arXiv subjects

Tomoko L. Suzuki

Publications and source records attributed to Tomoko L. Suzuki.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Structural evolution in massive galaxies at z~2

We present 0.2arcsec-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations at 870 $μ$m in a stellar mass-selected sample of 85 massive ($M_\mathrm{star}>10^{11}~M_\odot$) star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at z=1.9-2.6 in the 3D-HST/CANDELS fields of UDS and GOODS-S. We measure the effective radius of the rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) emission for 62 massive SFGs. They are distributed over wide ranges of FIR size from $R_\mathrm{e,FIR}=$0.4 kpc to $R_\mathrm{e,FIR}=$6 kpc. The effective radius of the FIR emission is smaller by a factor of 2.3$^{+1.9}_{-1.0}$ than the effective radius of the optical emission and by a factor of 1.9$^{+1.9}_{-1.0}$ smaller than the half-mass radius. Even with taking into account potential extended components, the FIR size would change by ~10%. By combining the spatial distributions of the FIR and optical emission, we investigate how galaxies change the effective radius of the optical emission and the stellar mass within a radius of 1 kpc, $M_\mathrm{1kpc}$. The compact starburst puts most of massive SFGs on the mass--size relation for quiescent galaxies (QGs) at z~2 within 300 Myr if the current star formation activity and its spatial distribution are maintained. We also find that within 300 Myr, ~38% of massive SFGs can reach the central mass of $M_\mathrm{1kpc}=10^{10.5}~M_\odot$, which is around the boundary between massive SFGs and QGs. These results suggest an outside-in transformation scenario in which a dense core is formed at the center of a more extended disk, likely via dissipative in-disk inflows. Synchronized observations at ALMA 870 $μ$m and JWST 3-4 $μ$m will explicitly verify this scenario.

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arXiv2020

Environmental impact on star-forming galaxies in a $z \sim 0.9$ cluster during course of galaxy accretion

Galaxies change their properties as they assemble into clusters. In order to understand the physics behind that, we need to go back in time and observe directly what is occurring in galaxies as they fall into a cluster. We have conducted a narrow-band and $J$-band imaging survey on a cluster CL1604-D at $z=0.923$ using a new infrared instrument SWIMS installed at the Subaru Telescope. The narrow-band filter, NB1261, matches to H$α$ emission from the cluster at $z=0.923$. Combined with a wide range of existing data from various surveys, we have investigated galaxy properties in and around this cluster in great detail. We have identified 27 H$α$ emitters associated with the cluster. They have significant overlap with MIPS 24$μ$m sources and are located exclusively in the star forming regime on the rest-frame $UVJ$ diagram. We have identified two groups of galaxies near the cluster in the 2D spatial distribution and the phase-space diagram, which are likely to be in-falling to the cluster main body. We have compared various physical properties of star forming galaxies, such as specific star formation rates (burstiness) and morphologies (merger) as a function of environment; cluster center, older group, younger group, and the field. As a result, a global picture has emerged on how the galaxy properties are altered as they assemble into a denser region. This includes the occurrence of mergers, enhancement of star formation activity, excursion to the dusty starburst phase, and eventual quenching to a passive phase.

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arXiv2019

The whole picture of the large-scale structure of the CL1604 supercluster at z$\sim$0.9

We present the large-scale structure over more than 50 comoving Mpc scale at z $\sim$ 0.9 where the CL1604 supercluster, which is one of the largest structures ever known at high redshifts, is embedded. The wide-field deep imaging survey by the Subaru Strategic Program with Hyper Suprime-Cam reveals that the already-known CL1604 supercluster is a mere part of larger-scale structure extending to both the north and the south. We confirm that there are galaxy clusters at three slightly different redshifts in the northern and southern sides of the supercluster by determining the redshifts of 55 red-sequence galaxies and 82 star-forming galaxies in total by the follow-up spectroscopy with Subaru/FOCAS and Gemini-N/GMOS. This suggests that the structure ever known as the CL1604 supercluster is the tip of the iceberg. We investigate stellar population of the red-sequence galaxies using 4000 A break and Balmer H$δ$ absorption line. Almost all of the red-sequence galaxies brighter than 21.5 mag in $z$-band show an old stellar population with $\gtrsim2$ Gyr. The comparison of composite spectra of the red-sequence galaxies in the individual clusters show that the galaxies at a similar redshift have similar stellar population age, even if they are located $\sim$50 Mpc apart from each other. However, there could be a large variation in the star formation history. Therefore, it is likely that galaxies associated with the large-scale structure at 50 Mpc scale formed at almost the same time, have assembled into the denser regions, and then have evolved with different star formation history along the hierarchical growth of the cosmic web.

