COSMOS Survey Research Articles

LoCuSS: exploring the selection of faint blue background galaxies for cluster weak-lensing

Cosmological constraints from galaxy clusters rely on accurate measurements of the mass and internal structure of clusters. An important source of systematic uncertainty in cluster mass and structure measurements is the secure selection of background galaxies that are gravitationally lensed by clusters. This issue has been shown to be particular severe for faint blue galaxies. We therefore explore the selection of faint blue background galaxies, by reference to photometric redshift catalogs derived from the COSMOS survey and our own observations of massive galaxy clusters at z~0.2. We show that methods relying on photometric redshifts of galaxies in/behind clusters based on observations through five filters, and on deep 30-band COSMOS photometric redshifts are both inadequate to identify safely faint blue background galaxies. This is due to the small number of filters used by the former, and absence of massive galaxy clusters at redshifts of interest in the latter. We therefore develop a pragmatic method to combine both sets of photometric redshifts to select a population of blue galaxies based purely on photometric analysis. This sample yields stacked weak-lensing results consistent with our previously published results based on red galaxies. We also show that the stacked clustercentric number density profile of these faint blue galaxies is consistent with expectations from consideration of the lens magnification signal of the clusters. Indeed, the observed number density of blue background galaxies changes by ~10-30 per cent across the radial range over which other surveys assume it to be flat.

A high definition view of the COSMOS Wall atz ~ 0.73

We present a study of a large filamentary structure at z~0.73 in the field of the COSMOS survey, the so-called COSMOS Wall. This structure encompasses a comprehensive range of environments from a dense cluster and a number of galaxy groups to filaments, less dense regions, and adjacent voids. It thus provides a valuable laboratory for the accurate mapping of environmental effects on galaxy evolution at a look-back time of ~6.5 Gyr, when the Universe was roughly half its present age. We performed deep spectroscopic observations with VIMOS at VLT of a K-band selected sample of galaxies in this complex structure, building a sample of galaxies complete in galaxy stellar mass down to a lower limit of log(M/M_sun)~ 9.8, which is significantly deeper than previously available data. Thanks to its location within the COSMOS survey, each galaxy benefits from a wealth of ancillary information. In this paper we detail the survey strategy and weighting scheme adopted to account for the biases introduced by the photometric pre-selection of our targets. We present our galaxy stellar mass and rest-frame magnitudes estimates together with a group catalog obtained with our new data and their member galaxies color/mass distribution. Owing to to our new sample we can perform a detailed, high definition mapping of the complex COSMOS Wall structure. The sharp environmental information, coupled with high quality spectroscopic information and rich ancillary data available in the COSMOS field, enables a detailed study of galaxy properties as a function of local environment in a redshift slice where environmental effects are important, and in a stellar mass range where mass and environment driven effects are both at work.

Ultramassive dense early-type galaxies: Velocity dispersions and number density evolution sincez= 1.6

In this paper we investigate the mass assembly history of ultramassive (Mstar > 10^11Msun) dense (Sigma = Mstar/(2*pi*Re^2) > 2500 Msun/pc^2) early-type galaxies (ETGs) over the last 9 Gyr. We have traced the evolution of the number density rho of ultramassive dense ETGs and have compared their structural (effective radius Re and stellar mass Mstar) and dynamical (velocity dispersion sigma_e) parameters over the redshift range 0 < z < 1.6. We have derived the number density at 1.6 < z < 1 from the MUNICS and GOODS-South surveys, while we have used the COSMOS and SDSS spectroscopic surveys to probe the intermediate and local redshift range. For the comparison of the dynamical and structural parameters, we have collected the ultramassive dense ETGs at 1.2 < z < 1.6 for which velocity dispersion measurements are available (11 ETGs). For 4 of them we present unpublished estimates of sigma_e. We probe the intermediate redshift range, and the local universe using the samples of ETGs by Saglia et al. (2010), Zahid et al. (2015), and by Thomas et al. (2010). We find that the number density of ultramassive dense ETGs evolves as rho(z) = K*(1 + z)^(0.3\pm0.8) implying a decrease of ~ 25% of the population since z = 1.6. By comparing the values of Re, Mstar, and sigma_e of ultramassive dense ETGs over the range 0 < z < 1.6 we find that all the high-z ETGs have a counterpart in the local universe. This implies either that the majority (~70%) of ultramassive dense ETGs has already completed its assembly and its shaping at <z> = 1.4, or that, if a significant fraction of them evolves in size, new ultramassive dense ETGs must form at z < 1.5 to maintain their number density almost constant. The difficulty into identify good progenitors for these new dense ETGs at z < 1.5, and the stellar populations properties of local ultramassive dense ETGs point toward the first hypothesis.

