Evolutionary population synthesis: models, analysis of the ingredients and application to high‐z galaxies

By C. Maraston. 2004

1,532 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evolutionary population synthesis models for a wide range of metallicities, ages, star formation histories, initial mass functions and horizontal branch morphologies, including blue morphologies at high metallicity, are computed. The model output comprises spectral energy distributions, colours, stellar M/L ratios, bolometric corrections and near-infrared (IR) spectral line indices. The energetics of the post main sequence evolutionary phases are evaluated with the fuel consumption theorem. The impact on the models of the stellar evolutionary tracks (in particular with and without overshooting) is assessed. We find modest differences in synthetic broad-band colours as induced by the use of different tracks in our code [e.g. �( V − K ) ∼ 0.08 mag, �( B − V ) ∼ 0.03 mag]. Noticeably, these differences are substantially smaller than the scatter among other models in the literature, even when the latter adopt the same evolutionary tracks. The models are calibrated with globular cluster data from the Milky Way for old ages, and the Magellanic clouds plus the merger remnant galaxy NGC 7252, both for young ages of ∼0.1‐2 Gyr, in a large wavelength range from the U band to the K band. Particular emphasis is put on the contribution from the thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase. We show that this evolutionary phase is crucial for the modelling of young stellar populations by direct comparison with observed spectral energy distributions of Magellanic cloud clusters, which are characterized by relatively high fluxes, both blueward and redward of the V band. We find that the combination of the near-IR spectral indices C2 and H2O can be used to determine the metallicity of ∼1 Gyr stellar populations. As an illustrative application, we re-analyse the spectral energy distributions of some of the high-z galaxies (2.4 z 2.9) observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope by Yan et al. Their high rest-frame near-IR fluxes is reproduced very well with the models including TP-AGB stars for ages in the range ∼0.6‐1.5 Gyr, suggesting formation redshifts for these objects around z ∼ 3‐6. Ke yw ords: stars: AGB and post-AGB ‐ stars: evolution ‐ galaxies: evolution ‐ galaxies: stellar content ‐ cosmology: early Universe.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0d25c9c26d8b47c35232133e9a7eb56a0c7ae7af