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arXiv2019

Extended star-forming region within galaxies in a dense proto-cluster core at z=2.53

At $z\sim2$, star-formation activity is thought to be high even in high-density environments such as galaxy clusters and proto-clusters. One of the critical but outstanding issues is if structural growth of star-forming galaxies can differ depending on their surrounding environments. In order to investigate how galaxies grow their structures and what physical processes are involved in the evolution of galaxies, one requires spatially resolved images of not only stellar components but also star-forming regions within galaxies. We conducted the Adaptive Optics(AO)-assisted imaging observations for star-forming galaxies in a dense proto-cluster core at $z=2.53$ with IRCS and AO188 mounted on the Subaru Telescope. A combination of AO and narrow-band filters allows us to obtain resolved maps of H$α$-emitting regions with an angular resolution of 0.1--0.2~arcsec, which corresponds to $\sim1$ kpc at $z\sim2.5$. Based on stacking analyses, we compare radial profiles of star-forming regions and stellar components and find that the star-forming region of a sub-sample with $\rm log(M_*/M_\odot)\sim10-11$ is more extended than the stellar component, indicating the inside-out growth of the structure. This trend is similar to the one for star-forming galaxies in general fields at $z=2-2.5$ obtained with the same observational technique. Our results suggest that the structural evolution of star-forming galaxies at $z=2-2.5$ is mainly driven by internal secular processes irrespective of surrounding environments.

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arXiv2019

Do Galaxy Morphologies Really Affect the Efficiency of Star Formation during the Phase of Galaxy Transition?

Recent simulations predict that the presence of stellar bulge suppress the efficiency of star formation in early-type galaxies, and this `morphological quenching' scenario is supported by many observations. In this study, we discuss the net effect of galaxy morphologies on the star formation efficiency (SFE) during the phase of galaxy transition, on the basis of our CO($J=1-0$) observations of 28 local `green-valley' galaxies with the Nobeyama 45m Radio Telescope. We observed 13 `disk-dominated' and 15 `bulge-dominated' green-valley galaxies at fixed stellar mass ($M_*$) and star formation rate (SFR), supplemented by 1 disk- and 6 bulge-dominated galaxies satisfying the same criteria from the xCOLD~GASS survey. By using a total of 35 green-valley galaxies, we reveal that the distributions of molecular gas mass, molecular gas fraction, and SFE of green-valley galaxies do not change with their morphologies, suggesting little impact of galaxy morphologies on their SFE, and interestingly this result is also valid for normal star-forming galaxies on the SF main-sequence selected from the xCOLD~GASS galaxies. On the other hand, we find that $\sim$20 % of bulge-dominated green-valley galaxies do not show significant CO emission line, showing high SFEs for their M$_*$ and SFR. These molecular gas deficient sources identified only in the bulge-dominated green-valley galaxies may represent an important population during the quenching phase under the influence of stellar bulge, but our results suggest that the presence of stellar bulge does not decrease the efficiency of on-going star formation, in contrast to the prediction of the morphological quenching scenario.

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arXiv2018

MAHALO Deep Cluster Survey II. Characterizing massive forming galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster at z=2.2

