An Ancient Massive Quiescent Galaxy Found in a Gas-rich z ∼ 3 Group

Kalita, Boris S.; Daddi, E.; D’Eugenio, Chiara; Valentino, F.; Rich, R. Michael; Gómez-Guijarro, Carlos; Coogan, R. T.; Delvecchio, I.; Elbaz, D.; Neill, James D.; Puglisi, A.; Strazzullo, V.

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac16dc

Cited by 24 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…There is a growing body of evidence that two distinct pathways to quiescence exist: slow quenching that dominates at low redshift as galaxies gradually exhaust their gas supplies and high-redshift rapid quenching that often follows a period of significant starburst (Wu et al 2018;Belli et al 2019;Suess et al 2021), though there is a significant diversity in quenching times especially among the galaxies which quench more slowly (e.g., Tacchella et al 2022). The existence of quenched galaxies at high redshift (e.g., Straatman et al 2014;Davidzon et al 2017;Tanaka et al 2019;D'Eugenio et al 2020a;Forrest et al 2020;Valentino et al 2020;Kalita et al 2021;McLeod et al 2021) indicates that the seeds of the most massive quiescent galaxies in the local universe formed on very short timescales through this rapid mode. However, it is still unclear what causes massive galaxies to abruptly quench after an intense period of star formation, and simulations need to invoke various forms feedback to actively suppress star formation and Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Compact Structures of Massive z ∼ 0.7 Post-starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGGL⃗E Sample

Setton

Verrico

Bezanson

et al. 2022

ApJ

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We present structural measurements of 145 spectroscopically selected intermediate-redshift (z ∼ 0.7), massive (M ⋆ ∼ 1011 M ⊙) post-starburst galaxies from the SQuIGG L ⃗ E sample measured using wide-depth Hyper Suprime-Cam i-band imaging. This deep imaging allows us to probe the sizes and structures of these galaxies, which we compare to a control sample of star-forming and quiescent galaxies drawn from the LEGA-C Survey. We find that post-starburst galaxies systematically lie ∼0.1 dex below the quiescent mass–size (half-light radius) relation, with a scatter of ∼0.2 dex. This finding is bolstered by nonparametric measures, such as the Gini coefficient and the concentration, which also reveal these galaxies to have more compact light profiles than both quiescent and star-forming populations at similar mass and redshift. The sizes of post-starburst galaxies show either negative or no correlation with the time since quenching, such that more recently quenched galaxies are larger or similarly sized. This empirical finding disfavors the formation of post-starburst galaxies via a purely central burst of star formation that simultaneously shrinks the galaxy and shuts off star formation. We show that the central densities of post-starburst and quiescent galaxies at this epoch are very similar, in contrast with their effective radii. The structural properties of z ∼ 0.7 post-starburst galaxies match those of quiescent galaxies that formed in the early universe, suggesting that rapid quenching in the present epoch is driven by a similar mechanism to the one at high redshift.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Compact Structures of Massive z ∼ 0.7 Post-starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGGL⃗E Sample

Setton

Verrico

Bezanson

et al. 2022

ApJ

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“…Boogaard et al 2021) as an indirect tracer of quiescence, though the presence of gas around the galaxy is not necessarily an indicator for ongoing star formation (e.g. Kalita et al 2021). However, ALMA is not a survey instrument and thus has a limited field of view (FoV).…”

Section: The Need For Spectroscopic Confirmationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Massive high-redshift quiescent galaxies with JWST

