ALBERT

Description: We present evidence for a strong relationship between galaxy size and environment for the quiescent population in the redshift range 1 〈  z  〈 2. Environments were measured using projected galaxy overdensities on a scale of 400 kpc, as determined from ~96 000 K -band-selected galaxies from the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS). Sizes were determined from ground-based K -band imaging, calibrated using space-based CANDELS HST observations in the centre of the UDS field, with photometric redshifts and stellar masses derived from 11-band photometric fitting. From the resulting size–mass relation, we confirm that quiescent galaxies at a given stellar mass were typically ~50 per cent smaller at z  ~ 1.4 compared to the present day. At a given epoch, however, we find that passive galaxies in denser environments are on average significantly larger at a given stellar mass. The most massive quiescent galaxies ( M *  〉 2 10 11  M ) at z  〉 1 are typically 50 per cent larger in the highest density environments compared to those in the lowest density environments. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we reject the null hypothesis that the size–mass relation is independent of environment at a significance 〉4.8 for the redshift range 1 〈  z  〈 2. In contrast, the evidence for a relationship between size and environment is much weaker for star-forming galaxies.

Description: We have exploited the Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) J and H -band Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)/infrared (IR) imaging to study the properties of (sub-)millimetre galaxies within the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey South (GOODS-South) field. After using the deep radio (Very Large Array 1.4 GHz) and Spitzer (Infrared Array Camera 8 μm) imaging to identify galaxy counterparts for the (sub-)millimetre sources, we have then utilized the new CANDELS WFC3/IR imaging in two ways. First, the addition of new deep near-IR photometry from both HST and (at K band) the VLT to the existing GOODS-South data base has enabled us to derive improved photometric redshifts and stellar masses, confirming that the (sub-)millimetre sources are massive (〈 M * 〉 = 2.2  x 10 11  ± 0.2 M ) galaxies at z ~= 1-3. Secondly, we have exploited the depth and resolution of the WFC3/IR imaging to determine the sizes and morphologies of the galaxies at rest-frame optical wavelengths rest  〉 4000 Å. Specifically, we have fitted two-dimensional axisymmetric galaxy models to the WFC3/IR images, varying luminosity, axial ratio, half-light radius r 1/2 and Sérsic index n . Crucially, the wavelength and depth of the WFC3/IR imaging enables modelling of the mass-dominant galaxy, rather than the blue high surface-brightness features which often dominate optical (rest-frame ultraviolet) images of (sub-)millimetre galaxies, and can confuse visual morphological classification. As a result of this analysis, we find that 〉95 per cent of the rest-frame optical light in almost all of the (sub-)millimetre galaxies is well described by either a single exponential disc ( n  ~= 1), or a multiple-component system in which the dominant constituent is disc like. We demonstrate that this conclusion is completely consistent with the results of recent high-quality ground-based K -band imaging sampling even longer rest-frame wavelengths, and explain why it is so. These massive disc galaxies are reasonably extended (〈 r 1/2 〉 = 4.5 ± 0.5 kpc; median r 1/2  = 4.0 kpc), consistent with the sizes of other massive star-forming discs at z  ~= 2. In many cases, we find evidence of blue clumps within the sources, with the mass-dominant disc component becoming more significant at longer wavelengths. Finally, only a minority of the sources show evidence for a major galaxy–galaxy interaction. Taken together, these results support the view that most (sub-)millimetre galaxies at z  ~= 2 are simply the most extreme examples of normal star-forming galaxies at that era. Interestingly, the only two bulge-dominated galaxies are also the two lowest redshift sources in the sample ( z  ~= 1), a result which may reflect the structural evolution of high-mass galaxies in general.

Description: We combine photometry from the Ultra Deep Survey (UDS), Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) UDS and CANDELS the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) surveys to construct the galaxy stellar mass function probing both the low- and high-mass end accurately in the redshift range 0.3 〈  z  〈 3. The advantages of using a homogeneous concatenation of these data sets include meaningful measures of environment in the UDS, due to its large area (0.88 deg 2 ), and the high-resolution deep imaging in CANDELS ( H 160  〉 26.0), affording us robust measures of structural parameters. We construct stellar mass functions for the entire sample as parametrized by the Schechter function, and find that there is a decline in the values of and of α with higher redshifts, and a nearly constant M * up to z  ~ 3. We divide the galaxy stellar mass function by colour, structure, and environment and explore the links between environmental overdensity, morphology, and the quenching of star formation. We find that a double Schechter function describes galaxies with high Sérsic index ( n  〉 2.5), similar to galaxies which are red or passive. The low-mass end of the n  〉 2.5 stellar mass function is dominated by blue galaxies, whereas the high-mass end is dominated by red galaxies. This shows that there is a possible link between morphological evolution and star formation quenching in high mass galaxies, which is not seen in lower mass systems. This in turn suggests that there are strong mass-dependent quenching mechanisms. In addition, we find that the number density of high-mass systems is elevated in dense environments, suggesting that an environmental process is building up massive galaxies quicker in over densities than in lower densities.

