ALBERT

Description: We identify an abundant population of extreme emission line galaxies at redshift z=1.6 - 1.8 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) imaging from Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3). 69 candidates are selected by the large contribution of exceptionally bright emission lines to their near-infrared, broad-band fluxes. Supported by spectroscopic confirmation of strong [OIII] emission lines - with equivalent widths approximately 1000A - in the four candidates that have HST/WFC3 grism observations, we conclude that these objects are dwarf galaxies with approximately 10(exp 8) solar mass in stellar mass, undergoing an enormous star-burst phase with M*/M* of only approximately 10 Myr. The star formation activity and the co-moving number density (3.7 x 10(exp -4) Mpc(exp -3)) imply that strong, short-lived bursts play a significant, perhaps even dominant role in the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies at z greater than 1. The observed star formation activity can produce in less than 5 Gyr the same amount of stellar mass density as is presently contained in dwarf galaxies. Therefore, our observations provide a strong indication that the stellar populations of present-day dwarf galaxies formed mainly in strong, short-lived bursts, mostly at z greater than 1.

Description: We identify an abundant population of extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift z approx. 1.7 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) imaging from Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3). 69 EELG candidates are selected by the large contribution of exceptionally bright emission lines to their near-infrared broad-band magnitudes. Supported by spectroscopic confirmation of strong [OIII] emission lines . with rest-frame equivalent widths approx. 1000A in the four candidates that have HST/WFC3 grism observations, we conclude that these objects are galaxies with approx.10(exp 8) Solar Mass in stellar mass, undergoing an enormous starburst phase with M*/M* of only approx. 15 Myr. These bursts may cause outflows that are strong enough to produce cored dark matter profiles in low-mass galaxies. The individual star formation rates and the co-moving number density (3.7x10(exp -4) Mpc(sup -3) can produce in approx.4 Gyr much of the stellar mass density that is presently contained in 10(exp 8) - 10(exp 9) Solar Mass dwarf galaxies. Therefore, our observations provide a strong indication that many or even most of the stars in present-day dwarf galaxies formed in strong, short-lived bursts, mostly at z 〉 1.

Description: Spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift (z) range 0 〈 z 〈 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, effective radius is in proportion to (1 + z) (sup 1.48), and moderate evolution for the late-type population, effective radius is in proportion to (1 + z) (sup 0.75). The large sample size and dynamic range in both galaxy mass and redshift, in combination with the high fidelity of our measurements due to the extensive use of spectroscopic data, not only fortify previous results, but also enable us to probe beyond simple average galaxy size measurements. At all redshifts the slope of the size-mass relation is shallow, effective radius in proportion to mass of a black hole (sup 0.22), for late-type galaxies with stellar mass 〉 3 x 10 (sup 9) solar masses, and steep, effective radius in proportion to mass of a black hole (sup 0.75), for early-type galaxies with stellar mass 〉 2 x 10 (sup 10) solar masses. The intrinsic scatter is approximately or less than 0.2 decimal exponents for all galaxy types and redshifts. For late-type galaxies, the logarithmic size distribution is not symmetric, but skewed toward small sizes: at all redshifts and masses a tail of small late-type galaxies exists that overlaps in size with the early-type galaxy population. The number density of massive (approximately 10 (sup 11) solar masses), compact (effective radius less than 2 kiloparsecs) early-type galaxies increases from z = 3 to z = 1.5 2 and then strongly decreases at later cosmic times.