A method for determining AGN accretion phase in field galaxies

Recent observations of AGN activity in massive galaxies (log Mstar / Msun > 10.4) show that: 1) at z < 1, AGN-hosting galaxies do not show enhanced merger signatures compared to normal galaxies, 2) also at z < 1, most AGNs are hosted by quiescent galaxies; and 3) at z > 1, percentage of AGNs in star forming galaxies increases and becomes comparable to AGN percentage in quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2. How can major mergers explain AGN activity in massive quiescent galaxies which have no merger features and no star formation to indicate recent galaxy merger? By matching merger events in a cosmological N-body simulation to the observed AGN incidence probability in the COSMOS survey, we show that major merger triggered AGN activity is consistent with the observations. By distinguishing between "peak" AGNs (recently merger triggered and hosted by star forming galaxies) and "faded" AGNs (merger triggered a long time ago and now residing in quiescent galaxies), we show that the AGN occupation fraction in star forming and quiescent galaxies simply follows the evolution of the galaxy merger rate. Since the galaxy merger rate drops dramatically at z < 1, the only AGNs left to be observed are the ones triggered by old mergers and are now in the declining phase of their nuclear activity, hosted by quiescent galaxies. As we go toward higher redshifts the galaxy merger rate increases and the percentages of "peak" AGNs and "faded" AGNs become comparable.

The XXL Survey

X-ray extragalactic surveys are ideal laboratories for the study of the evolution and clustering of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The XXL Survey spans two fields of a combined 50 $deg^2$ observed for more than 6Ms with XMM-Newton, occupying the parameter space between deep surveys and very wide area surveys; at the same time it benefits from a wealth of ancillary data. This paper marks the first release of the XXL point source catalogue selected in the 2-10 keV energy band with limiting flux $F_{2-10keV}=4.8\cdot10^{-14}\rm{erg\,s^{-1}\,cm^{-2}}$. We use both public and proprietary data sets to identify the counterparts of the X-ray point-like sources and improved upon the photometric redshift determination for AGN by applying a Random Forest classification trained to identify for each object the optimal photometric redshift model library. We also assign a probability to each source to be a star or an outlier. We model with Bayesian analysis the X-ray spectra assuming a power-law model with the presence of an absorbing medium. We find an average unabsorbed photon index of $\Gamma=1.85$ and average hydrogen column density $\log{N_{H}}=21.07 cm^{-2}$. We find no trend of $\Gamma$ or $N_H$ with redshift and a fraction of 26% absorbed sources ($\log N_{H}>22$). We show that the XXL-1000-AGN number counts extended the number counts of the COSMOS survey to higher fluxes and are fully consistent with the Euclidean expectation. We constrain the intrinsic luminosity function of AGN in the 2-10 keV energy band where the unabsorbed X-ray flux is estimated from the X-ray spectral fit up to z=3. Finally, we demonstrate the presence of a supercluster size structure at redshift 0.14, identified by means of percolation analysis of the XXL-1000-AGN sample. The XXL survey, reaching a medium flux limit and covering a wide area is a stepping stone between current deep fields and planned wide area surveys.

