The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe

By D. Elbaz, E. Daddi, D. L. Borgne, Mark Dickinson, D. M. Alexander, R. Chary, Jean-Luc Starck, W. N. Brandt, Manfred G. Kitzbichler, E. Macdonald and 4 more. 2007

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Aims. We study the relationship between the local environment of galaxies and their star formation rate (SFR) in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, GOODS, at $z\sim1$. Methods. We use ultradeep imaging at 24 μ m with the MIPS camera onboard ${\it Spitzer}$ to determine the contribution of obscured light to the SFR of galaxies over the redshift range $0.8\leq z \leq1.2$. Accurate galaxy densities are measured thanks to the large sample of ~1200 spectroscopic redshifts with high (~70%) spectroscopic completeness. Morphology and stellar masses are derived from deep HST-ACS imaging, supplemented by ground based imaging programs and photometry from the IRAC camera onboard ${\it Spitzer}$. Results. We show that the star formation-density relation observed locally was reversed at $z\sim 1$: the average SFR of an individual galaxy increased with local galaxy density when the universe was less than half its present age. Hierarchical galaxy formation models (simulated lightcones from the Millennium model) predicted such a reversal to occur only at earlier epochs ($z>2$) and at a lower level. We present a remarkable structure at $z\sim 1.016$, containing X-ray traced galaxy concentrations, which will eventually merge into a Virgo-like cluster. This structure illustrates how the individual SFR of galaxies increases with density and shows that it is the ~1-2 Mpc scale that affects most the star formation in galaxies at $z\sim1$. The SFR of $z\sim1$ galaxies is found to correlate with stellar mass suggesting that mass plays a role in the observed star formation-density trend. However the specific SFR (= SFR /$M_{\star}$) decreases with stellar mass while it increases with galaxy density, which implies that the environment does directly affect the star formation activity of galaxies. Major mergers do not appear to be the unique or even major cause for this effect since nearly half (46%) of the luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) at $z\sim 1$ present the HST-ACS morphology of spirals, while only a third present a clear signature of major mergers. The remaining galaxies are divided into compact (9%) and irregular (14%) galaxies. Moreover, the specific SFR of major mergers is only marginally stronger than that of spirals. Conclusions. These findings constrain the influence of the growth of large-scale structures on the star formation history of galaxies. Reproducing the SFR-density relation at $z\sim1$ is a new challenge for models, requiring a correct balance between mass assembly through mergers and in-situ star formation at early epochs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aa3d841d25c38c5d61d5a6e9eef2a0c5dbcd9d9b