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Citations in the corpus

Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, methodology): “Cigale is based on model spectra generated in the optical/near-infrared by Maraston (2005) which account for thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars, synthetic dust attenuation curves based on themodified laws presented in Calzetti et al. (1994) and Calzetti (2001) and…”
A CATALOG OF BULGE, DISK, AND TOTAL STELLAR MASS ESTIMATES FOR THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY (2013, background): “This is in relatively good agreement with the results of previous studies which have addressed the differences between various SPS models (e.g., Bell & de Jong 2001; Maraston 2005; Marchesini et al. 2009; Ilbert et al. 2010; Swindle et al. 2011).”
A HIGHLY CONSISTENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVOLUTION OF THE STAR-FORMING “MAIN SEQUENCE” FROM z ∼ 0–6 (2014, methodology): “The models used in the compilation presented here13 are taken from Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange (1997, 1999) (PEGASE.2), Bruzual & Charlot (2003) (BC03), Maraston (2005) (M05), Charlot & Bruzual (2007, 2011) (CB07, CB11)14, Polletta et al. (2007) (P07), Rowan-Robinson et al. (2008) (R08), and Gruppioni…”
A fundamental problem in our understanding of low-mass galaxy evolution (2012, methodology): “(2005) are in good agreement, despite being based on two different SSP models (Maraston 2005 vs. Bruzual & Charlot 2003).”
GOODS-Herschel: dust attenuation properties of UV selected high redshift galaxies (2012, methodology): “The contribution of TP-AGB, included in the models of Maraston (2005), is assumed to further reduce the stellar mass by 0.2 dex (Muzzin et al., 2009).”
Age-dating luminous red galaxies observed with the Southern African Large Telescope (2016, methodology): “Models are generated with a stellar population synthesis code based on Maraston (2005), which is one of the two models provided, and by adopting input parameters of star formation, UV–optical attenuation and IR emission.”
GALAXY STELLAR MASS ASSEMBLY BETWEEN 0.2 < z < 2 FROM THE S-COSMOS SURVEY (2009, result): “Pozzetti et al. (2007) measured a difference of 0.14 dex between the stellar masses computed with the BC03 and the Maraston (2005) models (which also includes treatment of the TP-AGB stars), in agreement with our results.”
GAS-PHASE OXYGEN GRADIENTS IN STRONGLY INTERACTING GALAXIES. I. EARLY-STAGE INTERACTIONS (2010, background): “Near-infrared photometry, however, is less sensitive to extinction or contamination from star formation than the optical; it is also a reasonable tracer of stellar mass within a factor of ∼2 (Maraston 2005).”
THE RELATION BETWEEN STAR FORMATION RATE AND STELLAR MASS FOR GALAXIES AT 3.5 ⩽ z ⩽ 6.5 IN CANDELS (2014, methodology): “…to use the libraries included with the BC03 models, as recent results have suggested the alternative 2007 libraries (similar TP-AGB contribution as Maraston (2005)) overestimate the contribution from TP-AGB stars in the near infrared (NIR), and the original BC03 version should be preferred (Kriek…”
AN ATLAS OF GALAXY SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET TO THE MID-INFRARED (2013, methodology): “Galaxy SEDs can be modeled using models of stel- lar populations, nebular emission lines, dust obscuration and dust emission (e.g., Tinsley 1968; Silva et al. 1998; Charlot & Longhetti 2001; Bruzual & Charlot 2003; Maraston 2005; da Cunha et al. 2008; Vega et al. 2008; Pacifici et al. 2012).”
A 0.8-2.4 μm spectral atlas of active galactic nuclei (2006, background): “In J, a strong broad absorption is seen to the right of Paγ, which we associate with CN (Maraston 2005) while in H, several narrow absorptions lines of stellar origin are seen.”
The Morphologies of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in the CANDELS-UDS Field: Compact Bulges, and the Rise and Fall of Massive Disks (2012, background): “In particular it has been found that models including higher contributions from the TP-AGB population [Maraston 2005 (M05); Charlot & Bruzual, private communication (CB07)] lead to stellar masses on average ∼0.15 dex smaller (Pozzetti et al. 2007; Ilbert et al. 2010) than those derived using BC03…”
The sizes, masses and specific star formation rates of massive galaxies at 1.3 < z < 1.5: strong evidence in favour of evolution via minor mergers (2012, methodology): “The CB07 models were chosen because they include an updated treatment of thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars which could, at least potentially, have a large influence at rest-frame near-IR wavelengths for stellar populations with ages of 0.3 ≤ t ≤ 2 Gyr (e.g. Maraston 2005).”
Globular cluster systems in nearby dwarf galaxies – III. Formation efficiencies of old globular clusters (2010, positive): “Comparison with population synthesis models (e.g. Maraston 2005; Leitherer et al. 1999) shows that for that age range the integrated cluster colour can reach V −I < 1.4 mag for even as low metallicities as 0.2 to 0.4Z .”
RAPIDLY EVOLVING AND LUMINOUS TRANSIENTS FROM PAN-STARRS1 (2014, methodology): “Our models utilized the Maraston (2005) stellar library and assumed an exponential star formation history and Salpeter IMF.”
Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z ≃ 4 from UltraVISTA (2013, methodology): “Several other models are available in the literature (e.g. Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1997, Maraston 2005, Bruzual 2007, Conroy et al. 2009).”
The AIMSS Project I: bridging the star cluster, galaxy divide (2014, methodology): “The effect of changing [Fe/H] by ±0.5 only results in MK changing by 0.01 at this age (Maraston 2005).”
HYDROGEN-POOR SUPERLUMINOUS SUPERNOVAE AND LONG-DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS HAVE SIMILAR HOST GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “We fit the SLSN host galaxies using the Maraston (2005) stellar library, and assuming an exponential star formation history and a Salpeter IMF.”