Effect of the star formation histories on the SFR-M_* relation at z ≥ 2

Creators: Cassarà, L. P.; Capak, P.; Scoville, N.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of different star formation histories (SFHs) on the relation between stellar mass (M_∗) and star formation rate (SFR) using a sample of galaxies with reliable spectroscopic redshift z_(spec)> 2 drawn from the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS). We produce an extensive database of dusty model galaxies, calculated starting from a new library of single stellar population (SSPs) models, weighted by a set of 28 different star formation histories based on the Schmidt function, and characterized by different ratios of the gas infall timescale τ_(infall) to the star formation efficiency ν. Dust extinction and re-emission were treated by means of the radiative transfer calculation. The spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting technique was performed by using GOSSIP+, a tool able to combine both photometric and spectroscopic information to extract the best value of the physical quantities of interest, and to consider the intergalactic medium (IGM) attenuation as a free parameter. We find that the main contribution to the scatter observed in the SFR-M_∗ plane is the possibility of choosing between different families of SFHs in the SED fitting procedure, while the redshift range plays a minor role. The majority of the galaxies, at all cosmic times, are best fit by models with SFHs characterized by a high τ_(infall)/ν ratio. We discuss the reliability of a low percentage of dusty and highly star-forming galaxies in the context of their detection in the far infrared (FIR).

Additional Information

© 2016 ESO. Received: 9 May 2015. Accepted: 15 June 2016. Published online: 29 August 2016. The authors would like to thank the anonymous referee, whose criticism has helped to improve the quality of the manuscript. D.M. gratefully acknowledges L.A.M. hospitality during the initial phases of the project. L.P.C. acknowledges the developers of the software TOPCAT (http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/). L.P.C. thanks Paolo Franzetti for his help and invaluable discussions. L.P.C. acknowledges EU FP7 funded project DustPedia. DustPedia is a collaborative focused research project supported by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme (2007–2013) call (proposal No. 606847), with participating institutions: Cardiff University, UK; National Observatory of Athens, Greece; Ghent University, Belgium; Université Paris Sud, France; National Institute for Astrophysics, Italy and CEA (Paris), France. This work is supported by funding from the European Research Council Advanced Grant ERC-2010-AdG-268107-EARLY and by INAF Grants PRIN 2010, PRIN 2012 and PICS 2013. A.C., O.C., M.T. and V.S. acknowledge the grant MIUR PRIN 2010–2011. This work is based on data products made available at the CESAM data center, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille. This work partly uses observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.

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