C iii] Emission in Star-forming Galaxies at z ∼ 1

We cross-matched Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) sources brighter than 1 mJy at 12um with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy spectroscopic catalog to produce a sample of ~10^5 galaxies at <z>=0.08, the largest of its kind. This sample is dominated (70%) by star-forming (SF) galaxies from the blue sequence, with total IR luminosities in the range ~10^8-10^12 L_sun. We identify which stellar populations are responsible for most of the 12um emission. We find that most (~80%) of the 12um emission in SF galaxies is produced by stellar populations younger than 0.6 Gyr. In contrast, the 12um emission in weak AGN (L[OIII]<10^7 L_sun) is produced by older stars, with ages of ~1-3 Gyr. We find that L_[12um] linearly correlates with stellar mass for SF galaxies. At fixed 12um luminosity, weak AGN deviate toward higher masses since they tend to be hosted by massive, early-type galaxies with older stellar populations. Star-forming galaxies and weak AGN follow different L_[12um]-SFR (star formation rate) relations, with weak AGN showing excess 12um emission at low SFR (~0.02-1 M_sun/yr). This is likely due to dust grains heated by older stars. While the specific star formation rate (SSFR) of SF galaxies is nearly constant, the SSFR of weak AGN decreases by ~3 orders of magnitude, reflecting the very different star formation efficiencies between SF galaxies and massive, early-type galaxies. Stronger type II AGN in our sample (L_[OIII]>10^7 L_sun), act as an extension of massive SF galaxies, connecting the SF and weak AGN sequences. This suggests a picture where galaxies form stars normally until an AGN (possibly after a starburst episode) starts to gradually quench the SF activity. We also find that 4.6-12um color is a useful first-order indicator of SF activity in a galaxy when no other data are available.

In star-forming galaxies, the far-infrared (FIR) and radio-continuum luminosities obey a tight empirical relation over a large range of star-formation rates (SFR). To understand the physics, we examine magnetohydrodynamic galaxy simulations, which follow the genesis of cosmic ray (CR) protons at supernovae and their advective and anisotropic diffusive transport. We show that gravitational collapse of the proto-galaxy generates a corrugated accretion shock, which injects turbulence and drives a small-scale magnetic dynamo. As the shock propagates outwards and the associated turbulence decays, the large velocity shear between the supersonically rotating cool disc with respect to the (partially) pressure-supported hot circumgalactic medium excites Kelvin–Helmholtz surface and body modes. Those interact non-linearly, inject additional turbulence and continuously drive multiple small-scale dynamos, which exponentially amplify weak seed magnetic fields. After saturation at small scales, they grow in scale to reach equipartition with thermal and CR energies in Milky Way-mass galaxies. In small galaxies, the magnetic energy saturates at the turbulent energy while it fails to reach equipartition with thermal and CR energies. We solve for steady-state spectra of CR protons, secondary electrons/positrons from hadronic CR-proton interactions with the interstellar medium, and primary shock-accelerated electrons at supernovae. The radio-synchrotron emission is dominated by primary electrons, irradiates the magnetized disc and bulge of our simulated Milky Way-mass galaxy and weakly traces bubble-shaped magnetically loaded outflows. Our star-forming and star-bursting galaxies with saturated magnetic fields match the global FIR-radio correlation (FRC) across four orders of magnitude. Its intrinsic scatter arises due to (i) different magnetic saturation levels that result from different seed magnetic fields, (ii) different radio synchrotron luminosities for different specific SFRs at fixed SFR, and (iii) a varying radio intensity with galactic inclination. In agreement with observations, several 100-pc-sized regions within star-forming galaxies also obey the FRC, while the centres of starbursts substantially exceed the FRC.

