Measuring star formation in high-z massive galaxies: a mid-infrared to submillimetre study of the GOODS NICMOS Survey sample

Viero, M. P., Moncelsi, Lorenzo, Mentuch, E., Buitrago, F., Bauer, A. E., Chapin, E. L., Conselice, C. J., Devlin, M. J., Halpern, M., Marsden, G., Netterfield, C. B., Pascale, Enzo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3242-8154, Pérez-González, P. G., Rex, M., Scott, D., Smith, Matthew William L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-6970, Truch, M. D. P., Trujillo, I. and Wiebe, D. V. 2012. Measuring star formation in high-z massive galaxies: a mid-infrared to submillimetre study of the GOODS NICMOS Survey sample. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 421 (3) , pp. 2161-2169. 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20456.x

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Abstract

We present measurements of the mean mid-infrared to submillimetre flux densities of massive (M★≳ 1011 M⊙) galaxies at redshifts 1.7 < z < 2.9, obtained by stacking positions of known objects taken from the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS) catalogue on maps at 24 inline imagem (Spitzer/MIPS); 70, 100 and 160 inline imagem (Herschel/PACS); 250, 350 and 500 inline imagem (BLAST); and 870 inline imagem (LABOCA). A modified blackbody spectrum fit to the stacked flux densities indicates a median [interquartile] star formation rate (SFR) of SFR = 63[48, 81] M⊙ yr−1. We note that not properly accounting for correlations between bands when fitting stacked data can significantly bias the result. The galaxies are divided into two groups, disc-like and spheroid-like, according to their Sérsic indices, n. We find evidence that most of the star formation is occurring in n≤ 2 (disc-like) galaxies, with median [interquartile] SFR = 122[100, 150] M⊙ yr−1, while there are indications that the n > 2 (spheroid-like) population may be forming stars at a median [interquartile] SFR = 14[9, 20] M⊙ yr−1, if at all. Finally, we show that star formation is a plausible mechanism for size evolution in this population as a whole, but find only marginal evidence that it is what drives the expansion of the spheroid-like galaxies.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; infrared: galaxies
Additional Information:	Pdf uploaded in accordance with publisher's policy at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0035-8711/ (accessed 20/02/2014).
Publisher:	Royal Astronomical Society
ISSN:	0035-8711
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	13 May 2023 00:10
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/19119

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