2018/04/20 by Kevin C. Cooke, Kevin Fogarty, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe +4 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Brightest cluster galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Galaxy formation and evolution #Redshift #Star formation #Stellar density #Stellar mass #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aab895
published in The Astrophysical Journal 857(2), 122 (IOP Publishing) · 15 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, Accepted to ApJ: 2018 March 19, Published in ApJ: 2018 April 24
openalex created_date 2018/04/13 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/20 · arxiv created 2018/05/08 · arxiv updated 2018/05/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We investigate the evolution of star formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses, and M/L 3.4 μ m ratios of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in the COSMOS survey since z ∼ 1 to determine the contribution of star formation to the growth-rate of BCG stellar mass over time. Through the spectral energy density (SED) fitting of the GALEX , CFHT, Subaru, Vista , Spitzer , and Herschel photometric data available in the COSMOS2015 catalog, we estimate the stellar mass and SFR of each BCG. We use a modified version of the iSEDfit package to fit the SEDs of our sample with both stellar and dust emission models, as well as constrain the impact of star formation history assumptions on our results. We find that in our sample of COSMOS BCGs, star formation evolves similarly to that in BCGs in samples of more massive galaxy clusters. However, compared to the latter, the magnitude of star formation in our sample is lower by ∼1 dex. Additionally, we find an evolution of BCG baryonic mass-to-light ratio ( M / L 3.4 μ m ) with redshift which is consistent with a passively aging stellar population. We use this to build upon Wen et al.'s low-redshift νL 3.4 μ m – M Stellar relation, quantifying a correlation between νL 3.4 μ m and M Stellar to z ∼ 1. By comparing our results to BCGs in Sunyaev–Zel’dovich and X-ray-selected samples of galaxy clusters, we find evidence that the normalization of star formation evolution in a cluster sample is driven by the mass range of the sample and may be biased upwards by cool cores.