&lt;p&gt;This thesis examines the evolution of massive disc galaxies as a function of cosmic time and environment by analysing a sample of luminous disc galaxies, located in the field and rich clusters at intermediate redshifts. &nbsp;The data utilised for this study are two-dimensional optical spectra obtained with the FORS2 instrument on the VLT, along with imaging from a variety of sources.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We investigate evolution in the field using the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) and interstellar gas properties of these galaxies. &nbsp;A mild overall evolution is found, which appears to be slower than that derived bay studies of the overall field galaxy population. This suggests that the rapid evolution of the SFR density of the universe observed since z~1 is not in general driven by the evolution of the SFR in individual bright spiral galaxies.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The interstellar gas properties cover similar ranges to those observed across a large sample of local galaxies. &nbsp;However, a fraction have oxygen abundances significantly lower than local galaxies with similar high luminosities. &nbsp;The galaxies in this luminous, metal-poor subsample exhibit physical conditions similar to those of local faint and metal-poor star-forming galaxies. These galaxies must subsequently experience substantial evolution in luminosity and star formation rate. &nbsp;The mild overall field evolution thus appears to be due to a combination of some galaxies undergoing substantial evolution, with the remainder changing little.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We find no evidence for a change in TFR slope with redshift, although this is not well constrained. &nbsp;However, previous studies have used an observed correlation between TFR residuals and rotation velocity to argue that low mass galaxies have evolved significantly more than those with higher mass. &nbsp;We demonstrate that such a correlation does not necessarily indicate a physical difference in the evolution of galaxies with different rotation velocity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Matched samples of intermediate-redshift field and cluster galaxies are compared using the TFR and the properties of their interstellar gas. &nbsp;While the distributions of basic properties are comparable for the two samples, we find evidence that the cluster galaxies are significantly brighter than those in the coeval field. &nbsp;The cluster galaxies have specific star formation rates that are, on average, significantly lower than for the field galaxies. &nbsp;However, a contrasting fraction appear to have much higher star formation activity, comparable to the highest seen in the field. &nbsp;This implies a bimodality in the star formation activity of distant cluster galaxies, which is not present for our field sample. &nbsp;In addition, star formation appears to be more centrally concentrated in the cluster galaxies. &nbsp;We find no substantial differences in the long term star formation histories of these cluster and field galaxies, as indicated by their gas-phase metallicities.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The most likely explanation for these results is that spiral galaxies entering intermediate-redshift clusters generally experience a short-lived enhancement of their star formation rate, followed by a decline.&lt;/p&gt;

We study the impact of black hole nuclear activity on both the global and radial star formation rate (SFR) profiles in X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the field of miniJPAS, the precursor of the much wider J-PAS project. Our sample includes 32 AGN with z &lt; 0.3 detected via the XMM-Newton and Chandra surveys. For comparison, we assembled a control sample of 71 star-forming (SF) galaxies with similar magnitudes, sizes, and redshifts. To derive the global properties of both the AGN and the control SF sample, we used CIGALE to fit the spectral energy distributions derived from the 56 narrowband and 4 broadband filters from miniJPAS. We find that AGN tend to reside in more massive galaxies than their SF counterparts. After matching samples based on stellar mass and comparing their SFRs and specific SFRs (sSFRs), no significant differences appear. This suggests that the presence of AGN does not strongly influence overall star formation. However, when we used miniJPAS as an integral field unit (IFU) to dissect galaxies along their position angle, a different picture emerges. We find that AGN tend to be more centrally concentrated in mass with respect to SF galaxies. Moreover, we find a suppression of the sSFR up to 1Re and then an enhancement beyond 1Re, strongly contrasting with the decreasing radial profile of sSFRs in SF galaxies. This could point to an inside-out quenching of AGN host galaxies. Additionally, we examined how the radial profiles of the sSFRs in AGN and SF galaxies depend on galaxy morphology, by dividing our sample into disk-dominated (DD), pseudo-bulge (PB), and bulge-dominated (BD) systems. In DD systems, AGN exhibit a flat sSFR profile in the central regions and enhanced star formation beyond 1Re, contrasting with SF galaxies. In PB systems, SF galaxies show a decreasing sSFR profile, while AGN hosts exhibit an inside-out quenching scenario. In BD systems, both populations demonstrate consistent flat sSFR profiles. These findings suggest that the reason we do not see differences on a global scale is because star formation is suppressed in the central regions and enhanced in the outer regions of AGN host galaxies. While limited in terms of sample size, this work highlights the potential of the upcoming J-PAS as a wide-field low-resolution IFU for thousands of nearby galaxies and AGN.