Nanayakkara

Esdaile

Glazebrook

et al. 2022

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

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Recent ground-based deep observations of the Universe have discovered large populations of massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim3\!-\!5$ . With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the on-board Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument will provide continuous $0.6\!-\!5.3\,\unicode{x03BC}\,\mathrm{m}$ spectroscopic coverage of these galaxies. Here we show that NIRSpec/CLEAR spectroscopy is ideal to probe the completeness of photometrically selected massive quiescent galaxies such as the ones presented by Schreiber et al. (2018b, A&A, 618, A85). Using a subset of the Schreiber et al. (2018b, A&A, 618, A85) sample with deep Keck/MOSFIRE spectroscopy presented by Esdaile J., et al. (2021b, ApJ, 908, L35), we perform a suite of mock JWST/NIRSpec observations to determine optimal observing strategies to efficiently recover the star formation histories (SFHs), element abundances, and kinematics of these massive quiescent galaxies. We find that at $z\sim3$ , medium resolution G235M/FL170LP NIRSpec observations could recover element abundances at an accuracy of ${\sim}15\%$ , which is comparable to local globular clusters. Mimicking ZFOURGE COSMOS photometry, we perform mock spectrophotometric fitting with Prospector to show that the overall shape of the SFHs of our mock galaxies can be recovered well, albeit with a dependency on the number of non-parametric SFH bins. We show that deep high-resolution G235H/FL170LP integral field spectroscopy with a $S/N\sim7$ per spaxel is required to constrain the rotational properties of our sample at $>\!2\sigma$ confidence. Thus, through optimal grism/filter choices, JWST/NIRSpec slit and integral field spectroscopy observations would provide tight constraints to galaxy evolution in the early Universe.

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“…We note first of all that age determinations from spectroscopic samples are expected to be biased towards younger ages, because the oldest galaxies are extremely difficult to observe even at very high masses with current instruments. Indeed, based on photometric observations older quiescent galaxies may actually exist (e.g., Straatman et al 2014;Carnall et al 2020;Kalita et al 2021), but while they may be elusive even in photometric studies, obtaining spectra to robustly confirm their nature and measure their ages is currently too expensive or unfeasible. Indeed, in The SMF of all (left), star-forming (middle) and quiescent (right) galaxies from M3, TNG300 and TNG100.…”

Section: Stellar Agesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions

Lustig¹,

Strazzullo²,

Remus³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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We study stellar population and structural properties of massive log(𝑀 ★ /𝑀 ) > 11 galaxies at 𝑧 ≈ 2.7 in the Magneticum (box 3) and IllustrisTNG (TNG100, TNG300) hydrodynamical simulations. We find stellar mass functions broadly consistent with observations, with no scarcity of massive, quiescent galaxies at 𝑧 ≈ 2.7, but with a higher quiescent galaxy fraction at high masses in IllustrisTNG. Average ages of simulated quiescent galaxies are between ≈ 0.8 and 1.0 Gyr, older by a factor ≈ 2 than observed in spectroscopically-confirmed quiescent galaxies at similar redshift. Besides being potentially indicative of issues with star-formation recipes in simulations, this discrepancy might also be partly explained by limitations in the estimation of observed ages. We investigate the purity of simulated UVJ rest-frame color-selected massive quiescent samples with photometric uncertainties typical of deep surveys (e.g., COSMOS). We find evidence for significant contamination (up to 60 percent) by dusty star-forming galaxies in the UVJ region that is typically populated by older quiescent sources. Furthermore, simulations suggest that the completeness of UVJ-selected quiescent samples at this redshift may be reduced by ≈ 30 percent due to a high fraction of young quiescent galaxies not entering the UVJ quiescent region. Massive, quiescent galaxies in simulations have on average lower angular momenta and higher projected axis ratios and concentrations than star-forming counterparts. Average sizes of simulated quiescent galaxies are relatively close to observed ones, and broadly consistent within the uncertainties. The average size ratio of quiescent and star-forming galaxies in the probed mass range is formally consistent with observations, although this result is partly affected by poor statistics.

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An Ancient Massive Quiescent Galaxy Found in a Gas-rich z ∼ 3 Group

Cited by 24 publications

References 49 publications

The Compact Structures of Massive z ∼ 0.7 Post-starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGGL⃗E Sample

The Compact Structures of Massive z ∼ 0.7 Post-starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGGL⃗E Sample

Massive high-redshift quiescent galaxies with JWST

Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions

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