HIDDEN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

ABSTRACT We present a stacking analysis of the complete sample of early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the Chandra COSMOS (C-COSMOS) survey, to explore the nature of the X-ray luminosity in the redshift and stellar luminosity ranges and . Using established scaling relations, we subtract the contribution of X-ray binary populations to estimate the combined emission of hot ISM and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). To discriminate between the relative importance of these two components, we (1) compare our results with the relation observed in the local universe for hot gaseous halos emission in ETGs, and (2) evaluate the spectral signature of each stacked bin. We find two regimes where the non-stellar X-ray emission is hard, consistent with AGN emission. First, there is evidence of hard, absorbed X-ray emission in stacked bins including relatively high z (∼1.2) ETGs with average high X-ray luminosity ( ). These luminosities are consistent with the presence of highly absorbed “hidden” AGNs in these ETGs, which are not visible in their optical–IR spectra and spectral energy distributions. Second, confirming the early indication from our C-COSMOS study of X-ray detected ETGs, we find significantly enhanced X-ray luminosity in lower stellar mass ETGs ( ), relative to the local relation. The stacked spectra of these ETGs also suggest X-ray emission harder than expected from gaseous hot halos. This emission is consistent with inefficient accretion onto .

The 2–10 keV unabsorbed luminosity function of AGN from the LSS, CDFS, and COSMOS surveys

The XMM-LSS, XMM-COSMOS, and XMM-CDFS surveys are complementary in terms of sky coverage and depth. Together, they form a clean sample with the least possible variance in instrument effective areas and PSF. Therefore this is one of the best samples available to determine the 2-10 keV luminosity function of AGN and its evolution. The samples and the relevant corrections for incompleteness are described. A total of 2887 AGN is used to build the LF in the luminosity interval 10^42-10^46 erg/s, and in the redshift interval 0.001-4. A new method to correct for absorption by considering the probability distribution for the column density conditioned on the hardness ratio is presented. The binned luminosity function and its evolution is determined with a variant of the Page-Carrera method, improved to include corrections for absorption and to account for the full probability distribution of photometric redshifts. Parametric models, namely a double power-law with LADE or LDDE evolution, are explored using Bayesian inference. We introduce the Watanabe-Akaike information criterion (WAIC) to compare the models and estimate their predictive power. Our data are best described by the LADE model, as hinted by the WAIC indicator. We also explore the 15-parameter extended LDDE model recently proposed by Ueda et al., and find that this extension is not supported by our data. The strength of our method is that it provides: un-absorbed non-parametric estimates; credible intervals for luminosity function parameters; model choice according to which one has more predictive power for future data.

REST-UV ABSORPTION LINES AS METALLICITY ESTIMATOR: THE METAL CONTENT OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES AT z ∼ 5

ABSTRACT We measure a relation between the depth of four prominent rest-UV absorption complexes and metallicity for local galaxies and verify it up to . We then apply this relation to a sample of 224 galaxies at ( ) in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), for which unique UV spectra from the Deep Imaging Multi-object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) and accurate stellar masses from the Spitzer Large Area Survey with Hyper-Suprime-Cam (SPLASH) are available. The average galaxy population at and is characterized by 0.3–0.4 dex (in units of ) lower metallicities than at z ∼ 2, but comparable to . We find galaxies with weak or no Lyα emission to have metallicities comparable to z ∼ 2 galaxies and therefore may represent an evolved subpopulation of galaxies. We find a correlation between metallicity and dust in good agreement with local galaxies and an inverse trend between metallicity and star-formation rate consistent with observations at z ∼ 2. The relation between stellar mass and metallicity (MZ relation) is similar to , but there are indications of it being slightly shallower, in particular for the young, Lyα-emitting galaxies. We show that, within a “bathtub” approach, a shallower MZ relation is expected in the case of a fast (exponential) build-up of stellar mass with an e-folding time of 100–200 Myr. Because of this fast evolution, the process of dust production and metal enrichment as a function of mass could be more stochastic in the first billion years of galaxy formation compared to later times.