We study the star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies as a function of local galaxy density at 0.6<z<0.9. We used a low-dispersion prism in IMACS on the 6.5-m Baade (Magellan I) telescope to obtain spectra and measured redshifts to a precision of sigma_z/(1+z)=1% for galaxies with z<23.3 AB mag. We utilized a stellar mass-limited sample of 977 galaxies above M>1.8x10^{10} Msun to conduct our main analysis. With three different SFR indicators, (1) Spitzer MIPS 24-micron imaging, (2) SED fitting, and (3) [OII]3727 emission, we find the median specific SFR (SSFR) and SFR to decline from the low-density field to the cores of groups and a rich cluster. For the SED and [OII] based SFRs, the decline in SSFR is roughly an order of magnitude while for the MIPS based SFRs, the decline is a factor of ~4. We find approximately the same magnitude of decline in SSFR even after removing the sample of galaxies near the cluster. Galaxies in groups and a cluster at these redshifts therefore have lower star formation (SF) activity than galaxies in the field, as is the case at z~0. We investigated whether the decline in SFR with increasing density is caused by a change in the proportion of quiescent and star forming galaxies (SFGs) or by a decline in the SFRs of SFGs. Using the rest-frame U-V and V-J colors to distinguish quiescent galaxies from SFGs we find the fraction of quiescent galaxies increases from ~32% to 79% from low to high density. In addition, we find the SSFRs of SFGs, selected based on U-V and V-J colors, to decline with increasing density by factors of ~5-6 for the SED and [OII] based SFRs. The MIPS based SSFRs for SFGs decline with a shallower slope. The order of magnitude decline in the SSFR-density relation at 0.6<z<0.9 is therefore driven by both a combination of declining SFRs of SFGs as well as a changing mix of SFGs and quiescent galaxies [ABRIDGED].

We utilize a large sample of ∼113,000 galaxies ( z &lt; 0.3) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with high-quality data to compare star formation rates (SFRs) across multiple diagnostic methods and examine their connection to the strength of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), indicated by Eddington ratio. Our sample encompassed star-forming, composite, Seyfert, and LINER galaxies. Our analysis utilizes various SFR indicators, including observed infrared flux (SFR FIR ) from AKARI/Herschel (∼4100 sources), the MPA-JHU catalog ( SFR D n 4000 ), the artificial neural network​​​​​​ (ANN) catalog (SFR ANN ), the GSWLC catalog (SFR SED and SFR MIR ), as well as [O ii ] and H α emission lines (SFR [O II] and SFR H α ). Within star-forming galaxies, SFR measurements from different tracers exhibited differences, with offsets and scatter below 0.26 and 0.29 dex, respectively. Moreover, non-star-forming galaxies (composite, Seyfert, and LINER) displayed discrepancies among SFR tracers, particularly for LINER galaxies, with offsets below 0.86 dex and a scatter of 0.57 dex. Additionally, our findings revealed robust correlations between SFRs and specific SFRs (sSFRs) with Eddington ratios. The Eddington ratio exhibited gradual transitions in the (s)SFRs–stellar mass diagrams. Galaxies with high Eddington ratios displayed high star formation activity, similar to blue star-forming galaxies. Furthermore, we observed decreasing sSFR trends from star-forming galaxies to composite, Seyfert, and LINER galaxies. Our results may provide insight into our understanding of (s)SFRs traced by different approaches and their connection to AGN activities.

We present a study of the infrared properties of X-ray selected, moderate luminosity (Lx=10^{42}-10^{44}ergs/s) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) up to z~3, to explore the links between star formation in galaxies and accretion onto their central black holes. We use 100um and 160um fluxes from GOODS-Herschel -the deepest survey yet undertaken by the Herschel telescope- and show that in >94 per cent of cases these fluxes are dominated by the host. We find no evidence of any correlation between the X-ray and infrared luminosities of moderate AGNs at any redshift, suggesting that star-formation is decoupled from nuclear (AGN) activity. The star formation rates of AGN hosts increase strongly with redshift; by a factor of 43 from z<0.1 to z=2-3 for AGNs with the same X-ray luminosities. This increase is consistent with the factor of 25-50 increase in the specific star formation rates (SSFRs) of normal, star-forming (main-sequence) galaxies. Indeed, the average SSFRs of AGN hosts are only marginally (20 per cent) lower than those of main-sequence galaxies, with this small deficit being due to a fraction of AGNs residing in quiescent (low-SSFR) galaxies. We estimate 79+/-10 per cent of moderate AGNs are hosted in main-sequence galaxies, 15+/-7 per cent in quiescent galaxies and <10 per cent in strongly starbursting galaxies. The fractions of all main sequence galaxies at z<2 experiencing a period of moderate nuclear activity is strongly dependent on galaxy stellar mass (Mstars); rising from a few per cent at Mstars~10^{10}Msun to >20 per cent at Mstars>10^{11}Msun. Our results indicate that it is galaxy stellar mass that is most important in dictating whether a galaxy hosts a moderate luminosity AGN. We argue that the majority of moderate nuclear activity is fuelled by internal mechanisms rather than violent mergers, suggesting that disk instabilities could be an important AGN feeding mechanism.

