GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at z~2. III: The emergence of the color bimodality at z~2

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the evolution of the rest frame color distribution of galaxies with the redshift, in particular in the critical interval 1.4<z<3. We combine ultradeep spectroscopy from the GMASS project (Galaxy Mass Assembly ultradeep Spectroscopic Survey) with GOODS multi-band photometry (from optical to mid-infrared) to study a sample of 1021 galaxies up to m(4.5$\mu$m)=23. We find that the distribution of galaxies in the (U-B) color vs stellar mass plane is bimodal up to at least redshift z=2. We define a mass complete sample of galaxies residing on the red-sequence, selecting objects with log(M/M_{\odot})>10.1, and we study their morphological and spectro-photometric properties. We show that the contribution to this sample of early-type galaxies, defined as galaxies with a spheroidal morphology and no star formation, decreases from 60-70% at z<0.5 down to ~50% at redshift z=2. At z>2 we still find red galaxies in the mass complete sample, even if the bimodality is not seen any more. About 25% of these red galaxies at z>2 are passively evolving, with the bulk of their stars formed at redshift z>`3.

arXiv commentto appear on A&A letters, 4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (19)

• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Evolutionary population synthesis: models, analysis of the ingredients and application to high-z galaxies
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results From Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging
• Color Separation of Galaxy Types in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data
• Multiwavelength study of massive galaxies at z~2. I. Star formation and galaxy growth
• Nearly 5000 Distant Early-Type Galaxies in COMBO-17: a Red Sequence and its Evolution since z~1
• A new photometric technique for the joint selection of star-forming and passive galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5
• Stellar Population Diagnostics of Elliptical Galaxy Formation
• The build-up of the colour-magnitude relation in galaxy clusters since z~0.8
• The evolution of the near-IR galaxy Luminosity Function and colour bimodality up to z ~ 2 from the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey Early Data Release
• The DEEP Groth Strip Galaxy Redshift Survey. III. Redshift Catalog and Properties of Galaxies
• The redshift evolution of early-type galaxies in COSMOS: Do massive early-type galaxies form by dry mergers?
• GEMS Imaging of Red Sequence Galaxies at z~0.7: Dusty or Old?
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS): The morphological content and enviromental dependence of the galaxy color-magnitude relation at z~0.7
• The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey. Color bimodality and the mix of galaxy populations up to z~2
• The B-Band Luminosity Function of Red and Blue Galaxies up to z=3.5
• Bimodal Color Distribution in Hierarchical Galaxy Formation
• GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at redshift z~2. I. The stellar metallicity

Cited by in corpus (67)