This paper is the second in a series presenting the results of our deep H$α$-line survey towards protoclusters at $z>2$, based on narrow-band imaging with the Subaru Telescope. This work investigates massive galaxies in a protocluster region associated with a radio galaxy (PKS 1138$-$262), the Spiderweb galaxy, at $z=2.2$. Our 0.5 mag deeper narrow-band imaging than previous surveys collects a total of 68 H$α$ emitters (HAE). 17 out of the 68 are newly discovered protocluster members. First, a very high characteristic stellar mass of M$_\star^\ast=10^{11.73}$ M$_\odot$ is measured from a Schechter function fit to the mass distribution of HAEs. Together with the Chandra X-ray data, we find that four out of six massive HAEs (M$_\star>10^{11}$ M$_\odot$) show bright X-ray emission, suggesting that they host active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Their mass estimates, therefore, would be affected by the nuclear emission from AGNs. Notably, the X-ray detected HAEs are likely positioned near the boundary between star-forming and quiescent populations in the rest-frame $UVJ$ plane. Moreover, our deep narrow-band data succeed in probing the bright H$α$ (+[Nii]) line nebula of the Spiderweb galaxy extending over $\sim100$ physical kpc. These results suggest that the massive galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster are on the way to becoming the bright red sequence objects seen in local galaxy clusters, where AGNs might play an essential role in their quenching processes. Though a more statistical database is needed to build a general picture.

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arXiv2018

Molecular gas reservoirs in cluster galaxies at z=1.46

We present molecular gas reservoirs of eighteen galaxies associated with the XMMXCS J2215.9-1738 cluster at z=1.46. From Band 7 and Band 3 data of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we detect dust continuum emission at 870 um and CO J=2-1 emission line from 8 and 17 member galaxies respectively within a cluster-centric radius of $R_{200}$. The molecular gas masses derived from the CO and/or dust continuum luminosities show that the fraction of molecular gas mass and the depletion time scale for the cluster galaxies are larger than expected from the scaling relations of molecular gas on stellar mass and offset from the main sequence of star-forming galaxies in general fields. The galaxies closer to the cluster center in terms of both projected position and accretion phase seem to show a larger deviation from the scaling relations. We speculate that the environment of galaxy cluster helps feed the gas through inflow to the member galaxies and also reduce the efficiency of star formation. The stacked Band 3 spectrum of 12 quiescent galaxies with stellar mass $\sim10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ within 0.5$R_{200}$ shows no detection of CO emission line, giving the upper limit of molecular gas mass and molecular gas fraction to be $<10^{10}$ M$_\odot$ and $<10$%, respectively. Therefore, the massive galaxies in the cluster core quench the star formation activity while consuming most of the gas reservoirs.

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arXiv2017

MAHALO Deep Cluster Survey I. Accelerated and enhanced galaxy formation in the densest regions of a protocluster at z=2.5

We carried out deep H$α$ narrowband imaging with 10 hours net integrations towards the young protocluster, USS1558$-$003 at $z=2.53$ with the Subaru Telescope. This system is composed of four dense groups with massive local overdensities, traced by 107 H$α$ emitters (HAEs) with stellar masses and dust-corrected star formation rates down to $1\times10^8$ M$_\odot$ and 3 M$_\odot$yr$^{-1}$, respectively. We have investigated the environmental dependence of various physical properties within the protocluster by comparing distributions of HAEs in higher and lower densities with a standard Kolmogorov--Smirnov test. At 97\% confidence level, we find enhanced star formation across the star-forming main sequence of HAEs living in the most extreme `supergroup', corresponding to the top quartile of overdensities. Furthermore, we derive distribution functions of H$α$ luminosity and stellar mass in group and intergroup regions, approximately corresponding to 30 times and 8 times higher densities than the general field. As a consequence, we identify by 0.7 and 0.9 dex higher cutoffs in H$α$ luminosity and stellar mass functions in the dense groups, respectively. On the other hand, HAEs in the intergroup environment of the protocluster show similar distribution functions to those of field galaxies despite residing in significant overdensities. In the early phase of cluster formation, as inferred from our results, the densest parts in the protocluster have had an accelerated formation of massive galaxies. We expect that these eventually grow and transform into early-type galaxies at the bright end of the red sequence as seen in present-day rich clusters of galaxies.

