492 research outputs found
The spectral energy distribution of galaxies at z > 2.5: Implications from the Herschel/SPIRE color-color diagram
We use the Herschel SPIRE color-color diagram to study the spectral energy
distribution (SED) and the redshift estimation of high-z galaxies. We compiled
a sample of 57 galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts and SPIRE
detections in all three bands at , and compared their average SPIRE
colors with SED templates from local and high-z libraries. We find that local
SEDs are inconsistent with high-z observations. The local calibrations of the
parameters need to be adjusted to describe the average colors of high-z
galaxies. For high-z libraries, the templates with an evolution from z=0 to 3
can well describe the average colors of the observations at high redshift.
Using these templates, we defined color cuts to divide the SPIRE color-color
diagram into different regions with different mean redshifts. We tested this
method and two other color cut methods using a large sample of 783
Herschel-selected galaxies, and find that although these methods can separate
the sample into populations with different mean redshifts, the dispersion of
redshifts in each population is considerably large. Additional information is
needed for better sampling.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Ultraviolet to infrared emission of z>1 galaxies: Can we derive reliable star formation rates and stellar masses?
We seek to derive star formation rates (SFR) and stellar masses (M_star) in
distant galaxies and to quantify the main uncertainties affecting their
measurement. We explore the impact of the assumptions made in their derivation
with standard calibrations or through a fitting process, as well as the impact
of the available data, focusing on the role of IR emission originating from
dust. We build a sample of galaxies with z>1, all observed from the UV to the
IR (rest frame). The data are fitted with the code CIGALE, which is also used
to build and analyse a catalogue of mock galaxies. Models with different SFHs
are introduced. We define different set of data, with or without a good
sampling of the UV range, NIR, and thermal IR data. The impact of these
different cases on the determination of M_star and SFR are analysed.
Exponentially decreasing models with a redshift formation of the stellar
population z ~8 cannot fit the data correctly. The other models fit the data
correctly at the price of unrealistically young ages when the age of the single
stellar population is taken to be a free parameter. The best fits are obtained
with two stellar populations. As long as one measurement of the dust emission
continuum is available, SFR are robustly estimated whatever the chosen model
is, including standard recipes. M_star measurement is more subject to
uncertainty, depending on the chosen model and the presence of NIR data, with
an impact on the SFR-M_star scatter plot. Conversely, when thermal IR data from
dust emission are missing, the uncertainty on SFR measurements largely exceeds
that of stellar mass. Among all physical properties investigated here, the
stellar ages are found to be the most difficult to constrain and this
uncertainty acts as a second parameter in SFR measurements and as the most
important parameter for M_star measurements.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication A&
De-blending Deep Herschel Surveys: A Multi-wavelength Approach
Cosmological surveys in the far infrared are known to suffer from confusion.
The Bayesian de-blending tool, XID+, currently provides one of the best ways to
de-confuse deep Herschel SPIRE images, using a flat flux density prior. This
work is to demonstrate that existing multi-wavelength data sets can be
exploited to improve XID+ by providing an informed prior, resulting in more
accurate and precise extracted flux densities. Photometric data for galaxies in
the COSMOS field were used to constrain spectral energy distributions (SEDs)
using the fitting tool CIGALE. These SEDs were used to create Gaussian prior
estimates in the SPIRE bands for XID+. The multi-wavelength photometry and the
extracted SPIRE flux densities were run through CIGALE again to allow us to
compare the performance of the two priors. Inferred ALMA flux densities
(F), at 870m and 1250m, from the best fitting SEDs from the
second CIGALE run were compared with measured ALMA flux densities (F) as an
independent performance validation. Similar validations were conducted with the
SED modelling and fitting tool MAGPHYS and modified black body functions to
test for model dependency. We demonstrate a clear improvement in agreement
between the flux densities extracted with XID+ and existing data at other
wavelengths when using the new informed Gaussian prior over the original
uninformed prior. The residuals between F and F were calculated. For
the Gaussian prior, these residuals, expressed as a multiple of the ALMA error
(), have a smaller standard deviation, 7.95 for the Gaussian
prior compared to 12.21 for the flat prior, reduced mean, 1.83
compared to 3.44, and have reduced skew to positive values, 7.97
compared to 11.50. These results were determined to not be significantly model
dependent. This results in statistically more reliable SPIRE flux densities.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&
AKARI/IRC Broadband Mid-infrared data as an indicator of Star Formation Rate
AKARI/Infrared Camera (IRC) Point Source Catalog provides a large amount of
flux data at {\it S9W} () and {\it L18W} ()
bands. With the goal of constructing Star-Formation Rate(SFR) calculations
using IRC data, we analyzed an IR selected
GALEX-SDSS-2MASS-AKARI(IRC/Far-Infrared Surveyor) sample of 153 nearby
galaxies. The far-infrared fluxes were obtained from AKARI diffuse maps to
correct the underestimation for extended sources raised by the point-spread
function photometry. SFRs of these galaxies were derived by the spectral energy
distribution fitting program CIGALE. In spite of complicated features contained