NARROW-LINE X-RAY-SELECTED GALAXIES IN THE CHANDRA-COSMOS FIELD. I. OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPIC CATALOG

ABSTRACT The COSMOS survey is a large and deep survey with multiwavelength observations of sources from X-rays to the UV, allowing an extensive study of their properties. The central 0.9 deg2 of the COSMOS field have been observed by Chandra with a sensitivity up to 1.9 × 10−16 erg cm−2 s−1 in the full (0.5–10 keV) band. Photometric and spectroscopic identification of the Chandra-COSMOS (C-COSMOS) sources is available from several catalogs and campaigns. Despite the fact that the C-COSMOS galaxies have a reliable spectroscopic redshift in addition to a spectroscopic classification, the emission-line properties of this sample have not yet been measured. We present here the creation of an emission-line catalog of 453 narrow-line sources from the C-COSMOS spectroscopic sample. We have performed spectral fitting for the more common lines in galaxies ([O ii] λ3727, [Ne iii] λ3869, Hβ, [O iii] λλ4959, 5007, Hα, and [N ii] λλ6548, 6584). These data provide an optical classification for 151 (i.e., 33%) of the C-COSMOS narrow-line galaxies based on emission-line diagnostic diagrams.

Unveiling the origin of the radio emission in radio-quiet quasars

The origin of the radio emission in radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) has been a matter of debate for a long time. It is not well understood whether the emission is caused by star formation in the host galaxy or by black hole activity of the active galactic nuclei (AGN). We shed some light on these questions using the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique to search for RQQs in the field of the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS). The extensive multi-wavelength coverage of the field (from radio to X-rays) was used to classify RQQs, and the milli-arcsecond resolution of VLBI provides a direct way to identify AGNs. In a sample of 18 RQQs we detected 3 using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 1.4 GHz. In this letter we report for the first time on a sample of RQQs with a measured lower limit on the fraction of radio emission coming from the AGN, thus demonstrating that the radio emission of at least some RQQs is dominated by an AGN.

Morphological Classification of High-redshift Massive Galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field

Utilizing the multi-band photometric data of the COSMOS (Cosmic Evolution Survey)/UltraVISTA (Ultra-deep Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) field and the high-resolution HST WFC3 (Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3) near-infrared images in the CANDELS (Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey) field, we have selected 362 galaxies with the redshifts of 1≤ z ≤3 and the stellar masses of M* ≥ 1010.5M⊙, and made the classification study on the morphologies of these massive galaxies. The results from the UVJ ((U–V) vs (V–J)) two-color diagram classification, visual classification, non-model based classification (Gini coefficient G and moment index M20), and model based classification (Sérsic index n) are in good agreement with each other. Compared with the star-forming galaxies (SFGs), the quiescent galaxies (QGs) defined by the UVJ two-color diagram exhibit the compact elliptical structures, and generally have larger n and G, but smaller M20 and galaxy's effective radius re. The evolution of galaxy size with the redshift is obvious for various QG and SFG samples defined by the different classification systems (two-color diagram classification system, model and non-model based classification systems), and this evolutionary tendency is stronger for QGs in comparison with SFGs, independent to the selection of galaxy classification methods.

Selecting background galaxies in weak-lensing analysis of galaxy clusters

In this paper, we present a new method to select the faint, background galaxies used to derive the mass of galaxy clusters by weak lensing. The method is based on the simultaneous analysis of the shear signal, that should be consistent with zero for the foreground, unlensed galaxies, and of the colors of the galaxies: photometric data from the COSMic evOlution Survey are used to train the color selection. In order to validate this methodology, we test it against a set of state-of-the-art image simulations of mock galaxy clusters in different redshift [$0.23-0.45$] and mass [$0.5-1.55\times10^{15}M_\odot$] ranges, mimicking medium-deep multicolor imaging observations (e.g. SUBARU, LBT). The performance of our method in terms of contamination by unlensed sources is comparable to a selection based on photometric redshifts, which however requires a good spectral coverage and is thus much more observationally demanding. The application of our method to simulations gives an average ratio between estimated and true masses of $\sim 0.98 \pm 0.09$. As a further test, we finally apply our method to real data, and compare our results with other weak lensing mass estimates in the literature: for this purpose we choose the cluster Abell 2219 ($z=0.228$), for which multi-band (BVRi) data are publicly available.