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arXiv2017

The interstellar medium in [OIII]-selected star-forming galaxies at $z\sim3.2$

We present new results from near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck/MOSFIRE of [OIII]-selected galaxies at $z\sim3.2$. With our $H$ and $K$-band spectra, we investigate the interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, such as ionization states and gas metallicities. [OIII] emitters at $z\sim3.2$ show a typical gas metallicity of $\mathrm{12+log(O/H) = 8.07\pm0.07}$ at $\mathrm{log(M_*/M_\odot) \sim 9.0-9.2}$ and $\mathrm{12+log(O/H) = 8.31\pm0.04}$ at $\mathrm{log(M_*/M_\odot) \sim 9.7-10.2}$ when using the empirical calibration method. We compare the [OIII] emitters at $z\sim3.2$ with UV-selected galaxies and Ly$α$ emitters at the same epoch and find that the [OIII]-based selection does not appear to show any systematic bias in the selection of star-forming galaxies. Moreover, comparing with star-forming galaxies at $z\sim2$ from literature, our samples show similar ionization parameters and gas metallicities as those obtained by the previous studies using the same calibration method. We find no strong redshift evolution in the ISM conditions between $z\sim3.2$ and $z\sim2$. Considering that the star formation rates at a fixed stellar mass also do not significantly change between the two epochs, our results support the idea that the stellar mass is the primary quantity to describe the evolutionary stages of individual galaxies at $z>2$.

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arXiv2017

A universal correlation between star-formation activity and molecular gas properties across environments

We present the molecular gas mass fraction ($f_\mathrm{H_2}$) and star-formation efficiency (SFE) of local galaxies on the basis of our new CO($J=1-0$) observations with the Nobeyama 45m radio telescope, combined with the COLDGASS galaxy catalog, as a function of galaxy environment defined as the local number density of galaxies measured with SDSS DR7 spectroscopic data. Our sample covers a wide range in the stellar mass and SFR, and covers wide environmental range over two orders of magnitude. This allows us to conduct the first, systematic study of environmental dependence of molecular gas properties in galaxies from the lowest- to the highest-density environments in the local universe. We confirm that both $f_\mathrm{H_2}$ and SFE have strong positive correlations with the SFR offset from the star-forming main sequence ($Δ$MS), and most importantly, we find that these correlations are universal across all environments. Our result demonstrates that star-formation activity within individual galaxies is primarily controlled by their molecular gas content, regardless of their global environment. Therefore, we claim that one always needs to be careful about the $Δ$MS distribution of the sample when investigating the environmental effects on the H$_2$ gas content in galaxies.

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arXiv2017

Evolutionary phases of gas-rich galaxies in a galaxy cluster at z=1.46

We report a survey of molecular gas in galaxies in the XMMXCS J2215.9-1738 cluster at $z=1.46$. We have detected emission lines from 17 galaxies within a radius of $R_{200}$ from the cluster center, in Band 3 data of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) with a coverage of 93 -- 95 GHz in frequency and 2.33 arcmin$^2$ in spatial direction. The lines are all identified as CO $J$=2--1 emission lines from cluster members at $z\sim1.46$ by their redshifts and the colors of their optical and near-infrared (NIR) counterparts. The line luminosities reach down to $L'_{\rm CO(2-1)}=4.5\times10^{9}$ K km s$^{-1}$ pc$^2$. The spatial distribution of galaxies with a detection of CO(2--1) suggests that they disappear from the very center of the cluster. The phase-space diagram showing relative velocity versus cluster-centric distance indicates that the gas-rich galaxies have entered the cluster more recently than the gas-poor star-forming galaxies and passive galaxies located in the virialized region of this cluster. The results imply that the galaxies have experienced ram-pressure stripping and/or strangulation during the course of infall towards the cluster center and then the molecular gas in the galaxies at the cluster center is depleted by star formation.

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arXiv2017

Rotating starburst cores in massive galaxies at z=2.5

We present spatially resolved ALMA observations of the CO J=3-2 emission line in two massive galaxies at z=2.5 on the star-forming main sequence. Both galaxies have compact dusty star-forming cores with effective radii of Re=1.3 kpc and Re=1.2 kpc in the 870 um continuum emission. The spatial extent of star-forming molecular gas is also compact with Re=1.9 kpc and Re=2.3 kpc, but more extended than the dust emission. Interpreting the observed position-velocity diagrams with dynamical models, we find the starburst cores to be rotation-dominated with the ratio of the maximum rotation velocity to the local velocity dispersion of v/sigma=7.0 (v=386 km/s) and v/sigma_0=4.1 (v=391 km/s). Given that the descendants of these massive galaxies in the local universe are likely ellipticals with v/sigma nearly an order of magnitude lower, the rapidly rotating galaxies would lose significant net angular momentum in the intervening time. The comparisons among dynamical, stellar, gas, and dust mass suggest that the starburst CO-to-H2 conversion factor of alpha_CO=0.8 Msun/(K km/s/pc2) is appropriate in the spatially resolved cores. The dense cores are likely to be formed in extreme environments similar to the central regions of local ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Our work also demonstrates that a combination of medium-resolution CO and high-resolution dust continuum observations is a powerful tool for characterizing the dynamical state of molecular gas in distant galaxies.

