ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z=3 to 0.5*

Authors

C. Papovich, Texas A&M University
I. Labbé, Leiden University, Netherlands
R. Quadri, Texas A&M University
V. Tilvi, Texas A&M University
P. Behroozi, Space Telescope Science Institute
E. F. Bell, University of Michigan
K. Glazebrook, Swinburne University, Australia
L. Spitler, Macquarie University, Australia
C. M.S. Straatman, Leiden University, Netherlands
K.-V. Tran, Texas A&M University
M. Cowley, Macquarie University, Australia
R. Davé, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
A. Dekel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
M. Dickinson, National Optical Astronomy Observatory
H. C. Ferguson, Space Telescope Science Institute
S. L. Finkelstein, University of Texas - Austin
E. Gawiser, Rutgers University
H. Inami, National Optical Astronomy Observatory
S. M. Faber, University of California - Santa Cruz
G. G. Kacprzak, Swinburne University, Australia
L. Kawinwanichakij, Texas A&M University
Dale D. Kocevski, University of KentuckyFollow
A. Koekemoer, Space Telescope Science Institute
D. C. Koo, University of California - Santa Cruz
P. Kurczynski, Rutgers University
J. M. Lotz, Space Telescope Science Institute
Y. Lu, Stanford University
R. A. Lucas, Space Telescope Science Institute
D. McIntosh, University of Missouri - Kansas City
N. Mehrtens, Texas A&M University
B. Mobasher, University of California - Riverside
A. Monson, Carnegie Observatories
G. Morrison, University of Hawaii - Manoa
T. Nanayakkara, Swinburne University, Australia
S. E. Persson, Carnegie Observatories
B. Salmon, Texas A&M University
R. Simons, Johns Hopkins University
A. Tomczak, Texas A&M University
P. van Dokkum, Yale University
B. Weiner, University of Arizona
S. P. Willner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Abstract

Galaxies with stellar masses near M* contain the majority of stellar mass in the universe, and are therefore of special interest in the study of galaxy evolution. The Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31) have present-day stellar masses near M*, at 5 × 10¹⁰ M _☉ (defined here to be MW-mass) and 10¹¹ M _☉ (defined to be M31-mass). We study the typical progenitors of these galaxies using the FOURSTAR Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). ZFOURGE is a deep medium-band near-IR imaging survey, which is sensitive to the progenitors of these galaxies out to z ~ 3. We use abundance-matching techniques to identify the main progenitors of these galaxies at higher redshifts. We measure the evolution in the stellar mass, rest-frame colors, morphologies, far-IR luminosities, and star formation rates, combining our deep multiwavelength imaging with near-IR Hubble Space Telescope imaging from Cosmic Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), and Spitzer and Herschel far-IR imaging from Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-Herschel and CANDELS-Herschel. The typical MW-mass and M31-mass progenitors passed through the same evolution stages, evolving from blue, star-forming disk galaxies at the earliest stages to redder dust-obscured IR-luminous galaxies in intermediate stages and to red, more quiescent galaxies at their latest stages. The progenitors of the MW-mass galaxies reached each evolutionary stage at later times (lower redshifts) and with stellar masses that are a factor of two to three lower than the progenitors of the M31-mass galaxies. The process driving this evolution, including the suppression of star formation in present-day M* galaxies, requires an evolving stellar-mass/halo-mass ratio and/or evolving halo-mass threshold for quiescent galaxies. The effective size and SFRs imply that the baryonic cold-gas fractions drop as galaxies evolve from high redshift to z ~ 0 and are strongly anticorrelated with an increase in the Sérsic index. Therefore, the growth of galaxy bulges in M* galaxies corresponds to a rapid decline in the galaxy gas fractions and/or a decrease in the star formation efficiency.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-9-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v. 803, no. 1, article 26, p. 1-24.

© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Reproduced by permission of the AAS.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/803/1/26

Funding Information

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation through grants AST-1009707 and AST-0808133. I.L. acknowledges support from ERC HIGHZ 227749 and NL-NWO Spinoza. This work is based on observations taken by the CANDELS Multi-Cycle Treasury Program with the NASA/ESA HST, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is supported in part by HST program number GO-12060. Support for Program number GO-12060 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . . . We acknowledge generous support from the Texas A&M University and the George P. and Cynthia Woods Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy.

Related Content

This work is based on observations taken by the CANDELS Multi-Cycle Treasury Program with the NASA/ESA HST, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . . . This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. This work is based on observations made with the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. Australian access to the Magellan Telescopes was supported through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy of the Australian Federal Government.

Repository Citation

Papovich, C.; Labbé, I.; Quadri, R.; Tilvi, V.; Behroozi, P.; Bell, E. F.; Glazebrook, K.; Spitler, L.; Straatman, C. M.S.; Tran, K.-V.; Cowley, M.; Davé, R.; Dekel, A.; Dickinson, M.; Ferguson, H. C.; Finkelstein, S. L.; Gawiser, E.; Inami, H.; Faber, S. M.; Kacprzak, G. G.; Kawinwanichakij, L.; Kocevski, Dale D.; Koekemoer, A.; Koo, D. C.; Kurczynski, P.; Lotz, J. M.; Lu, Y.; Lucas, R. A.; McIntosh, D.; Mehrtens, N.; Mobasher, B.; Monson, A.; Morrison, G.; Nanayakkara, T.; Persson, S. E.; Salmon, B.; Simons, R.; Tomczak, A.; van Dokkum, P.; Weiner, B.; and Willner, S. P., "ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z=3 to 0.5*" (2015). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 262.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/262