Studying Large and Small Scale Environments of Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies

Abstract

Studying the environments of 0.4<z<1.2 UV-selected galaxies, as examples of extreme star-forming galaxies (with star formation rates in the range of 3-30 M_sol/yr), we explore the relationship between high rates of star-formation, host halo mass and pair fractions. We study the large-scale and small-scale environments of local Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies (UVLGs) by measuring angular correlation functions. We cross-correlate these systems with other galaxy samples: a volume-limited sample (ALL), a Blue Luminous Galaxy sample (BLG) and a Luminous Red Galaxy sample (LRG). We determine the UVLG comoving correlation length to be r_0=4.8(+11.6/-2.4) h^-1 Mpc at <z> =1.0, which is unable to constrain the halo mass for this sample. However, we find that UVLGs form close (separation < 30 kpc) pairs with the ALL sample, but do not frequently form pairs with LRGs. A rare subset of UVLGs, those with the highest FUV surface brightnesses, are believed to be local analogs of high redshift Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) and are called Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs). LBGs and LBAs share similar characteristics (i.e., color, size, surface brightness, specific star formation rates, metallicities, and dust content). Recent HST images of z~0.2 LBAs show disturbed morphologies, signs of mergers and interactions. UVLGs may be influenced by interactions with other galaxies and we discuss this result in terms of other high star-forming, merging systems.

35 pages, 10 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (21)

• COSMOS Photometric Redshifts with 30-bands for 2-deg2
• The Stellar, Gas and Dynamical Masses of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• The XMM-Newton wide-field survey in the COSMOS field: VI. Statistical properties of clusters of galaxies
• COSMOS: 3D weak lensing and the growth of structure
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Color and Luminosity Dependence of Galaxy Clustering at z~1
• A calibration of the relation between the abundance of close galaxy pairs and the rate of galaxy mergers
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The LRG 2-Point Correlation Function and Redshift-Space Distortions
• Interaction-induced star formation in a complete sample of 10^5 nearby star-forming galaxies
• Large Structures and Galaxy Evolution in COSMOS at z < 1.1
• Modelling galaxy clustering in a high resolution simulation of structure formation
• Definitive Identification of the Transition between Small- to Large-Scale Clustering for Lyman Break Galaxies
• HST morphologies of local Lyman break galaxy analogs I: Evidence for starbursts triggered by merging
• The Diverse Properties of the Most Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies Discovered by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
• Adding Environmental Gas Physics to the Semi-Analytic Method for Galaxy Formation: Gravitational Heating
• Luminosity dependence of the spatial and velocity distributions of galaxies: Semi-analytic models versus the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Varied Fates of z~2 Star-forming Galaxies
• Clustering properties of a type-selected volume-limited sample of galaxies in the CFHTLS
• The Young and the Dustless: Interpreting Radio Observations of UltraViolet Luminous Galaxies
• The spatial clustering of mid-IR selected star forming galaxies at z ~ 1 in the GOODS fields
• Clustering Properties of restframe UV selected galaxies II: Migration of Star Formation sites with cosmic time from GALEX and CFHTLS

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Observational biases on rotation curves from IFU data at cosmic noon
• Tracing ionized gas kinematics in Lyman-Break Analogs. Implications for star formation compactness and outflow properties