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arXiv2017

Direct evidence for Ly$α$ depletion in the protocluster core

We have carried out a panoramic Ly$α$ narrowband imaging with Suprime-Cam on Subaru towards the known protocluster USS1558--003 at $z=2.53$. Our previous narrowband imaging at near-infrared has identified multiple dense groups of H$α$ emitters (HAEs) within the protocluster. We have now identified the large-scale structures across a $\sim$50 comoving Mpc scale traced by Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) in which the protocluster traced by the HAEs is embedded. On a smaller scale, however, there are remarkably few LAEs in the regions of HAE overdensities. Moreover, the stacking analyses of the images show that HAEs in higher-density regions show systematically lower escape fractions of Ly$α$ photons than those of HAEs in lower-density regions. These phenomena may be driven by the extra depletion of Ly$α$ emission lines along our line of sight by more intervening cold circumgalactic/intergalactic medium and/or dust existing in the dense core. We also caution that all the past high-$z$ protocluster surveys using LAEs as the tracers would have largely missed galaxies in the very dense cores of the protoclusters where we would expect to see any early environmental effects.

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arXiv2017

Similarities and uniqueness of Ly$α$ emitters among star-forming galaxies at z=2.5

We conducted a deep narrow-band imaging survey with the Subaru Prime Focus Camera on the Subaru Telescope and constructed a sample of Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) at z=2.53 in the UDS-CANDELS field where a sample of H$α$ emitters (HAEs) at the same redshift is already obtained from our previous narrow-band observation at NIR. The deep narrow-band and multi broadband data allow us to find LAEs of stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFRs) down to $\gtrsim$$10^8$ M$_\odot$ and $\gtrsim$0.2 M$_\odot$/yr, respectively. We show that the LAEs are located along the same mass-SFR sequence traced by normal star-forming galaxies such as HAEs, but towards a significantly lower mass regime. Likewise, LAEs seem to share the same mass--size relation with typical star-forming galaxies, except for the massive LAEs, which tend to show significantly compact sizes. We identify a vigorous mass growth in the central part of LAEs: the stellar mass density in the central region of LAEs increases as their total galaxy mass grows. On the other hand, we see no Ly$α$ line in emission for most of the HAEs. Rather, we find that the Ly$α$ feature is either absent or in absorption (Ly$α$ absorbers; LAAs), and its absorption strength may increase with reddening of the UV continuum slope. We demonstrate that a deep Ly$α$ narrow-band imaging like this study is able to search for not only LAEs but also LAAs in a certain redshift slice. This work suggests that LAEs trace normal star-forming galaxies in the low-mass regime, while they remain as a unique population because the majority of HAEs are not LAEs.

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arXiv2016

Bulge-forming galaxies with an extended rotating disk at z~2

We present 0".2-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations at 870 um for 25 Halpha-seleced star-forming galaxies (SFGs) around the main-sequence at z=2.2-2.5. We detect significant 870 um continuum emission in 16 (64%) of these SFGs. The high-resolution maps reveal that the dust emission is mostly radiated from a single region close to the galaxy center. Exploiting the visibility data taken over a wide $uv$ distance range, we measure the half-light radii of the rest-frame far-infrared emission for the best sample of 12 massive galaxies with logM*>11. We find nine galaxies to be associated with extremely compact dust emission with R_{1/2,870um}<1.5 kpc, which is more than a factor of 2 smaller than their rest-optical sizes, R_{1/2,1.6um}=3.2 kpc, and is comparable with optical sizes of massive quiescent galaxies at similar redshifts. As they have an exponential disk with Sersic index of n=1.2 in the rest-optical, they are likely to be in the transition phase from extended disks to compact spheroids. Given their high star formation rate surface densities within the central 1 kpc of Sigma SFR1kpc=40 Msol/yr/kpc^2, the intense circumnuclear starbursts can rapidly build up a central bulge with Sigma M*1kpc>1e10 Msol/kpc^2 in several hundred Myr, i.e. by z~2. Moreover, ionized gas kinematics reveal that they are rotation-supported with an angular momentum as large as that of typical SFGs at z=1-3. Our results suggest bulges are commonly formed in extended rotating disks by internal processes, not involving major mergers.

