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Galaxy formation at z > 3 revealed by narrow-band selected [OIII] emission line galaxies

2015/05/10 by Tomoko L. Suzuki, Suzuki, Tomoko L., Tadayuki Kodama +15
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1505.02410

11 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

arxiv created 2015/05/10 · openalex publication_date 2015/05/10 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2024/04/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We present the physical properties of [OIII] emission line galaxies at z>3 as the tracers of active galaxies at 1Gyr before the peak epoch at z~2. We have performed deep narrow-band imaging surveys in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field with MOIRCS on the Subaru Telescope and have constructed coherent samples of 34 [OIII] emitters at z=3.2 and 3.6, as well as 107 Hα emitters at z=2.2 and 2.5. We investigate their basic physical quantities, such as stellar masses, star formation rates (SFRs), and sizes using the publicly available multi-wavelength data and high resolution images by the Hubble Space Telescope. The stellar masses and SFRs show a clear correlation known as the "main sequence" of star-forming galaxies. It is found that the location of the main sequence of the [OIII] emitters at z=3.2 and 3.6 is almost identical to that of the Hα emitters at z=2.2 and 2.5. Also, we investigate their mass-size relation and find that the relation does not change between the two epochs. When we assume that the star-forming galaxies at z=3.2 grow simply along the same main sequence down to z=2.2, galaxies with M_* = 109-1011 M\odot increase their stellar masses significantly by a factor of 10-2. They climb up the main sequence, and their star formation rates also increase a lot as their stellar masses grow. This indicates that star formation activities of galaxies are accelerated from z>3 towards the peak epoch of galaxy formation at z~2.

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