Description: We derive the total cold gas, atomic hydrogen, and molecular gas masses of approximately 24 000 galaxies covering four decades in stellar mass at redshifts 0.5 〈 z 〈 3.0, taken from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey survey. Our inferences are based on the inversion of a molecular hydrogen based star formation law, coupled with a prescription to separate atomic and molecular gas. We find that: (1) there is an increasing trend between the inferred cold gas (H i and H 2 ), H i , and H 2 mass and the stellar mass of galaxies down to stellar masses of 10 8 M already in place at z = 3; (2) the molecular fractions of cold gas increase with increasing stellar mass and look-back time; (3) there is hardly any evolution in the mean H i content of galaxies at fixed stellar mass; (4) the cold gas fraction and relative amount of molecular hydrogen in galaxies decrease at a relatively constant rate with time, independent of stellar mass; (5) there is a large population of low stellar mass galaxies dominated by atomic gas. These galaxies are very gas rich, but only a minor fraction of their gas is molecular; 6) the ratio between star formation rate (SFR) and inferred total cold gas mass (H i + H 2 ) of galaxies (i.e. star formation efficiency; SFE) increases with star formation at fixed stellar masses. Due to its simplicity, the presented approach is valuable to assess the impact of selection biases on small samples of directly observed gas masses and to extend scaling relations down to stellar mass ranges and redshifts that are currently difficult to probe with direct measurements of gas content.

Description: We exploit the 7 Ms Chandra observations in the Chandra  Deep Field-South (CDF-S), the deepest X-ray survey to date, coupled with CANDELS/GOODS-S data, to measure the total X-ray emission arising from 2076 galaxies at 3.5 ≤ z 〈 6.5. This aim is achieved by stacking the Chandra data at the positions of optically selected galaxies, reaching effective exposure times of ≥10 9 s. We detect significant (〉3.7) X-ray emission from massive galaxies at z 4. We also report the detection of massive galaxies at z 5 at a 99.7 per cent confidence level (2.7), the highest significance ever obtained for X-ray emission from galaxies at such high redshifts. No significant signal is detected from galaxies at even higher redshifts. The stacking results place constraints on the BHAD associated with the known high-redshift galaxy samples, as well as on the SFRD at high redshift, assuming a range of prescriptions for X-ray emission due to X- ray binaries. We find that the X-ray emission from our sample is likely dominated by processes related to star formation. Our results show that low-rate mass accretion on to SMBHs in individually X-ray-undetected galaxies is negligible, compared with the BHAD measured for samples of X-ray detected AGN, for cosmic SMBH mass assembly at high redshift. We also place, for the first time, constraints on the faint-end of the AGN X-ray luminosity function (logL X ~ 42) at z 〉 4, with evidence for fairly flat slopes. The implications of all of these findings are discussed in the context of the evolution of the AGN population at high redshift.

Description: We have conducted a detailed object-by-object study of a mass-complete ( M *  ≥ 10 11 M ) sample of 56 galaxies at 1.4 ≤  z  ≤ 2 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South field, showing that an accurate deblending in 24 μm images is essential to properly assign to each galaxy its own star formation rate (SFR), whereas an automatic procedure often fails. This applies especially to galaxies with SFRs below the main sequence (MS) value, which may be in their quenching phase. After that, the sample splits evenly between galaxies forming stars within a factor of 4 of the MS rate (~45 per cent), and sub-MS galaxies with SFRs ~10–1000 times smaller (~55 per cent). We did not find a well-defined class of intermediate, transient objects below the MS, suggesting that the conversion of a massive MS galaxy into a quenched remnant may take a relatively short time (〈1 Gyr), though a larger sample should be analysed in the same way to set precise limits on the quenching time-scale. X-ray detected AGNs represent a ~30 per cent fraction of the sample, and are found among both star-forming and quenched galaxies. The morphological analysis revealed that ~50 per cent of our massive objects are bulge-dominated, and almost all MS galaxies with a relevant bulge component host an AGN. We also found sub-MS SFRs in many bulge-dominated systems, providing support to the notion that bulge growth, AGN activity and quenching of star formation are closely related to each other.