• The SINS survey: SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies
• PRIMUS: Constraints on Star Formation Quenching and Galaxy Merging, and the Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function From z=0-1
• CANDELS Multi-wavelength Catalogs: Source Detection and Photometry in the GOODS-South Field
• The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3
• zCOSMOS - 10k-bright spectroscopic sample. The bimodality in the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function: exploring its evolution with redshift
• The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• The number density and mass density of star-forming and quiescent galaxies at 0.4 < z < 2.2
• The Dead Sequence: A Clear Bimodality in Galaxy Colors from z=0 to z=2.5
• A Large Population of Massive Compact Post-Starburst Galaxies at z>1: Implications for the Size Evolution and Quenching Mechanism of Quiescent Galaxies
• Evolution of the Color-Magnitude Relation in Galaxy Clusters at z ~1 from the ACS Intermediate Redshift Cluster Survey
• Physical Properties of Galaxies from z=2-4
• The Detection of a Red Sequence of Massive Field Galaxies at z~2.3 and its Evolution to z~0
• The relative abundance of compact and normal massive early-type galaxies and its evolution from redshift z~2 to the present
• Constraining The Assembly Of Normal And Compact Passively Evolving Galaxies From Redshift z=3 To The Present With CANDELS
• GMASS ultradeep spectroscopy of galaxies at z~2 - VII. Sample selection and spectroscopy
• Obscured star formation in intermediate-density environments: A Spitzer study of the Abell 901/902 supercluster
• The diminishing importance of major galaxy mergers at higher redshifts
• The GOGREEN Survey: A deep stellar mass function of cluster galaxies at 1.0<z<1.4 and the complex nature of satellite quenching
• The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with VST. VI. Optical properties of the dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster
• Black hole accretion and host galaxies of obscured quasars in XMM-COSMOS
• CANDELS: The correlation between galaxy morphology and star formation activity at z~2
• The Galaxy Major Merger Fraction to z ~ 1
• The colour of galaxies in distant groups
• AGN feedback at z~2 and the mutual evolution of active and inactive galaxies
• The GOGREEN survey: The environmental dependence of the star-forming galaxy main sequence at $1.0<z<1.5$
• The evolution of quiescent galaxies at high redshift (z > 1.4)
• The intrinsic characteristics of galaxies on the SFR-stellar mass plane at 1.2<z<4: I. the correlation between stellar age, central density and position relative to the main sequence
• A Tale of Dwarfs and Giants: Using a z=1.62 Cluster to Understand How the Red Sequence Grew Over The Last 9.5 Billion Years
• The zCOSMOS redshift survey: the three-dimensional classification cube and bimodality in galaxy physical properties
• Tracing the Quenching History in Galaxy Clusters in the EAGLE Simulation
• Star formation histories of early-type galaxies at z = 1.2 in cluster and field environments
• The Roles of Mass and Environment in the Quenching of Galaxies. II
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXIV. The Red Sequence to $\sim$10${}^6$ L${}_{\odot }$ and Comparisons with Galaxy Formation Models
• The minor role of gas-rich major mergers in the rise of intermediate-mass early types at z <~ 1
• Galaxy Environments in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS)
• Stellar Populations of UV-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei Host Galaxies at z ~ 2 - 3
• Alignment of Brightest Cluster Galaxies with their Host Clusters
• Star Formation and Environmental Quenching of GEEC2 Group Galaxies at z~1
• zCOSMOS 10k-bright spectroscopic sample: exploring mass and environment dependence in early-type galaxies
• Spatial Clustering from GALEX-SDSS samples: Star Formation History and large-scale clustering
• Red-Sequence Galaxies at High Redshift by the COMBO-17+4 Survey
• A multi-wavelength study of a massive, active galaxy at $z\sim 2$: coupling the kinematics of the ionized and molecular gas
• The star formation rate cookbook at 1 < z < 3: Extinction-corrected relations for UV & [OII]λ3727 luminosities
• MOIRCS Deep Survey. X. Evolution of Quiescent Galaxies as a Function of Stellar Mass at 0.5<z<2.5
• Setting firmer constraints on the evolution of the most massive, central galaxies from their local abundances and ages
• Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS): Stellar Mass Growth by Morphological Type since $z=1$
• Listening to galaxies tuning at z ~ 2.5 - 3.0: The first strikes of the Hubble fork
• A methodology to select galaxies just after the quenching of star formation
• The age of extremely red and massive galaxies at very high redshift
• The Roles of Mass and Environment in the Quenching of Galaxies
• Spatially resolved signature of quenching in star-forming galaxies
• The bimodality of the 10k zCOSMOS-bright galaxies up to z ~ 1: a new statistical and portable classification based on the optical galaxy properties
• A new analytic ram pressure profile for satellite galaxies
• VEXAS: VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys -- Data Release 2: Machine-learning based classification of sources in the Southern Hemisphere
• Color dependence of clustering of massive galaxies at 0.5$\le z\le$2.5: similar spatial distributions between green valley galaxies and AGNs
• PAC.V. The Roles of Mass and Environment in the Quenching of Galaxies
• Catching galaxies in the act of quenching star formation
• VEXAS: the VISTA EXtension to Auxiliary Surveys -- Data Release 1: the Southern Galactic Hemisphere
• AGN lifetimes in UV-selected galaxies: a clue to supermassive black hole-host galaxy coevolution
• Structure and large scale environment of galaxy pairs in the S-PLUS DR4
• Estimation of the Galaxy Quenching Rate in the Illustris Simulation
• A near-infrared study of the obscured 3C129 galaxy cluster
• Three candidate clusters around high redshift radio-loud sources: MG1 J04426+0202, 3C 068.2, MS 1426.9+1052
• Emergence of red, star-forming galaxies (red misfits) in a ΛCDM universe
• A phylogenetic analysis of galaxies in the Coma Cluster and the field: a new approach to galaxy evolution
• Physical properties of distant red galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field
• Intrinsic colors and ages of extremely red elliptical galaxies at high redshift