Are the hosts of VLBI-selected radio-AGN different to those of radio-loud AGN?

Abstract Recent studies have found that radio-AGN selected by radio-loudness show little difference in terms of their host galaxy properties when compared to non-AGN galaxies of similar stellar mass and redshift. Using new 1.4 GHz very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of the Cosmological Evolution Survey field, we find that approximately 49 ± 8 per cent of high-mass (M &amp;gt; 1010.5 M⊙), high-luminosity (L1.4 &amp;gt; 1024 W Hz−1) radio-AGN possess a VLBI-detected counterpart. These objects show no discernible bias towards specific stellar masses, redshifts or host properties other than what is shown by the radio-AGN population in general. Radio-AGN that are detected in VLBI observations are not special, but form a representative sample of the radio-loud AGN population.

No galaxy left behind: accurate measurements with the faintest objects in the Dark Energy Survey

Accurate statistical measurement with large imaging surveys has traditionally required throwing away a sizable fraction of the data. This is because most measurements have have relied on selecting nearly complete samples, where variations in the composition of the galaxy population with seeing, depth, or other survey characteristics are small. We introduce a new measurement method that aims to minimize this wastage, allowing precision measurement for any class of stars or galaxies detectable in an imaging survey. We have implemented our proposal in Balrog, a software package which embeds fake objects in real imaging in order to accurately characterize measurement biases. We demonstrate this technique with an angular clustering measurement using Dark Energy Survey (DES) data. We first show that recovery of our injected galaxies depends on a wide variety of survey characteristics in the same way as the real data. We then construct a flux-limited sample of the faintest galaxies in DES, chosen specifically for their sensitivity to depth and seeing variations. Using the synthetic galaxies as randoms in the standard Landy-Szalay correlation function estimator suppresses the effects of variable survey selection by at least two orders of magnitude. With this correction, our measured angular clustering is found to be in excellent agreement with that of a matched sample drawn from much deeper, higher-resolution space-based Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) imaging; over angular scales of $0.004^{\circ} < \theta < 0.2^{\circ}$, we find a best-fit scaling amplitude between the DES and COSMOS measurements of $1.00 \pm 0.09$. We expect this methodology to be broadly useful for extending the statistical reach of measurements in a wide variety of coming imaging surveys.

A POPULATION OF INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLES IN DWARF STARBURST GALAXIES UP TO REDSHIFT = 1.5

ABSTRACT We study a sample of ∼50,000 dwarf starburst and late-type galaxies drawn from the COSMOS survey with the aim of investigating the presence of nuclear accreting black holes (BHs) as those seed BHs from which supermassive BHs could grow in the early universe. We divide the sample into five complete redshift bins up to z = 1.5 and perform an X-ray stacking analysis using the Chandra COSMOS-Legacy survey data. After removing the contribution from X-ray binaries and hot gas to the stacked X-ray emission, we still find an X-ray excess in the five redshift bins that can be explained by nuclear accreting BHs. This X-ray excess is more significant for z &lt; 0.5 ?> . At higher redshifts, these active galactic nuclei could suffer mild obscuration, as indicated by the analysis of their hardness ratios. The average nuclear X-ray luminosities in the soft band are in the range 1039–1040 erg s−1. Assuming that the sources accrete at ≥1% the Eddington rate, their BH masses would be ≤105 M &CircleDot; ?> , thus in the intermediate-mass BH regime, but their mass would be smaller than the one predicted by the BH-stellar mass relation. If instead the sources follow the correlation between BH mass and stellar mass, they would have sub-Eddington accreting rates of ∼10−3 and BH masses 1–9 × 105 M &CircleDot; ?> . We thus conclude that a population of intermediate-mass BHs exists in dwarf starburst galaxies, at least up to z = 1.5, though their detection beyond the local universe is challenging due to their low luminosity and mild obscuration unless deep surveys are employed.

