-disks. High redshift disks exhibit large random motions. This turbulence may in part be stirred up by the release of gravitational energy in the rapid cold accretion flows along the filaments of the cosmic web. As a result dynamical friction and viscous processes proceed on a time scale of <1 Gyr, at least an order of magnitude faster than in z~0 disk galaxies. Early secular evolution thus drives gas and stars into the central regions and can build up exponential disks and massive bulges, even without major mergers. Secular evolution along with increased efficiency of star formation at high surface densities may also help to account for the short time scales of the stellar buildup observed in massive galaxies at z~2.

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arXiv2008

Submillimeter Galaxies at z~2: Evidence for Major Mergers & Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF and CO-H2 Conversion Factor

We report sub-arcsecond resolution IRAM PdBI millimeter CO interferometry of four z~2 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), and sensitive CO (3-2) flux limits toward three z~2 UV-/optically selected star forming galaxies. The new data reveal for the first time spatially resolved CO gas kinematics in the observed SMGs. Two of the SMGs show double or multiple morphologies, with complex, disturbed gas motions. The other two SMGs exhibit CO velocity gradients of ~500 km/s across 0.2 arcsec (1.6 kpc) diameter regions, suggesting that the star forming gas is in compact, rotating disks. Our data provide compelling evidence that these SMGs represent extreme, short-lived 'maximum' star forming events in highly dissipative mergers of gas rich galaxies. The resulting high mass surface and volume densities of SMGs are similar to those of compact quiescent galaxies in the same redshift range, and much higher than those in local spheroids. From the ratio of the comoving volume densities of SMGs and quiescent galaxies in the same mass and redshift ranges, and from the comparison of gas exhaustion time scales and stellar ages, we estimate that the SMG phase duration is about 100 Myrs. Our analysis of SMGs and optically/UV selected high redshift star forming galaxies supports a 'universal' Chabrier IMF as being valid over the star forming history of these galaxies. We find that the 12CO luminosity to total gas mass conversion factors at z~2-3 are probably similar to those assumed at z~0. The implied gas fractions in our sample galaxies range from 20 to 50%.

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