19 research outputs found

    The Outstanding Decisions of the United States Supreme Court in 1954

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    We perform a kinematic and morphological analysis of 44 star-forming galaxies at z ̃ 2 in the COSMOS legacy field using near-infrared spectroscopy from Keck/MOSFIRE and F160W imaging from CANDELS/3D-HST as part of the ZFIRE survey. Our sample consists of cluster and field galaxies from 2.0 < z < 2.5 with K-band multi-object slit spectroscopic measurements of their Hα emission lines. Hα rotational velocities and gas velocity dispersions are measured using the Heidelberg Emission Line Algorithm (HELA), which compares directly to simulated 3D data cubes. Using a suite of simulated emission lines, we determine that HELA reliably recovers input S 0.5 and angular momentum at small offsets, but V 2.2/σ g values are offset and highly scattered. We examine the role of regular and irregular morphology in the stellar mass kinematic scaling relations, deriving the kinematic measurement S 0.5, and finding {log}({S}0.5)=(0.38+/- 0.07){log}(M/{M}☉ -10)+(2.04+/- 0.03) with no significant offset between morphological populations and similar levels of scatter (̃0.16 dex). Additionally, we identify a correlation between M ⋆ and V 2.2/σ g for the total sample, showing an increasing level of rotation dominance with increasing M ⋆, and a high level of scatter for both regular and irregular galaxies. We estimate the specific angular momenta (j disk) of these galaxies and find a slope of 0.36 ± 0.12, shallower than predicted without mass-dependent disk growth, but this result is possibly due to measurement uncertainty at M ⋆ < 9.5 However, through a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test we find irregular galaxies to have marginally higher j disk values than regular galaxies, and high scatter at low masses in both populations

    ZFOURGE: Extreme 5007AËš\AA emission may be a common early-lifetime phase for star-forming galaxies at z>2.5z > 2.5

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    Using the \prospector\ spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code, we analyze the properties of 19 Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs) identified in the bluest composite SED in the \zfourge\ survey at 2.5≤z≤42.5 \leq z \leq 4. \prospector\ includes a physical model for nebular emission and returns probability distributions for stellar mass, stellar metallicity, dust attenuation, and nonparametric star formation history (SFH). The EELGs show evidence for a starburst in the most recent 50 Myr, with the median EELG having a specific star formation rate (sSFR) of 4.6 Gyr−1^{-1} and forming 15\% of its mass in this short time. For a sample of more typical star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at the same redshifts, the median SFG has a sSFR of 1.1 Gyr−1^{-1} and forms only 4%4\% of its mass in the last 50 Myr. We find that virtually all of our EELGs have rising SFHs, while most of our SFGs do not. From our analysis, we hypothesize that many, if not most, star-forming galaxies at z≥2.5z \geq 2.5 undergo an extreme Hβ\beta+[\hbox{{\rm O}\kern 0.1em{\sc iii}}] emission line phase early in their lifetimes. In a companion paper, we obtain spectroscopic confirmation of the EELGs as part of our {\sc MOSEL} survey. In the future, explorations of uncertainties in modeling the UV slope for galaxies at z>2z>2 are needed to better constrain their properties, e.g. stellar metallicities.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures (main figure is fig 5), accepted for publication in Ap

    Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies

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    We present Keck-MOSFIRE H and K spectra for a sample of 24 candidate quiescent galaxies (QGs) at 3<z<4, identified from UVJ colors and photometric redshifts in the ZFOURGE and 3DHST surveys. We obtain spectroscopic redshifts for half of the sample, using absorption or emission lines, and confirm the high accuracy of the photometric redshifts with a median error of 1.2%. Two galaxies turn out to be dusty objects at lower redshifts (z<2.5), and are the only two detected in the sub-mm with ALMA. High equivalent-width [OIII] was observed in two galaxies, contributing up to 30% of the K-band flux and mimicking the colors of an old stellar population. This implies a failure rate of only 20% for the UVJ selection at these redshifts. Balmer absorption was identified in 4 of the brighest galaxies, confirming the absence of OB stars. Modeling all QGs with a wide range of star-formation histories, we find sSFR a factor of 10 below the main sequence (MS) for all but one galaxy, and less than 0.01 Gyr−1^{-1} for half of the sample. This is consistent with the Hβ\beta and [OII] luminosities, and the ALMA non-detections. We then find that these QGs have quenched on average 300 Myr before observation, between z=3.5 and 5, and that they formed at z~5.5 with a mean SFR~300 Msun/yr. Considering an alternative selection of QGs based solely on the sSFR from SED modeling, we find that galaxies a factor 10 below the MS are 40% more numerous than UVJ-quiescent galaxies, implying that the UVJ selection is pure but incomplete. Current models fail at reproducing our observations and underestimate either the number density of QGs by more than an order of magnitude or the duration of their quiescence by a factor two. Overall, these results confirm the existence of an unexpected population of QGs at z>3, and offer the first insights on their formation history. [abridged]Comment: 30 pages (+ appendix), 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&