We use high-resolution simulations of cosmological volumes to model galaxy formation at high-redshift, with the goal of studying the photon budget for reionization. We demonstrate that galaxy formation models that include a strong, thermally coupled supernovae scheme reproduce current observations of star formation rates and specific star formation rates, both during and after the reionization era. These models produce enough UV photons to sustain reionization at z<8 (z<6) through a significant population of faint, unobserved, galaxies for an assumed escape fraction of 20% (5%). This predicted population is consistent with extrapolation of the faint end of observed UV luminosity functions. We find that heating from a global UV/X-ray background after reionization causes a dip in the total global star formation rate density in galaxies below the current observational threshold. Finally, while the currently observed specific star formation rates are incapable of differentiating between supernovae feedback models, sufficiently deep observations will be able to use this diagnostic in the future to investigate galaxy formation at high redshift.

We analyze the evolution of red and blue galaxies in different cosmic web environments from redshift z = 3 to z = 0 using the IllustrisTNG simulation. We use Otsu's method to classify the red or blue galaxies at each redshift and determine their geometric environments from the eigenvalues of the deformation tensor. Our analysis shows that initially, blue galaxies are more common in clusters followed by filaments, sheets and voids. However, this trend reverses at lower redshifts, with red fractions rising earlier in denser environments. At z < 1, most massive galaxies (log(M */M ⊙) > 10.5) are quenched across all environments. In contrast, low-mass galaxies (log(M */M ⊙) < 10.5) are more influenced by their environment, with clusters hosting the highest red galaxy fractions at low redshifts. We observe a slower mass growth for low-mass galaxies in clusters at z < 1. Filaments show relative red fractions (RRF) comparable to clusters at low masses, but host nearly 60% of low-mass blue galaxies, representing a diverse galaxy population. It implies that less intense environmental quenching in filaments allows galaxies to experience a broader range of evolutionary stages. Despite being the densest environment, clusters display the highest relative blue fraction (RBF) for high-mass galaxies, likely due to interactions or mergers that can temporarily rejuvenate star formation in some of them. The (u-r) colour distribution transitions from unimodal to bimodal by redshift z = 2 across all environments. At z < 1, clusters exhibit the highest median colour, with stellar mass being the primary driver of colour evolution in massive galaxies. The suppression of star formation rate (SFR) and specific SFR (sSFR) is also most pronounced in clusters during this period. Our study suggests that stellar mass governs quenching in high-mass galaxies, while a complex interplay of mass and environment shapes the evolution of low-mass galaxies.

Received; accepted Context. The chemical composition of the gas in galaxies versus cosmic time provides a very important tool for understanding galaxy evolution. Although there are many studies at high redshift, they are rather scarce at lower redshifts. However, low redshift studies can provide important clues about the evolution of galaxies, furnishing the required link between local and high redshift universe. In this work we focus on the metallicity of the gas of star–forming galaxies at low redshift, looking for signs of chemical evolution. Aims. To analyze the metallicity contents star–forming galaxies of similar luminosities and masses at different redshifts. With this purpose, we present a study of the metallicity of relatively massive (log(Mstar/M) &amp;amp; 10.5) star forming galaxies from SDSS–DR5 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey–Data Release 5), using different redshift intervals from 0.04 to 0.4. Methods. We used data processed with the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code, correcting the fluxes for dust extinction, estimating metallicities using the R23 method, and segregating the samples with respect to the value of the [N ] λ6583/[O ] λ3727 line ratio in order to break the R23 degeneracy selecting the upper branch. We analyze the luminosity and mass-metallicity relations, and the effect of the Sloan fiber diameter looking for possible biases. Results. By dividing our redshift samples in intervals of similar magnitude and comparing them, significant signs of metallicity evolution are found. Metallicity correlates inversely with redshift: from redshift 0 to 0.4 a decrement of ∼0.1 dex in 12+log(O/H) is found.

Galaxy evolution is regulated by the interplay between galactic disks and their surrounding medium. We study this interplay by examining how the galactic coronal emission efficiency of stellar feedback depends on the (surface and specific) star formation rates (SFRs) and other parameters for a sample of 52 Chandra-observed nearby highly inclined disk galaxies. We first measure the star forming galactic disk sizes, as well as the SFRs of these galaxies, using data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, and then show that 1) the specific 0.5-2~keV luminosity of the coronal emission correlates with the specific SFR in a {\sl sub-linear} fashion: on average, $L_X/L_K \propto (SFR/M_*)^{\Gamma}$ with $\Gamma =0.29\pm0.12$; 2) the efficiency of the emission $ L_X/SFR$ decreases with increasing surface SFR ($I_{SFR}$; $\Gamma = -0.44\pm0.12$); and 3) the characteristic temperature of the X-ray-emitting plasma weakly correlates with $I_{SFR}$ ($\Gamma = 0.08\pm0.04$). These results, somewhat surprising and anti-intuitive, suggest that a) the linear correlation between $L_X$ and SFR, as commonly presented, is largely due to the correlation of these two parameters with galaxy mass; b) much of the mechanical energy from stellar feedback likely drives global outflows with little X-ray cooling and with a mass-loading efficiency decreasing fast with increasing $I_{SFR}$ ($\Gamma \lesssim -0.5$); c) these outflows heat and inflate the medium around the galactic disks of massive galaxies, reducing its radiative cooling rate, whereas for relatively low-mass galaxies, the energy in the outflows is probably dissipated in regions far away from the galactic disks.

