Compact dust-obscured star-formation and the origin of the galaxy bimodality

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Main Authors: Tarrasse, Maxime, Gómez-Guijarro, Carlos, Elbaz, David, Magnelli, Benjamin, Dickinson, Mark, Henry, Aurélien, Franco, Maximilien, Lyu, Yipeng, Billand, Jean-Baptiste, Bhatawdekar, Rachana, Cheng, Yingjie, Fontana, Adriano, Finkelstein, Steven L., Gandolfi, Giovanni, Hathi, Nimish, Hirschmann, Michaela, Holwerda, Benne W., Koekemoer, Anton M., Lucas, Ray A., Seillé, Lise-Marie, Wilkins, Stephen, Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Tarrasse, Maxime
Gómez-Guijarro, Carlos
Elbaz, David
Magnelli, Benjamin
Dickinson, Mark
Henry, Aurélien
Franco, Maximilien
Lyu, Yipeng
Billand, Jean-Baptiste
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Cheng, Yingjie
Fontana, Adriano
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Gandolfi, Giovanni
Hathi, Nimish
Hirschmann, Michaela
Holwerda, Benne W.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lucas, Ray A.
Seillé, Lise-Marie
Wilkins, Stephen
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
author_facet Tarrasse, Maxime
Gómez-Guijarro, Carlos
Elbaz, David
Magnelli, Benjamin
Dickinson, Mark
Henry, Aurélien
Franco, Maximilien
Lyu, Yipeng
Billand, Jean-Baptiste
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Cheng, Yingjie
Fontana, Adriano
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Gandolfi, Giovanni
Hathi, Nimish
Hirschmann, Michaela
Holwerda, Benne W.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lucas, Ray A.
Seillé, Lise-Marie
Wilkins, Stephen
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
contents During the last decade, studies about highly attenuated and massive red star-forming galaxies (RedSFGs) at $z \sim 4$ have suggested that they could constitute a crucial population for unraveling the mechanisms driving the transition from vigorous star formation to quiescence at high redshifts. Since such a transition seems to be linked to a morphological transformation, studying the morphological properties of these RedSFGs is essential to our understanding of galaxy evolution. To this end, we are using JWST/NIRCam images from the CEERS survey to assemble a mass-complete sample of 188 massive galaxies at $z=3-4$, for which we perform resolved-SED fit. After classifying galaxies into typical blue SFGs (BlueSFGs), RedSFGs and quiescent galaxies (QGs), we compare the morphologies of each population in terms of stellar mass density, SFR density, sSFR, dust-attenuation and mass-weighted age. We find that RedSFGs and QGs present similar stellar surface density profiles and that RedSFGs manifest a dust attenuation concentration significantly higher than that of BlueSFGs at all masses. This indicates that to become quiescent, a BlueSFG must transit through a major compaction phase once it has become sufficiently massive. At the same time, we find RedSFGs and QGs to account for more than $50\%$ of galaxies with ${\rm log}(M_\ast/M_\odot)> 10.4$ at this redshift. This transition mass corresponds to the "critical mass" delineating the bimodality between BlueSFGs and QGs in the local Universe. We then conclude that there is a bimodality between extended BlueSFGs and compact, highly attenuated RedSFGs that have undergone a major gas compaction phase enabling the latter to build a massive bulb in situ. There is evidence that this early-stage separation is at the origin of the local bimodality between BlueSFGs and QGs, which we refer to as a "primeval bimodality".
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_00279
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Compact dust-obscured star-formation and the origin of the galaxy bimodality
Tarrasse, Maxime
Gómez-Guijarro, Carlos
Elbaz, David
Magnelli, Benjamin
Dickinson, Mark
Henry, Aurélien
Franco, Maximilien
Lyu, Yipeng
Billand, Jean-Baptiste
Bhatawdekar, Rachana
Cheng, Yingjie
Fontana, Adriano
Finkelstein, Steven L.
Gandolfi, Giovanni
Hathi, Nimish
Hirschmann, Michaela
Holwerda, Benne W.
Koekemoer, Anton M.
Lucas, Ray A.
Seillé, Lise-Marie
Wilkins, Stephen
Yung, L. Y. Aaron
Astrophysics of Galaxies
During the last decade, studies about highly attenuated and massive red star-forming galaxies (RedSFGs) at $z \sim 4$ have suggested that they could constitute a crucial population for unraveling the mechanisms driving the transition from vigorous star formation to quiescence at high redshifts. Since such a transition seems to be linked to a morphological transformation, studying the morphological properties of these RedSFGs is essential to our understanding of galaxy evolution. To this end, we are using JWST/NIRCam images from the CEERS survey to assemble a mass-complete sample of 188 massive galaxies at $z=3-4$, for which we perform resolved-SED fit. After classifying galaxies into typical blue SFGs (BlueSFGs), RedSFGs and quiescent galaxies (QGs), we compare the morphologies of each population in terms of stellar mass density, SFR density, sSFR, dust-attenuation and mass-weighted age. We find that RedSFGs and QGs present similar stellar surface density profiles and that RedSFGs manifest a dust attenuation concentration significantly higher than that of BlueSFGs at all masses. This indicates that to become quiescent, a BlueSFG must transit through a major compaction phase once it has become sufficiently massive. At the same time, we find RedSFGs and QGs to account for more than $50\%$ of galaxies with ${\rm log}(M_\ast/M_\odot)> 10.4$ at this redshift. This transition mass corresponds to the "critical mass" delineating the bimodality between BlueSFGs and QGs in the local Universe. We then conclude that there is a bimodality between extended BlueSFGs and compact, highly attenuated RedSFGs that have undergone a major gas compaction phase enabling the latter to build a massive bulb in situ. There is evidence that this early-stage separation is at the origin of the local bimodality between BlueSFGs and QGs, which we refer to as a "primeval bimodality".
title Compact dust-obscured star-formation and the origin of the galaxy bimodality
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00279