Search

Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs) stand as remarkable objects due to their extremely metal poor environment and intense star formation. Considered as local analogues of high-redshift galaxies in the peak of their star-forming activity, they offer insights into conditions prevalent during the early Universe. Assessment of their stellar and gas properties is therefore of critical importance, which requires the assembly of a considerable sample, comprehending a broad redshift range. The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (JPAS) plays a significant role in assembling such a sample, encompassing ∼8000  |$\rm deg^2$| and employing 54 narrow-band optical filters. The present work describes the development and subsequent application of the tools that will be employed in the forthcoming JPAS spectrophotometric data, allowing for the massive and automated characterization of EELGs that are expected to be identified. This fully automated pipeline (requiring only the object coordinates from users) constructs Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) by retrieving virtually all the available multiwavelength photometric data archives, employs SED fitting tools, and identifies optical emission lines. It was applied to the sample of extreme line emitters identified in the miniJPAS Survey, and its derived physical properties such as stellar mass and age, coupled with fundamental relations, mirror results obtained through spectral modelling of SDSS spectra. Thorough testing using galaxies with documented photometric measurements across different wavelengths confirmed the pipeline's accuracy, demonstrating its capability for automated analysis of sources with varying characteristics, spanning brightness, morphology, and redshifts. The modular nature of this pipeline facilitates any addition from the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent observations seem to disagree with hierarchical theories of galaxy formation about the role played by major mergers in the late buildup of massive E-S0s. We re-address this question by analysing the morphology, structural distortion level and star formation enhancement of a sample of massive galaxies (M* > 5 × 1010 M⊙) lying on the Red Sequence and its surroundings at 0.3 < z < 1.5. We have used an initial sample of ∼1800 sources with Ks < 20.5 mag over an area ∼155 arcmin2 on the Groth Strip, combining data from the Rainbow Extragalactic Database and the Galaxy Origins and Young Assembly survey. Red galaxy classes that can be directly associated with intermediate stages of major mergers and with their final products have been defined. We report observational evidence of the existence of a dominant evolutionary path among massive red galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.5, consisting in the conversion of irregular discs into irregular spheroids, and of these ones into regular spheroids. This result implies: (1) the massive red regular galaxies at low redshifts derive from the irregular ones populating the Red Sequence and its neighbourhood at earlier epochs up to z ∼ 1.5; (2) the progenitors of the bulk of present-day massive red regular galaxies have been discs that seem to have migrated to the Red Sequence mostly through major mergers at 0.6 < z < 1.2 (these mergers thus starting at z ∼ 1.5) and (3) the formation of E-S0s that end up with M* > 1011 M⊙ at z = 0 through gas-rich major mergers has frozen since z ∼ 0.6. All these facts support that major mergers have played a dominant role in the definitive buildup of present-day E-S0s with M* > 1011 M⊙ at 0.6 < z < 1.2, in good agreement with hierarchical scenarios of galaxy formation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]