We study the ultraviolet to far-infrared (hereafter UV-to-IR) SEDs of a sample of intermediate-redshift (0.2 ≤ z ≤ 0.7) UV-selected galaxies from the ELAIS N1 and ELAIS N2 fields by fitting a multi-wavelength data set to a library of GRASIL templates. Star formation related properties of the galaxies are derived from the library of models by using Bayesian statistics. We find a decreasing presence of galaxies with low attenuation and low total luminosity as redshift decreases, which does not hold for high total luminosity galaxies. In addition, the dust attenuation of low-mass galaxies increases as redshift decreases, and this trend seems to disappear for galaxies with M_* ≥ 10^(11) M_⊙. This result is consistent with a mass-dependent evolution of the dust-to-gas ratio, which could be driven by a mass-dependent efficiency of star formation in star-forming galaxies. The specific star formation rates (SSFR) decrease with increasing stellar mass at all redshifts, and for a given stellar mass the SSFR decreases with decreasing redshift. The differences in the slope of the M^*-SSFR relation found between this work and others at similar redshift could be explained by the adopted selection criteria of the samples, which for a UV-selected sample, favors blue, star-forming galaxies.

We study the star formation rate (SFR) - stellar mass (M*) relation in a self-consistent manner from 0 < z < 2.5 with a sample of galaxies selected from the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey. We find a significant non-linear slope of the relation, SFR \propto M*^0.6, and a constant observed scatter of 0.34 dex, independent of redshift and M*. However, if we select only blue galaxies we find a linear relation SFR \propto M*, similar to previous results at z = 0 by Peng et al. (2010). This selection excludes red, dusty, star-forming galaxies with higher masses, which brings down the slope. By selecting on L_IR/L_UV (a proxy for dust obscuration) and the rest-frame U-V colors, we show that star-forming galaxies fall in three distinct regions of the log(SFR)-log(M*) plane: 1) actively star-forming galaxies with "normal" dust obscuration and associated colors (54% for log(M*) > 10 at 1 < z < 1.5), 2) red star-forming galaxies with low levels of dust obscuration and low specific SFRs (11%), and 3) dusty, blue star-forming galaxies with high specific SFRs (7%). The remaining 28% comprises quiescent galaxies. Galaxies on the "normal" star formation sequence show strong trends of increasing dust attenuation with stellar mass and a decreasing specific SFR, with an observed scatter of 0.25 dex (0.17 dex intrinsic scatter). The dusty, blue galaxies reside in the upper envelope of the star formation sequence with remarkably similar spectral shapes at all masses, suggesting that the same physical process is dominating the stellar light. The red, low-dust star-forming galaxies may be in the process of shutting off and migrating to the quiescent population.

We present direct spectroscopic measurements of the broad 2175 Å absorption feature in 505 star-forming main-sequence galaxies at 1.3 ≤ z ≤ 1.8 using individual and stacked spectra from the zCOSMOS-deep survey. Significant 2175 Å excess absorption features of moderate strength are measured, especially in the composite spectra. The excess absorption is well described by a Drude profile. The bump amplitude expressed in units of k(λ) = A(λ)/E(B − V), relative to the featureless Calzetti et al. law, has a range B k ≈ 0.2–0.8. The bump amplitude decreases with the specific star formation rate (sSFR), while it increases moderately with the stellar mass. However, a comparison with local “starburst” galaxies shows that the high-redshift main-sequence galaxies have stronger bump features, despite having a higher sSFR than the local sample. Plotting the bump strength against the Δ logsSFR ≡ log SFR / SFR MS relative to the main sequence, however, brings the two samples into much better concordance. This may indicate that it is the recent star formation history of the galaxies that determines the bump strength through the destruction of small carbonaceous grains by supernovae and intense radiation fields coupled with the time delay of ∼1 Gyr in the appearance of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars.

The Evolution of Star Formation of Galaxies in the COSMOS Field1,2