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Citations in the corpus

A UNIFIED EMPIRICAL MODEL FOR INFRARED GALAXY COUNTS BASED ON THE OBSERVED PHYSICAL EVOLUTION OF DISTANT GALAXIES (2012, background): “The so-called SF main sequence (MS) is composed of secularly-evolving galaxies that display a tight correlation between stellar mass (M⋆) and star formation rate (SFR) at a given redshift (e.g. Elbaz et al. 2007; Noeske et al. 2007; Daddi et al. 2007).”
THE SINS/zC-SINF SURVEY of z ∼ 2 GALAXY KINEMATICS: OUTFLOW PROPERTIES (2012, background): “…of m∗ by assuming (1) the R1/2-m∗ relation of Ichikawa et al. (2012) (R1/2∼ m∗ 0.14), (2) the SFR-m∗ relation for normal SFGs (SFR = m∗ 0.7 x ((1+z)/3.2)2.6) (Elbaz et al. 2007; Noeske et al. 2007) and (3) a constant gas depletion timescale (tdepl = Mg/SFR ∼ 6.4 x 10 8 yr, Tacconi et al. (2012)).”
PHIBSS: MOLECULAR GAS CONTENT AND SCALING RELATIONS IN z ∼ 1–3 MASSIVE, MAIN-SEQUENCE STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2012, background): “…on a near-linear relationship between stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR~(M*) p , p=0.6-0.9 (Schiminovich et al. 2007, Noeske et al. 2007, Elbaz et al. 2007, Daddi et al. 2007, Panella et al. 2009, Peng et al. 2010, Rodighiero et al. 2010, Karim et al. 2011, Salmi et al. 2012, Whitaker…”
Vigorous Star Formation with Low Efficiency in Massive Disk Galaxies at z = 1.5 (2007, background): “The existence of tight correlations between SFRs and galaxy masses (Elbaz et al. 2007; Noeske et al. 2007; D07a) and the predominance of ULIRGs inside mass limited samples of M >∼ 5×10 10M⊙ galaxies (Daddi et al 2005; D07a; Caputi et al 2006) suggests that vigorous starbursts were typically long…”
STAR FORMATION AND DUST OBSCURATION AT z ≈ 2: GALAXIES AT THE DAWN OF DOWNSIZING (2009, methodology): “We also overplot three lower redshifts realizations (Brinchmann et al. 2004; Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007) and thez∼ 2 estimate by Daddi et al. (2007a), by computing the SSFR predicted from these studies for star forming galaxies with M∗ ∼3×1010M⊙, and show how the SSFRs have decreased by…”
EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS AT z = 0.1–3 IN COSMOS (2013, background): “Elbaz et al. (2007) and Cooper et al. (2008) have suggested a reversal at z = 0.8−1 of the SFR-density relation (i.e. higher SFRs at higher densities); however, (Patel et al. 2009) found no such reversal for a cluster and its environment at z = 0.1274.”
GOODS-HERSCHEL: STAR FORMATION, DUST ATTENUATION, AND THE FIR–RADIO CORRELATION ON THE MAIN SEQUENCE OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES UP TO z ≃ 4 (2014, background): “…mass of log(M∗/M⊙)=10.5 as obtained from this work, together with some previously published results (Brinchmann et al. 2004, Noeske et al. 2007, Elbaz et al. 2007, Daddi et al. 2007 and 2009, Pannella et al. 2009b, Magdis et al. 2010) and the analytical descriptions of the Main Sequence…”
Introducing the Illustris Project: simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe (2014, background): “The green band shows the observed SF main sequence (Elbaz et al. 2007).”
Evolution of the dusty infrared luminosity function from z = 0 to z = 2.3 using observations from Spitzer (2011, background): “The flattening of the SFR density atz > 1 reinforces the idea that at this redshift we observe a change of the properties of star-forming galaxies asalready suggested by the reversal of the star formation-density relation atz∼ 1 (Elbaz et al. 2007).”
CANDELS: THE COSMIC ASSEMBLY NEAR-INFRARED DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC LEGACY SURVEY—THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS, IMAGING DATA PRODUCTS, AND MOSAICS (2011, background): “The star formation rate also correlates strongly with stellar mass M?, and the zeropoint of the SFR(M?) relation declines steadily below z∼ 2.5 (Daddi et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Noeske et al. 2007).”
THE STAR FORMATION MASS SEQUENCE OUT TO z = 2.5 (2012, background): “Galaxies show a strong correlation between their star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M⋆) from z = 0 to the earliest observed epoch, z = 7 (e.g., Brinchmann et al. 2004; Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Daddi et al. 2007; Pannella et al. 2009; Magdis et al. 2010; González et al. 2010).”
The faint radio sky: radio astronomy becomes mainstream (2016, background): “For this second mode, a tight correlation between a galaxy’s SFR and its stellar mass M⋆ has been discovered in the past decade (Noeske et al., 2007; Elbaz et al., 2007; Daddi et al., 2007).”
Mass-metallicity relation explored with CALIFA I. Is there a dependence on the star-formation rate? (2013, background): “The SFR of blue/star-forming galaxies has a well known relation with the stellar mass which has been described not only in the Local Universe (e.g. Brinchmann et al. 2004), but also at different redshifts (e.g. Elbaz et al. 2007, and references there in).”
ON STAR FORMATION RATES AND STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF GALAXIES OUT TO z ∼ 3 (2011, background): “The relation between the instantaneous star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass of individual galaxies sheds light on how (in bursts or gradually) and where (in galaxies of what mass) the star-forming activity took place (Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Daddi et al. 2007a).”
BULGE GROWTH AND QUENCHING SINCE z = 2.5 IN CANDELS/3D-HST (2014, background): “This relation has been dubbed the ’main sequence’ (MS) of starforming galaxies (Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Daddi et al. 2007; Rodighiero et al. 2011).”
The evolution of the dust and gas content in galaxies (2013, background): “…between the SFR and the stellar mass from the local Universe out to at least z ∼ 3, with a roughly 0.3 dex scatter (e.g., Brinchmann et al. 2004; Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Santini et al. 2009; Karim et al. 2011; Rodighiero et al. 2011; Whitaker et al. 2012, and references therein).”
Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations (2012, background): “…(grey curves) inferred by previous studies in similar redshift intervals as the ones usedin this work: Santini et al. (2009) atz = 0.6 − 1.0, z = 1.0 − 1.5 and z = 1.5 − 2.5, Noeske et al. (2007) atz = 0.2 − 0.7, Elbaz et al. (2007) atz = 0.8 − 1.2 and Daddi et al. (2007b) at z = 1.4 − 2.5.”
Tracking the impact of environment on the galaxy stellar mass function up to z ~ 1 in the 10 k zCOSMOS sample (2009, methodology): “A similar result on the reversing relationship SFR-environment has been achieved by Elbaz et al. (2007), using GOODS data and SFR derived from UV and 24µm emission.”
CONSTRAINING THE LOW-MASS SLOPE OF THE STAR FORMATION SEQUENCE AT 0.5 < z < 2.5 (2014, background): “…majority of star-forming galaxies follow a relatively tight relation between star formation rate (SFR ≡ Ψ) and stellar mass (M ) (Brinchmann et al. 2004; Noeske et al. 2007; Elbaz et al. 2007; Daddi et al. 2007; Magdis et al. 2010; González et al. 2010; Whitaker et al. 2012b; Huang et al. 2012).”
The STAGES view of red spirals and dusty red galaxies: Mass-dependent quenching of star formation in cluster infall (2008, background): “…(Postman et al. 2005), while the SF–density relation appears to invert its slope between high redshift where SF first commences at highest densities (see Elbaz et al. 2007; Cooper et al. 2008, for results at z ∼ 1) and low redshift (Lewis et al. 2002; Gomez et al. 2003) where it avoids overdense…”