in these bands, both the {\it S9W} and {\it L18W} emission correlate with the
SFR of galaxies. The SFR calibrations using {\it S9W} and {\it L18W} are
presented for the first time. These calibrations agree well with previous works
based on Spitzer data within the scatters, and should be applicable to
dust-rich galaxies.Comment: PASJ, in pres
Globular cluster systems II: On the formation of old globular clusters and their sites of formation
We studied the metal-poor globular cluster (GC) populations of a large
variety of galaxies (47 galaxies spanning about 10mag in absolute brightness)
and compared their mean [Fe/H] with the properties of the host galaxies. The
mean [Fe/H] of the systems lie in the -1.65<[Fe/H]<-1.20 range (74% of the
population). Using only GC systems with more than 6 objects detected, 85% of
the population lie within -1.65<[Fe/H]<-1.20. The relation between the mean
[Fe/H] of the metal-poor GC systems and the Mv of their host galaxies presents
a very low slope which includes zero. An analysis of the correlation of the
mean [Fe/H] with other galaxy properties also leads to the conclusion that no
strong correlation exists. The lack of correlation suggests a formation of all
metal-poor GC in similar gas fragments. A weak correlation might exist between
mean [Fe/H] of the metal-poor GC and host galaxy metallicity. This would imply
that some fragments in which metal-poor GC formed were already embedded in the
larger dark matter halo of the final galaxy (as oppose to being independent
satellites that were accreted later). Our result suggests a homogeneous
formation of metal-poor GC in all galaxies, in typical fragments of masses
around 10^9-10^10 solar masses with very similar metallicities, compatible with
hierarchical formation scenarios for galaxies. We compared the mean [Fe/H] of
the metal-poor GC populations with the typical metallicities of high-z objects.
If we add the constraint that GC need a high column density of gas to form,
DLAs are the most likely sites for the formation of metal-poor GC populations.Comment: accepted for publication in AJ, scheduled for the May 2001 issu
Star formation history of galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 A backward approach to the evolution of star-forming galaxies
We investigate whether the mean star formation activity of star-forming
galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 in the GOODS-S field can be reproduced by simple
evolution models of these systems. In this case, such models might be used as
first order references for studies at higher z to decipher when and to what
extent a secular evolution is sufficient to explain the star formation history
in galaxies.
We selected star-forming galaxies at z=0 and at z=0.7 in IR and in UV to have
access to all the recent star formation. We focused on galaxies with a stellar
mass ranging between 10^{10} and 10^{11} M_sun for which the results are not
biased by the selections. We compared the data to chemical evolution models
developed for spiral galaxies and originally built to reproduce the main
characteristics of the Milky Way and nearby spirals without fine-tuning them
for the present analysis. We find a shallow decrease in the specific star
formation rate (SSFR) when the stellar mass increases. The evolution of the
SSFR characterizing both UV and IR selected galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 is
consistent with the models built to reproduce the present spiral galaxies.
There is no need to strongly modify of the physical conditions in galaxies to
explain the average evolution of their star formation from z=0 to z=0.7. We use
the models to predict the evolution of the star formation rate and the
metallicity on a wider range of redshift and we compare these predictions with
the results of semi-analytical models.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
HerMES: dust attenuation and star formation activity in ultraviolet-selected samples from z 4 to 1.5
We study the link between observed ultraviolet (UV) luminosity, stellar mass and dust attenuation within rest-frame UV-selected samples at z ∼ 4, ∼ 3 and ∼1.5. We measure by stacking at 250, 350 and 500μm in the Herschel/Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver images from the Herschel Multi-Tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) program the average infrared luminosity as a function of stellar mass and UV luminosity. We find that dust attenuation is mostly correlated with stellar mass. There is also a secondary dependence with UV luminosity: at a given UV luminosity, dust attenuation increases with stellar mass, while at a given stellar mass it decreases with UV luminosity. We provide new empirical recipes to correct for dust attenuation given the observed UV luminosity and the stellar mass. Our results also enable us to put new constraints on the average relation between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass at z ∼ 4, ∼3 and ∼1.5. The SFR–stellar mass relations are well described by power laws (SFR ∝ M 0.7∗), with the amplitudes being similar at z ∼ 4 and ∼3, and decreasing by a factor of 4 at z ∼ 1.5 at a given stellar mass. We further investigate the evolution with redshift of the specific SFR. Our results are in the upper range of previous measurements, in particular at z ∼ 3, and are consistent with a plateau at 3 < z < 4. Current model predictions (either analytic, semi-analytic or hydrodynamic) are inconsistent with these values, as they yield lower predictions than the observations in the redshift range we explore. We use these results to discuss the star formation histories of galaxies in the framework of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies. Our results suggest that galaxies at high redshift (2.5 < z < 4) stay around 1 Gyr on the main sequence. With decreasing redshift, this time increases such that z = 1 main-sequence galaxies with 10 8 < M ∗ /Mo < 10 10 stay on the main sequence until z = 0
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