Publication Date:
2018-01-01
Description:
The analysis of galaxies on the star formation rate-stellar mass (SFR–M∗) plane is a powerful diagnostic for galaxy evolution at different cosmic times. We consider a sample of 24 463 galaxies from the CANDELS/GOODS-S survey to conduct a detailed analysis of the SFR–M∗ relation at redshifts 0.5 ⩽ z −9.8, similarly to what is typically done in the literature; 2) a multi-Gaussian decomposition to identify the galaxy main sequence (MS), the starburst sequence and the quenched galaxy cloud. We find that the MS slope becomes flatter when higher stellar mass cuts are adopted, and that the apparent slope change observed at high masses depends on the SFR estimation method. In addition, the multi-Gaussian decomposition reveals the presence of a starburst population which increases towards low stellar masses and high redshifts. We find that starbursts make up ~ 5% of all galaxies at z = 0.5−1.0, while they account for ~ 16% of galaxies at 2
Print ISSN:
0004-6361
Electronic ISSN:
1432-0746
Topics:
Physics
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