Role of active galactic nuclei in the luminous infrared galaxy phase atz≤ 3

To understand the interactions between active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star formation during the evolution of galaxies, we investigate 142 galaxies detected in both X-ray and 70 μm observations in the COSMOS (Cosmic Evolution Survey) field. All of our data are obtained from the archive X-ray point-source catalogues from Chandra and XMM–Newton observations, and the far-infrared 70 μm point-source catalogue from Spitzer-MIPS observations. Although the IRAC [3.6 μm]–[4.5 μm] versus [5.8 μm]–[8.0 μm] colours of our sample indicate that only ∼63 per cent of our sources would be classified as AGNs, the ratio of the rest-frame 2–10 keV luminosity to the total infrared luminosity (8–1000 μm) shows that the entire sample has comparatively higher X-ray luminosity than that expected from pure star-forming galaxies, suggesting the presence of an AGN in all of our sources. From an analysis of the X-ray hardness ratio, we find that sources with both 70 μm and X-ray detection tend to have a higher hardness ratio relative to the whole X-ray-selected source population, suggesting the presence of more X-ray absorption in the 70 μm detected sources. In addition, we find that the observed far-infrared colours of 70 μm detected sources with and without X-ray emission are similar, suggesting the far-infrared emission could be mainly powered by star formation.

MAPPING THE GALAXY COLOR–REDSHIFT RELATION: OPTIMAL PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT CALIBRATION STRATEGIES FOR COSMOLOGY SURVEYS

Calibrating the photometric redshifts of >10^9 galaxies for upcoming weak lensing cosmology experiments is a major challenge for the astrophysics community. The path to obtaining the required spectroscopic redshifts for training and calibration is daunting, given the anticipated depths of the surveys and the difficulty in obtaining secure redshifts for some faint galaxy populations. Here we present an analysis of the problem based on the self-organizing map, a method of mapping the distribution of data in a high-dimensional space and projecting it onto a lower-dimensional representation. We apply this method to existing photometric data from the COSMOS survey selected to approximate the anticipated Euclid weak lensing sample, enabling us to robustly map the empirical distribution of galaxies in the multidimensional color space defined by the expected Euclid filters. Mapping this multicolor distribution lets us determine where - in galaxy color space - redshifts from current spectroscopic surveys exist and where they are systematically missing. Crucially, the method lets us determine whether a spectroscopic training sample is representative of the full photometric space occupied by the galaxies in a survey. We explore optimal sampling techniques and estimate the additional spectroscopy needed to map out the color-redshift relation, finding that sampling the galaxy distribution in color space in a systematic way can efficiently meet the calibration requirements. While the analysis presented here focuses on the Euclid survey, similar analysis can be applied to other surveys facing the same calibration challenge, such as DES, LSST, and WFIRST.

Accurate PSF-matched photometry and photometric redshifts for the extreme deep field with the Chebyshev–Fourier functions

Photometric redshifts, which have become the cornerstone of several of the largest astronomical surveys like PanStarrs, DES, J-PAS or the LSST, require precise measurements of galaxy photometry in different bands using a consistent physical aperture. This is not trivial, due to the variation in the shape and width of the Point Spread Function (PSF) introduced by wavelength differences, instrument positions and atmospheric conditions. Current methods to correct for this effect rely on a detailed knowledge of the PSF characteristics as a function of the survey coordinates, which can be difficult due to the relative paucity of stars tracking the PSF behaviour. Here we show that it is possible to measure accurate, consistent multicolour photometry without knowing the shape of PSF. The Chebyshev-Fourier Functions (CHEFs) can fit the observed profile of each object and produce high signal-to-noise integrated flux measurements unaffected by the PSF. These total fluxes, which encompass all the galaxy populations, are much more useful for Galaxy Evolution studies than aperture photometry. We compare the total magnitudes and colours obtained using our software to traditional photometry with SExtractor, using real data from the COSMOS survey and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. We also apply the CHEFs technique to the recently published Extreme Deep Field and compare the results to those from ColorPro on the HUDF. We produce a photometric catalogue with 35732 sources (10823 with S/N>5), reaching a photometric redshift precision of 2% due to the extraordinary depth and wavelength coverage of the XDF images.

