The Shape and Scatter of The Galaxy Main Sequence for Massive Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
| Autor: | Sherman, Sydney, Jogee, Shardha, Florez, Jonathan, Finkelstein, Steven L., Ciardullo, Robin, Wold, Isak, Stevans, Matthew L., Kawinwanichakij, Lalitwadee, Papovich, Casey, Gronwall, Caryl |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stab1350 |
| Popis: | We present the main sequence for all galaxies and star-forming galaxies for a sample of 28,469 massive ($M_\star \ge 10^{11}$M$_\odot$) galaxies at cosmic noon ($1.5 < z < 3.0$), uniformly selected from a 17.5 deg$^2$ area (0.33 Gpc$^3$ comoving volume at these redshifts). Our large sample allows for a novel approach to investigating the galaxy main sequence that has not been accessible to previous studies. We measure the main sequence in small mass bins in the SFR-M$_{\star}$ plane without assuming a functional form for the main sequence. With a large sample of galaxies in each mass bin, we isolate star-forming galaxies by locating the transition between the star-forming and green valley populations in the SFR-M$_{\star}$ plane. This approach eliminates the need for arbitrarily defined fixed cutoffs when isolating the star-forming galaxy population, which often biases measurements of the scatter around the star-forming galaxy main sequence. We find that the main sequence for all galaxies becomes increasingly flat towards present day at the high-mass end, while the star-forming galaxy main sequence does not. We attribute this difference to the increasing fraction of the collective green valley and quiescent galaxy population from $z=3.0$ to $z=1.5$. Additionally, we measure the total scatter around the star-forming galaxy main sequence and find that it is $\sim0.5-1.0$ dex with little evolution as a function of mass or redshift. We discuss the implications that these results have for pinpointing the physical processes driving massive galaxy evolution. Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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