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arXiv2016

Enhanced Star Formation of Less Massive Galaxies in a Proto-Cluster at z=2.5

We investigate a correlation between star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass for Halpha emission line galaxies (HAEs) in one of the richest proto-clusters ever known at z~2.5, USS 1558-003 proto-cluster. This study is based on a 9.7-hour narrow-band imaging data with MOIRCS on the Subaru telescope. We are able to construct a sample, in combination with additional H-band data taken with WFC3 on Hubble Space Telescope (HST), of 100 HAEs reaching the dust-corrected SFRs down to 3 Msun/yr and the stellar masses down to $10^{8.0}$ Msun. We find that while the star-forming galaxies with >$10^{9.3}$ Msun are located on the universal SFR-mass main sequence irrespective of the environment, less massive star-forming galaxies with <$10^{9.3}$ Msun show a significant upward scatter from the main sequence in this proto-cluster. This suggests that some less massive galaxies are in a starburst phase, although we do not know yet if this is due to environmental effects.

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arXiv2015

Galaxy formation at z > 3 revealed by narrow-band selected [OIII] emission line galaxies

We present the physical properties of [OIII] emission line galaxies at z>3 as the tracers of active galaxies at 1Gyr before the peak epoch at z~2. We have performed deep narrow-band imaging surveys in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field with MOIRCS on the Subaru Telescope and have constructed coherent samples of 34 [OIII] emitters at z=3.2 and 3.6, as well as 107 H$α$ emitters at z=2.2 and 2.5. We investigate their basic physical quantities, such as stellar masses, star formation rates (SFRs), and sizes using the publicly available multi-wavelength data and high resolution images by the Hubble Space Telescope. The stellar masses and SFRs show a clear correlation known as the "main sequence" of star-forming galaxies. It is found that the location of the main sequence of the [OIII] emitters at z=3.2 and 3.6 is almost identical to that of the H$α$ emitters at z=2.2 and 2.5. Also, we investigate their mass-size relation and find that the relation does not change between the two epochs. When we assume that the star-forming galaxies at z=3.2 grow simply along the same main sequence down to z=2.2, galaxies with $M_* = 10^{9}$-$10^{11} M_{\odot}$ increase their stellar masses significantly by a factor of 10-2. They climb up the main sequence, and their star formation rates also increase a lot as their stellar masses grow. This indicates that star formation activities of galaxies are accelerated from z>3 towards the peak epoch of galaxy formation at z~2.

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arXiv2015

Correlation between star formation activity and electron density of ionized gas at z=2.5

In the redshift interval of $2<z<3$, the physical conditions of the inter-stellar medium (ISM) in star-forming galaxies are likely to be different from those in the local Universe because of lower gaseous metallicities, higher gas fractions, and higher star formation activities. In fact, observations suggest that higher electron densities, higher ionization parameters, and harder UV radiation fields are common. In this paper, based on the spectra of H$α$-selected star-forming galaxies at $z=2.5$ taken with Multi-Object Spectrometer for InfraRed Exploration (MOSFIRE) on Keck-1 telescope, we measure electron densities ($n_e$) using the oxygen line ratio ( [OII]$λλ$3726,3729), and investigate the relationships between the electron density of ionized gas and other physical properties. As a result, we find that the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and the surface density of SFR ($Σ_\mathrm{SFR}$) are correlated with the electron density at $z=2.5$ for the first time. The $Σ_\mathrm{SFR}-n_e$ relation is likely to be linked to the star formation law in HII regions (where star formation activity is regulated by interstellar pressure). Moreover, we discuss the mode of star formation in those galaxies. The correlation between sSFR and $Σ_\mathrm{SFR}$ suggests that highly star-forming galaxies (with high sSFR) tend to be characterized by higher surface densities of star formation ($Σ_\mathrm{SFR}$) and thus higher $n_e$ values as well.

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