Toward an Understanding of the Rapid Decline of the Cosmic Star Formation Rate

By Eric F. Bell, C. Papovich, Christian Wolf, É. Le Floc'h, J. Caldwell, M. Barden, E. Egami, D. H. Mcintosh, K. Meisenheimer, P. Pérez-González and 4 more. 2005

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We present a first analysis of deep 24 μm observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope of a sample of nearly 1500 galaxies in a thin redshift slice, 0.65 ≤ z < 0.75. We combine the infrared data with redshifts, rest-frame luminosities, and colors from COMBO-17 and with morphologies from Hubble Space Telescope images collected by the Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs (GEMS) and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) projects. To characterize the decline in star formation rate (SFR) since z ~ 0.7, we estimate the total thermal IR luminosities, SFRs, and stellar masses for the galaxies in this sample. At z ~ 0.7, nearly 40% of intermediate- and high-mass galaxies (with stellar masses ≥2 × 1010 M☉) are undergoing a period of intense star formation above their past-averaged SFR. In contrast, less than 1% of equally massive galaxies in the local universe have similarly intense star formation activity. Morphologically undisturbed galaxies dominate the total infrared luminosity density and SFR density: at z ~ 0.7, more than half of the intensely star-forming galaxies have spiral morphologies, whereas less than ~30% are strongly interacting. Thus, a decline in major merger rate is not the underlying cause of the rapid decline in cosmic SFR since z ~ 0.7. Physical properties that do not strongly affect galaxy morphology—for example, gas consumption and weak interactions with small satellite galaxies—appear to be responsible.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z = 1.1: Staged Galaxy Formation and a Model of Mass-dependent Gas Exhaustion (2007, background): “For instantaneous recycling, with a recycled gas fraction R = 0.5 (Kroupa IMF, Bell et al. 2005), and a SF efficiency ǫ such that the SFR Ψ = ǫMg, one obtains: Ψ(Mb, z) = Ψ(zf) exp ( − T τ ) , (1) T = t(z)− t(zf ), τ = 1 ǫ(1−R) (2) where zf is the “formation redshift” where SF begins and t(z) is the”
The KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS):dynamical properties, gas and dark matter fractions of typical z~1 star-forming galaxies (2016, background): “…the galaxies at this epoch, e.g. the sizes, morphologies, SFRs, metallicities and gas content etc. of these galaxies (e.g. Doherty et al. 2004, 2006; Bell et al. 2005, 2012; Erb et al. 2006a,b; Kassin et al. 2007, 2012; Buitrago et al. 2008; Dunne et al. 2009; Peng et al. 2010; Geach et al. 2011;…”
THE PERSISTENCE OF COOL GALACTIC WINDS IN HIGH STELLAR MASS GALAXIES BETWEEN z ∼ 1.4 AND ∼1 (2009, methodology): “We use the Bell et al. (2005) relation between LIR and SFR with a Kroupa IMF to calculate SFR(IR) for these galaxies, ignoring the contribution to the SFR probed by unextincted light from young stars in the UV, which we expect to be small (Bell et al. 2005; W09).”
Ongoing assembly of massive galaxies by major merging in large groups and clusters from the SDSS (2007, background): “Despite a quiet star-formation history over the last 6–8 billion years (Bell et al. 2005), the total stellar mass density on the red sequence has roughly doubled over this interval (Bell et al. 2004b; Blanton 2006;Borch et al. 2006; Faber et al. 2007; Brown et al. 2007) and now accounts for more…”
Spitzer Observations of Massive, Red Galaxies at High Redshift (2005, methodology): “We use the SFR conversion from Bell et al. (2005), based on the UV and IR calibration presented by Kennicutt (1998), =M yr 1 ¼ 1:8 ; 10 10 LIR þ 3:3L2800ð Þ=L ; ð3Þ where LIR is the total IR luminosity and L2800 L (2800 8) is the monochromatic luminosity at rest frame 2800 8 interpolated from the…”
A PUBLIC Ks-SELECTED CATALOG IN THE COSMOS/UltraVISTA FIELD: PHOTOMETRY, PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFTS, AND STELLAR POPULATION PARAMETERS, (2013, methodology): “We convert the L2800 into a SFRUV,uncorr using the conversion factor SFRUV,uncorr = 3.234 × 10 −10 L2800 from Kennicutt (1998), adapted to a Kroupa IMF by Bell et al. (2005).”