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

Based on the multi-band photometric data of the COSMOS (Cosmic Evolution Survey)/Ultra VISTA (Ultra-deep Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) field, we have selected a mass-limited sample of galaxies with the redshifts of 0 < z < 3.5. And according to the rest-frame UVJ twocolor (U-V vs. V-J) criteria, we classify the sample galaxies into the star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and the quiescent galaxies (QGs) in different redshift bins. In the redshift range of 0 < z < 1.5, the fraction of QGs with a mass of M* > 1011Mʘ is greater than 70%. In the range of 0 < z < 3.5, the star formation rates (SFRs) of SFGs exhibit a strong main sequence (MS) relation with the stellar mass M*. For a fixed stellar mass M*, the galaxy SFR and specific SFR (sSFR) increase with the redshift, indicating that the SFGs at high redshifts are more active in star formation. Relative to the low-mass galaxies, the large-mass SFGs have a lower sSFR, implying that the growth of a low-mass galaxy is more relying on the star formation activity of itself. In combination with the data given by the other literature, it is found that for the galaxies at higher redshifts (2 < z < 8), the evolution of sSFR with the redshift becomes weak, and the evolutionary relation is sSFR∝ (1 + z)0.94±0.17.

Evolution of the specific star formation rate function atz&lt; 1.4 Dissecting the mass-SFR plane in COSMOS and GOODS

The relation between the stellar mass (M⋆) and the star formation rate (SFR) characterizes how the instantaneous star formation is determined by the galaxy past star formation history and by the growth of the dark matter structures. We deconstruct the M⋆-SFR plane by measuring the specific SFR functions in several stellar mass bins from z = 0.2 out to z = 1.4 (specific SFR = SFR/M⋆, noted sSFR). Our analysis is primary based on a 24 μm selected catalogue combining the COSMOS and GOODS surveys. We estimate the SFR by combining mid- and far-infrared data for 20500 galaxies. The sSFR functions are derived in four stellar mass bins within the range 9.5 < log (M⋆ /M⊙) < 11.5. First, we demonstrate the importance of taking into account selection effects when studying the M⋆-SFR relation. Secondly, we find a mass-dependent evolution of the median sSFR with redshift varying as sSFR ∝ (1 + z)^b, with b increasing from b = 2.88^(±0.12) to b = 3.78^(± 0.60) between M⋆ = 10^(9.75) M⊙ and M⋆ = 10^(11.1) M⊙, respectively. At low masses, this evolution is consistent with the cosmological accretion rate and predictions from semi-analytical models (SAM). This agreement breaks down for more massive galaxies showing the need for a more comprehensive description of the star formation history in massive galaxies. Third, we obtain that the shape of the sSFR function is invariant with time at z< 1.4 but depends on the mass. We observe a broadening of the sSFR function ranging from 0.28 dex at M⋆ = 10^(9.75) M⊙ to 0.46 dex at M⋆ = 10^(11.1) M⊙. Such increase in the intrinsic scatter of the M⋆-SFR relation suggests an increasing diversity ofstar formation histories (SFHs) as the stellar mass increases. Finally, we find a gradual decline of the sSFR with stellar mass as log _(10)(sSFR) ∝ −0.17M⋆. We discuss the numerous physical processes, as gas exhaustion in hot gas halos or secular evolution, which can gradually reduce the sSFR and increase the SFH diversity.