    Consistent dynamical and stellar masses with potential light IMF in massive quiescent galaxies at 3<z<43 < z < 4 using velocity dispersions measurements with MOSFIRE

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    We present the velocity dispersion measurements of four massive ∼1011M⊙\sim10^{11}M_\odot quiescent galaxies at 3.2<z<3.73.2 < z < 3.7 based on deep H and K−-band spectra using the Keck/MOSFIRE near-infrared spectrograph. We find high velocity dispersions of order σe∼250\sigma_e\sim250 km/s based on strong Balmer absorption lines and combine these with size measurements based on HST/WFC3 F160W imaging to infer dynamical masses. The velocity dispersion are broadly consistent with the high stellar masses and small sizes. Together with evidence for quiescent stellar populations, the spectra confirm the existence of a population of massive galaxies that formed rapidly and quenched in the early universe z>4z>4. Investigating the evolution at constant velocity dispersion between z∼3.5z\sim3.5 and z∼2z\sim2, we find a large increase in effective radius 0.35±0.120.35\pm0.12 dex and in dynamical-to-stellar mass ratio of 0.33$\pm0.08$ dex, with low expected contribution from dark matter. The dynamical masses for our $z\sim3.5$ sample are consistent with the stellar masses for a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF), with the ratio = -0.13±\pm0.10 dex suggesting an IMF lighter than Salpeter may be common for massive quiescent galaxies at z>3z>3. This is surprising in light of the Salpeter or heavier IMFs found for high velocity dispersion galaxies at z∼2z\sim2 and cores of present-day ellipticals, which these galaxies are thought to evolve into. Future imaging and spectroscopic observations with resolved kinematics using the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could rule out potential systematics from rotation, and confirm these results.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Accepted to ApJ Letter

    MOSEL: Strong [OIII]5007 \AA\ Emitting Galaxies at (3<z<4) from the ZFOURGE Survey

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    To understand how strong emission line galaxies (ELGs) contribute to the overall growth of galaxies and star formation history of the universe, we target Strong ELGs (SELGs) from the ZFOURGE imaging survey that have blended (Hb+[OIII]) rest-frame equivalent widths of >230A and 2.5<zphot<4.0. Using Keck/MOSFIRE, we measure 49 redshifts for galaxies brighter than Ks=25 mag as part of our Multi-Object Spectroscopic Emission Line (MOSEL) survey. Our spectroscopic success rate is ~53% and zphot uncertainty is sigma_z= [Delta(z)/(1+z)]=0.0135. We confirm 31 ELGs at 3<zspec<3.8 and show that Strong ELGs have spectroscopic rest-frame [OIII]5007A equivalent widths of 100-500A and tend to be lower mass systems [log(Mstar/Msun)~8.2-9.6] compared to more typical star-forming galaxies. The Strong ELGs lie ~0.9 dex above the star-forming main-sequence at z~3.5 and have high inferred gas fractions of fgas~>60%, i.e. the inferred gas masses can easily fuel a starburst to double stellar masses within ~10-100 Myr. Combined with recent results using ZFOURGE, our analysis indicates that 1) strong [OIII]5007A emission signals an early episode of intense stellar growth in low mass (Mstar<0.1M*) galaxies and 2) many, if not most, galaxies at z>3 go through this starburst phase. If true, low-mass galaxies with strong [OIII]5007A emission (EW_rest>200A) may be an increasingly important source of ionizing UV radiation at z>3.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, in pres

