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The star formation histories of z ∼ 1 post-starburst galaxies

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Date
05/2020
Author
Wild, Vivienne
Taj Aldeen, Laith
Carnall, Adam
Maltby, David
Almaini, Omar
Werle, Ariel
Wilkinson, Aaron
Rowlands, Kate
Bolzonella, Micol
Castellano, Marco
Gargiulo, Adriana
McLure, Ross
Pentericci, Laura
Pozzetti, Lucia
Keywords
Galaxies: evolution
Galaxies: formation
Galaxies: starburst
Galaxies: stellar content
QB Astronomy
QC Physics
3rd-DAS
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Abstract
We present the star formation histories of 39 galaxies with high-quality rest-frame optical spectra at 0.5 <z <1.3 selected to have strong Balmer absorption lines and/or Balmer break, and compare to a sample of spectroscopically selected quiescent galaxies at the same redshift. Photometric selection identifies a majority of objects that have clear evidence for a recent short-lived burst of star formation within the last 1.5 Gyr, i.e. 'post-starburst' galaxies, however we show that good quality continuum spectra are required to obtain physical parameters such as burst mass fraction and burst age. Dust attenuation appears to be the primary cause for misidentification of post-starburst galaxies, leading to contamination in spectroscopic samples where only the [O II] emission line is available, as well as a small fraction of objects lost from photometric samples. The 31 confirmed post-starburst galaxies have formed 40-90 per cent of their stellar mass in the last1-1.5 Gyr. We use the derived star formation histories to find that the post-starburst galaxies are visible photometrically for 0.5-1 Gyr. This allows us to update a previous analysis to suggest that 25-50 per cent of the growth of the red sequence at z ∼ 1 could be caused by a starburst followed by rapid quenching. We use the inferred maximum historical star formation rates of several 100-1000 M⊙yr-1 and updated visibility times to confirm that sub-mm galaxies are likely progenitors of post-starburst galaxies. The short quenching time-scales of 100-200 Myr are consistent with cosmological hydrodynamic models in which rapid quenching is caused by the mechanical expulsion of gas due to an acive galactic neucleus.
Citation
Wild , V , Taj Aldeen , L , Carnall , A , Maltby , D , Almaini , O , Werle , A , Wilkinson , A , Rowlands , K , Bolzonella , M , Castellano , M , Gargiulo , A , McLure , R , Pentericci , L & Pozzetti , L 2020 , ' The star formation histories of z ∼ 1 post-starburst galaxies ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 494 , no. 1 , pp. 529-548 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa674
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa674
ISSN
0035-8711
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa674.
Description
Funding: LTA acknowledges support from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MOHESR), Iraq. AW acknowledges financial support from the Royal Society Newton Fund (grant NAF/R1/180403, PI Natalia Vale Asari) and Fundação de à Amparo Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) process number 2019/01768-6.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.09154
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020MNRAS.494..529W
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/26034

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