An Alternate Approach to Measure Specific Star Formation Rates at 2 < z < 7
Abstract
We trace the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of massive star-forming galaxies (≳ (10)^(10) M_⊙) from z ~ 2 to 7. Our method is substantially different from previous analyses, as it does not rely on direct estimates of star formation rate, but on the differential evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF). We show the reliability of this approach by means of semianalytical and hydrodynamical cosmological simulations. We then apply it to real data, using the SMFs derived in the COSMOS and CANDELS fields. We find that the sSFR is proportional to (1+z)^(1.1 ± 0.2) at z > 2, in agreement with other observations but in tension with the steeper evolution predicted by simulations from z ~ 4 to 2. We investigate the impact of several sources of observational bias, which, however, cannot account for this discrepancy. Although the SMF of high-redshift galaxies is still affected by significant errors, we show that future large-area surveys will substantially reduce them, making our method an effective tool to probe the massive end of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies.
Additional Information
© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2017 September 6; revised 2017 November 13; accepted 2017 December 11; published 2018 January 12. We thank Paola Santini for providing their data in a convenient digital format and Bahram Mobasher for his useful comments. This work is based on observations and archival data made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research is also based on data collected at the Subaru Telescope and retrieved from the HSC data archive system, which is operated by the Subaru Telescope and Astronomy Data Center at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. O.I. acknowledges funding of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for the SAGACE project. We acknowledge the financial support the COSMOS team receives from the Centre National d'Études Spatiales.Attached Files
Published - Davidzon_2018_ApJ_852_107.pdf
Submitted - 1712.03959
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:ce3c85376ffa29da6d883a96000c1a8e
|
648.8 kB | Download |
md5:27d22212b53f0ff2694576abe085a71a
|
948.3 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 84291
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180112-092947647
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR)
- Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
- Created
-
2018-01-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), COSMOS