محفوظ في:
التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلفون الرئيسيون: Nersesian, Angelos, van der Wel, Arjen, Gallazzi, Anna R., Kaushal, Yasha, Bezanson, Rachel, Zibetti, Stefano, Bell, Eric F., D'Eugenio, Francesco, Leja, Joel, Martorano, Marco, Wu, Po-Feng
التنسيق: Preprint
منشور في: 2025
الموضوعات:
الوصول للمادة أونلاين:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03021
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author Nersesian, Angelos
van der Wel, Arjen
Gallazzi, Anna R.
Kaushal, Yasha
Bezanson, Rachel
Zibetti, Stefano
Bell, Eric F.
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Leja, Joel
Martorano, Marco
Wu, Po-Feng
author_facet Nersesian, Angelos
van der Wel, Arjen
Gallazzi, Anna R.
Kaushal, Yasha
Bezanson, Rachel
Zibetti, Stefano
Bell, Eric F.
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Leja, Joel
Martorano, Marco
Wu, Po-Feng
contents We present the stellar properties of 2908 galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0 from the LEGA-C survey. We emphasize the importance of high signal-to-noise, high spectral resolution spectroscopy in the inference of stellar population properties of galaxies. We estimate the galaxy properties with the SED fitting code Prospector, by fitting spectroscopy and broadband photometry together, drawn from the LEGA-C DR3 and UltraVISTA catalogs respectively. We report a positive correlation between light-weighted ages and stellar velocity dispersion ($σ_\star$). The trend with $σ_\star$ is weaker for the mass-weighted ages and stellar metallicity ($Z_\star$). On average, quiescent galaxies are characterized by high $Z_\star$, they are \sim 1.1 Gyr older, less dusty, with steeper dust attenuation slopes compared to star-forming galaxies. Conversely, star-forming galaxies are characterized by significantly higher dust optical depths and shallower (grayer) attenuation slopes. Low mass (high mass) star-forming galaxies have lower (higher) $Z_\star$, while their stellar populations are on average younger (older). A key pragmatic result of our study is that a linear-space metallicity prior is preferable to a logarithmic-space one when using photometry alone, as the latter biases the posteriors downward. Spectroscopy greatly improves stellar population measurements and is required to provide meaningful constraints on age, metallicity, and other properties. Pairing spectroscopy with photometry helps resolving the dust-age-metallicity degeneracy, yielding more accurate mass- and light-weighted ages, with ages inferred from photometry alone suffering such large uncertainties. Stellar metallicities are constrained by our spectroscopy, but precise measurements remain challenging (and impossible with photometry alone), particularly in the absence of Mg and Fe lines redward of 5000 $Å$ in the observed spectrum.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_03021
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle More is better: Strong constraints on the stellar properties of LEGA-C z ~ 1 galaxies with Prospector
Nersesian, Angelos
van der Wel, Arjen
Gallazzi, Anna R.
Kaushal, Yasha
Bezanson, Rachel
Zibetti, Stefano
Bell, Eric F.
D'Eugenio, Francesco
Leja, Joel
Martorano, Marco
Wu, Po-Feng
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present the stellar properties of 2908 galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0 from the LEGA-C survey. We emphasize the importance of high signal-to-noise, high spectral resolution spectroscopy in the inference of stellar population properties of galaxies. We estimate the galaxy properties with the SED fitting code Prospector, by fitting spectroscopy and broadband photometry together, drawn from the LEGA-C DR3 and UltraVISTA catalogs respectively. We report a positive correlation between light-weighted ages and stellar velocity dispersion ($σ_\star$). The trend with $σ_\star$ is weaker for the mass-weighted ages and stellar metallicity ($Z_\star$). On average, quiescent galaxies are characterized by high $Z_\star$, they are \sim 1.1 Gyr older, less dusty, with steeper dust attenuation slopes compared to star-forming galaxies. Conversely, star-forming galaxies are characterized by significantly higher dust optical depths and shallower (grayer) attenuation slopes. Low mass (high mass) star-forming galaxies have lower (higher) $Z_\star$, while their stellar populations are on average younger (older). A key pragmatic result of our study is that a linear-space metallicity prior is preferable to a logarithmic-space one when using photometry alone, as the latter biases the posteriors downward. Spectroscopy greatly improves stellar population measurements and is required to provide meaningful constraints on age, metallicity, and other properties. Pairing spectroscopy with photometry helps resolving the dust-age-metallicity degeneracy, yielding more accurate mass- and light-weighted ages, with ages inferred from photometry alone suffering such large uncertainties. Stellar metallicities are constrained by our spectroscopy, but precise measurements remain challenging (and impossible with photometry alone), particularly in the absence of Mg and Fe lines redward of 5000 $Å$ in the observed spectrum.
title More is better: Strong constraints on the stellar properties of LEGA-C z ~ 1 galaxies with Prospector
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03021