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The evolution of quiescent galaxies at high redshifts (z≥ 1.4)
- Source :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 417:900-915
- Publication Year :
- 2011
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2011.
-
Abstract
- We have studied the evolution of high redshift quiescent galaxies over an effective area of ~1.7 deg^2 in the COSMOS field. Galaxies have been divided according to their star-formation activity and the evolution of the different populations has been investigated in detail. We have studied an IRAC (mag_3.6 1.4 with multi-wavelength coverage. We have derived accurate photometric redshifts (sigma=0.06) and other important physical parameters through a SED-fitting procedure. We have divided our sample into actively star-forming, intermediate and quiescent galaxies depending on their specific star formation rate. We have computed the galaxy stellar mass function of the total sample and the different populations at z=1.4-3.0. We have studied the properties of high redshift quiescent galaxies finding that they are old (1-4 Gyr), massive (log(M/M_sun)~10.65), weakly star forming stellar populations with low dust extinction (E(B-V) 11, while the quiescent population increases from 10% to 50% at the same redshift and mass intervals. We compare the fraction of quiescent galaxies derived with that predicted by theoretical models and find that the Kitzbichler & White (2007) model is the one that better reproduces the data. Finally, we calculate the stellar mass density of the star-forming and quiescent populations finding that there is already a significant number of quiescent galaxies at z > 2.5 (rho~6.0 MsunMpc^-3).
- Subjects :
- Physics
education.field_of_study
Stellar mass
010308 nuclear & particles physics
Star formation
Population
Extinction (astronomy)
Theoretical models
Sigma
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
Galaxy
Redshift
Space and Planetary Science
0103 physical sciences
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
education
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00358711
- Volume :
- 417
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........0306728638284c812b30f94f23a486c9