Spitzer View on the Evolution of Star-forming Galaxies from z = 0 to z ~ 3 (2005, background): “In Bell et al. (2005) and Papovich et al. (2005) we investigate the processes governing the evolution of star-forming galaxies from z ¼ 0 to z 1.”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, background): “…contribution of mergers to the star formation rate and IR luminosity densities agrees well with observational estimates (available at z P 2; see Bell et al. 2005; Menanteau et al. 2006), and the constraint from stellar population models that only a small fraction of the z ¼ 0 stellar mass in…”
THE SFR–M* RELATION AND EMPIRICAL STAR FORMATION HISTORIES FROM ZFOURGE AT 0.5 < z < 4 (2015, methodology): “We use the conversion from Bell et al. (2005) scaled to a Chabrier (2003) IMF to derive SFRs from our data: ΨUV+IR [M⊙/yr] = 1.09× 10−10 (LIR + 2.2LUV) (1) where LIR is the integrated 8−1000µm luminosity and LUV =1.5 ν Lν,2800 represents the rest-frame 1216−3000Å luminosity, both in units of L⊙.”
DEMOGRAPHICS AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF GAS OUTFLOWS/INFLOWS AT 0.4 < z < 1.4 (2012, background): “At any redshift during this period, starforming galaxies populate a fairly well-defined locus in the star formation rate (SFR) – stellar mass plane (Bell et al. 2005; Elbaz et al. 2007; Noeske et al. 2007).”
On the frequency, intensity, and duration of starburst episodes triggered by galaxy interactions and mergers (2008, background): “There are however several studies (e.g. Bell et al. 2005) who find that this role is limited.”
Photometric Redshifts of Galaxies in COSMOS (2006, methodology): “Stellar Mass Estimates The stellar mass for COSMOS galaxies is measured using the relation between M /LV and rest-frame (B V )0 colors M=LV ¼ 0:628þ 1:305 (B V )0 (Bell et al. 2005).”
Near-Infrared and Star-forming Properties of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies (2006, background): “At z ∼ 0.7− 1 a significant fraction of the LIRG population appears to be morphologically disturbed spiral galaxies (Bell et al. 2005; Shi et al. 2006), rather than interacting and merging systems.”
LSD: Lyman-break galaxies Stellar populations and Dynamics – I. Mass, metallicity and gas at z∼ 3.1 (2009, background): “The regular morphologies of the galaxies dominating the SF activity at intermediate redshifts (Bell et al. 2005; Wolf et al. 2005) and the (generally) regular dynamics observed at z ∼ 2 (Förster Schreiber et al. 2006; Genzel et al. 2008; Shapiro et al. 2008; Stark et al. 2008) support this…”
GOODS-HERSCHEL AND CANDELS: THE MORPHOLOGIES OF ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 (2011, background): “Investigations at z ∼ 1 (e.g., Zheng et al. 2004; Bell et al. 2005; Bridge et al. 2007; Shi et al. 2006, 2009; Kartaltepe et al. 2010b) have found a similar trend between galaxy morphology and total infrared luminosity, with sources at the highest luminosities dominated by major mergers.”
Tracing the cosmic growth of supermassive black holes to z ∼ 3 with Herschel (2014, background): “…seems to be mirrored in the evolution of the cosmic star formation density (SFD, Lilly et al. 1996; Madau et al. 1996; Cowie et al. 1996, 1997; Bell et al. 2005; Juneau et al. 2005; Bundy et al. 2006; Wall et al. 2008; Gruppioni et al. 2013), hinting at a deep interplay among the AGN and its…”
DUSTY INFRARED GALAXIES: Sources of the Cosmic Infrared Background (2005, background): “This changes dramatically at higher redshift: in deep surveys, ISO detect about 15% of the MB ≤-20 galaxies (LIRGs, Hammer et al. 2005) and Spitzer de- tect about 30% of field galaxies (Starbursts and LIRGs, Bell et al. 2005).”
GOODS-Herschel: the far-infrared view of star formation in active galactic nucleus host galaxies since z ≈ 3 (2011, background): “1 has taken place in galaxies undergoing internally-induced evolution, whichalso appears to be the case for the majority of stellar mass build up over this redshift range (e.g., Bell et al. 2005; Jogee et al. 2009).”
The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe (2007, background): “Hence only a third of the LIRGs atz ∼1 present direct evidence suggesting that they are experiencing a major merger (see also Bell et al. 2005, Zheng et al. 2004, Melbourne et al. 2006).”