    First Data Release of the COSMOS Ly alpha Mapping and Tomography Observations: 3D Ly alpha Forest Tomography at 2.05 < z < 2.55

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    Faint star-forming galaxies at z ~ 2–3 can be used as alternative background sources to probe the Lyα forest in addition to quasars, yielding high sightline densities that enable 3D tomographic reconstruction of the foreground absorption field. Here, we present the first data release from the COSMOS Lyα Mapping And Tomography Observations (CLAMATO) Survey, which was conducted with the LRIS spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. Over an observational footprint of 0.157 deg2 within the COSMOS field, we used 240 galaxies and quasars at 2.17 < z < 3.00, with a mean comoving transverse separation of 2.37 h−1 Mpc2.37\,{h}^{-1}\,\mathrm{Mpc}, as background sources probing the foreground Lyα forest absorption at 2.05 < z < 2.55. The Lyα forest data was then used to create a Wiener-filtered tomographic reconstruction over a comoving volume of 3.15 ×105 h−3 Mpc33.15\,\times {10}^{5}\,{h}^{-3}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{3} with an effective smoothing scale of 2.5 h−1 Mpc2.5\,{h}^{-1}\,\mathrm{Mpc}. In addition to traditional figures, this map is also presented as a virtual-reality visualization and manipulable interactive figure. We see large overdensities and underdensities that visually agree with the distribution of coeval galaxies from spectroscopic redshift surveys in the same field, including overdensities associated with several recently discovered galaxy protoclusters in the volume. Quantitatively, the map signal-to-noise is S/Nwiener≈3.4{\rm{S}}/{{\rm{N}}}^{\mathrm{wiener}}\approx 3.4 over a 3 h −1Mpc top-hat kernel based on the variances estimated from the Wiener filter. This data release includes the redshift catalog, reduced spectra, extracted Lyα forest pixel data, and reconstructed tomographic map of the absorption. These can be downloaded from Zenodo (10.5281/zenodo.1292459)

    Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3 ≤ z ≤ 4 quiescent galaxies

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    We present Keck–MOSFIRE H and K spectra for a sample of 24 candidate quiescent galaxies at 3 &lt; z &lt; 4, identified from their rest-frame UVJ colors and photometric redshifts in the ZFOURGE and 3DHST surveys. With median integration times of one hour in H and five in K, we obtain spectroscopic redshifts for half of the sample, using either Balmer absorption lines or nebular emission lines. We confirm the high accuracy of the photometric redshifts for this spectroscopically-confirmed sample, with a median |Zphot − Zspec|/(1 + Zspec) of 1.2%. Two galaxies turn out to be dusty Hα emitters at lower redshifts (z &lt; 2.5), and these are the only two detected in the sub-mm with ALMA. High equivalent-width [O III] emission is observed in two galaxies, contributing up to 30% of the K-band flux and mimicking the UVJ colors of an old stellar population. This implies a failure rate of only 20% for the UVJ selection at these redshifts. Lastly, Balmer absorption features are identified in four galaxies, among the brightest of the sample, confirming the absence of OB stars. We then modeled the spectra and photometry of all quiescent galaxies with a wide range of star-formation histories. We find specific star-formation rates (sSFR) lower than 0.15 Gyr−1 (a factor of ten below the main sequence) for all but one galaxy, and lower than 0.01 Gyr−1 for half of the sample. These values are consistent with the observed Hβ and [O II] luminosities, and the ALMA non-detections. The implied formation histories reveal that these galaxies have quenched on average 300 Myr prior to being observed, between z  =  3.5 and 5, and that half of their stars were formed by z ∼ 5.5 with a mean SFR ~ 300 M⊙ yr−1. We finally compared the UVJ selection to a selection based instead on the sSFR, as measured from the photometry. We find that galaxies a factor of ten below the main sequence are 40% more numerous than UVJ-selected quiescent galaxies, implying that the UVJ selection is pure but incomplete. Current models fail at reproducing our observations, and underestimate either the number density of quiescent galaxies by more than an order of magnitude, or the duration of their quiescence by a factor two. Overall, these results confirm the existence of an unexpected population of quiescent galaxies at z &gt; 3, and offer the first insights on their formation histories
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