Description: Dust-Obscured Galaxies (DOGs) are bright 24 μm-selected sources with extreme obscuration at optical wavelengths. They are typically characterized by a rising power-law continuum of hot dust ( T D  ~ 200–1000 K) in the near-IR indicating that their mid-IR luminosity is dominated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN). DOGs with a fainter 24 μm flux display a stellar bump in the near-IR and their mid-IR luminosity appears to be mainly powered by dusty star formation. Alternatively, it may be that the mid-IR emission arising from AGN activity is dominant but the torus is sufficiently opaque to make the near-IR emission from the AGN negligible with respect to the emission from the host component. In an effort to characterize the astrophysical nature of the processes responsible for the IR emission in DOGs, this paper exploits Herschel data (PACS + SPIRE) on a sample of 95 DOGs within the COSMOS field. We derive a wealth of far-IR properties (e.g. total IR luminosities; mid-to-far-IR colours; dust temperatures and masses) based on spectral energy distribution fitting. Of particular interest are the 24 μm-bright DOGs ( F 24 μm 〉 1 mJy). They present bluer far-IR/mid-IR colours than the rest of the sample, unveiling the potential presence of an AGN. The AGN contribution to the total 8–1000 μm flux increases as a function of the rest-frame 8 μm-luminosity irrespective of the redshift. This confirms that faint DOGs ( L 8 μm 〈 10 12 L ) are dominated by star formation while brighter DOGs show a larger contribution from an AGN.

Description: We present the results of a study investigating the sizes and morphologies of redshift 4 〈 z 〈 8 galaxies in the CANDELS (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) GOODS-S (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey southern field), HUDF ( Hubble Ultra-Deep Field) and HUDF parallel fields. Based on non-parametric measurements and incorporating a careful treatment of measurement biases, we quantify the typical size of galaxies at each redshift as the peak of the lognormal size distribution, rather than the arithmetic mean size. Parametrizing the evolution of galaxy half-light radius as r 50 (1 + z ) n , we find n = –0.20 ± 0.26 at bright UV-luminosities (0.3 L *( z = 3) 〈 L 〈 L * ) and n = –0.47 ± 0.62 at faint luminosities (0.12 L * 〈 L 〈 0.3 L * ). Furthermore, simulations based on artificially redshifting our z ~ 4 galaxy sample show that we cannot reject the null hypothesis of no size evolution. We show that this result is caused by a combination of the size-dependent completeness of high-redshift galaxy samples and the underestimation of the sizes of the largest galaxies at a given epoch. To explore the evolution of galaxy morphology we first compare asymmetry measurements to those from a large sample of simulated single Sérsic profiles, in order to robustly categorize galaxies as either ‘smooth’ or ‘disturbed’. Comparing the disturbed fraction amongst bright ( M 1500 ≤ –20) galaxies at each redshift to that obtained by artificially redshifting our z ~ 4 galaxy sample, while carefully matching the size and UV-luminosity distributions, we find no clear evidence for evolution in galaxy morphology over the redshift interval 4 〈 z 〈 8. Therefore, based on our results, a bright ( M 1500 ≤ –20) galaxy at z ~ 6 is no more likely to be measured as ‘disturbed’ than a comparable galaxy at z ~ 4, given the current observational constraints.

Description: We present star formation histories (SFHs) for a sample of 104 massive (stellar mass M  〉 10 10 M ) quiescent galaxies (MQGs) at z = 1.0–1.5 from the analysis of spectrophotometric data from the Survey for High- z Absorption Red and Dead Sources (SHARDS) and HST /WFC3 G102 and G141 surveys of the GOODS-North field, jointly with broad-band observations from ultraviolet (UV) to far-infrared (far-IR). The sample is constructed on the basis of rest-frame UVJ colours and specific star formation rates (sSFRs = SFR/Mass). The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of each galaxy are compared to models assuming a delayed exponentially declining SFH. A Monte Carlo algorithm characterizes the degeneracies, which we are able to break taking advantage of the SHARDS data resolution, by measuring indices such as MgUV and D4000. The population of MQGs shows a duality in their properties. The sample is dominated (85 per cent) by galaxies with young mass-weighted ages, $\overline{t_{\rm M}}$  〈 2 Gyr, short star formation time-scales, 〈〉 ~ 60–200 Myr, and masses log( M /M ) ~ 10.5. There is an older population (15 per cent) with $\overline{t_{\rm M}}$ = 2–4 Gyr, longer star formation time-scales, 〈〉 ~ 400 Myr, and larger masses, log( M /M ) ~ 10.7. The SFHs of our MQGs are consistent with the slope and the location of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies at z  〉 1.0, when our galaxies were 0.5–1.0 Gyr old. According to these SFHs, all the MQGs experienced a luminous infrared galaxy phase that lasts for ~500 Myr, and half of them an ultraluminous infrared galaxy phase for ~100 Myr. We find that the MQG population is almost assembled at z  ~ 1, and continues evolving passively with few additions to the population.