The Rising Star-Formation Histories of Distant Galaxies and Implications for Gas Accretion with Time

Abstract

Distant galaxies show correlations between their current star-formation rates (SFRs) and stellar masses, implying that their star-formation histories (SFHs) are highly similar. Moreover, observations show that the UV luminosities and stellar masses grow from z=8 to 3, implying that the SFRs increase with time. We compare the cosmologically averaged evolution in galaxies at 3 < z < 8 at constant comoving number density, n = 2 x 10^-4 Mpc^-3. This allows us to study the evolution of stellar mass and star formation in the galaxy predecessors and descendants in ways not possible using galaxies selected at constant stellar mass or SFR, quantities that evolve strongly in time. We show that the average SFH of these galaxies increase smoothly from z=8 to 3 as SFR ~ t^alpha with alpha = 1.7 +/- 0.2. This conflicts with assumptions that the SFR is either constant or declines exponentially in time. We show that the stellar mass growth in these galaxies is consistent with this derived SFH. This provides evidence that the slope of the high-mass end of the IMF is approximately Salpeter unless the duty cycle of star formation is much less than unity. We argue that these relations follow from gas accretion (either through accretion or delivered by mergers) coupled with galaxy disk growth under the assumption that the SFR depends on the local gas surface density. This predicts that gas fractions decrease from z=8 to 3 on average as f_gas ~ (1+z)^0.9 for galaxies with this number density. The implied galaxy gas accretion rates at z > 4 are as fast and may even exceed the SFR: this is the "gas accretion epoch". At z < 4 the SFR overtakes the implied gas accretion rate, indicating a period where galaxies consume gas faster than it is acquired. At z < 3, galaxies with this number density depart from these relations implying that star formation and gas accretion are slowed at later times.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 13 pages, 7 figures. Comments welcome. Updated with MNRAS-accepted version

References in corpus (25)

• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• A Semi-Analytic Model for the Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• From rings to bulges: evidence for rapid secular galaxy evolution at z~2 from integral field spectroscopy in the SINS survey
• UV Luminosity Functions at z~4, 5, and 6 from the HUDF and other Deep HST ACS Fields: Evolution and Star Formation History
• The Stellar, Gas and Dynamical Masses of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Cosmic Star Formation History from Spectroscopy: the Rest-Frame UV, H-alpha, and Infrared Luminosity Functions at Redshifts 1.9<z<3.4
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: II. Formation of Red Ellipticals
• Bulge Formation by the Coalescence of Giant Clumps in Primordial Disk Galaxies
• On the (Non)Evolution of HI Disks over Cosmic Time
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. VLT/VIMOS Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field
• A Spectroscopic Survey of Redshift 1.4<z<3.0 Galaxies in the Goods-North Field: Survey Description, Catalogs, and Properties
• Galaxy growth in the concordance $\Lambda$CDM cosmology
• A Model for Star Formation, Gas Flows and Chemical Evolution in Galaxies at High Redshifts
• Rapid dust production in submillimeter galaxies at z>4?
• The recycling of gas and metals in galaxy formation: predictions of a dynamical feedback model
• Improving the Estimation of Star formation Rates and Stellar Population Ages of High-redshift Galaxies from Broadband Photometry
• Observations and modelling of a clumpy galaxy at z=1.6: Spectroscopic clues to the origin and evolution of chain galaxies
• Galaxy evolution in the infra-red: comparison of a hierarchical galaxy formation model with SPITZER data
• Mapping the Dark Matter From UV Light at High Redshift: An Empirical Approach to Understand Galaxy Statistics
• High-Redshift Galaxy Kinematics: Constraints on Models of Disk Formation
• Constraints on Physical Properties of z~6 Galaxies Using Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations
• Turning Back the Clock: Inferring the History of the Eight O'clock Arc
• The Density and Spectral Energy Distributions of Red Galaxies at z~3.7
• On the Stellar Populations in Faint Red Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Cited by in corpus (138)

• The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z=0-8
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• UniverseMachine: The Correlation between Galaxy Growth and Dark Matter Halo Assembly from z=0-10
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Functions of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies to z = 4 from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Survey
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function Over the First Two Billion Years
• How to Measure Galaxy Star Formation Histories II: Nonparametric Models
• The Major and Minor Galaxy Merger Rates at z < 1.5
• Reconciling the Stellar and Nebular Spectra of High Redshift Galaxies
• A Public Ks-selected Catalog in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Population Parameters
• CLASH: Three Strongly Lensed Images of a Candidate z ~ 11 Galaxy
• The Universe is Reionizing at z~7: Bayesian Inference of the IGM Neutral Fraction Using Ly$\alpha$ Emission from Galaxies
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function at z= 4-8: A Steepening Low-mass-end Slope with Increasing Redshift
• The Relation Between SFR and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 $\le z\le$ 6.5 in CANDELS
• The Characteristic Star Formation Histories of Galaxies at Redshifts z~2-7
• The SFR-M* Relation and Empirical Star-Formation Histories from ZFOURGE at 0.5 < z < 4
• The Spectral Energy Distributions Of z~8 Galaxies From The IRAC Ultra Deep Fields: Emission Lines, Stellar Masses, And Specific Star Formation Rates At 650 Myr
• Probing the Dawn of Galaxies at z~9-12: New Constraints from HUDF12/XDF and CANDELS Data
• The Galaxy UV Luminosity Function Before the Epoch of Reionization
• Validation of the equilibrium model for galaxy evolution to z~3 through molecular gas and dust observations of lensed star-forming galaxies
• The Assembly of Milky Way-like Galaxies Since z~2.5
• The MOSDEF Survey: Mass, Metallicity, and Star-formation Rate at z~2.3
• Evolution of Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions, Mass Densities, and Mass to Light Ratios from z 7 to z 4
• On the Stellar Populations of Galaxies at z=9-11: The Growth of Metals and Stellar Mass at Early Times
• GOODS-HERSCHEL: star formation, dust attenuation and the FIR-radio correlation on the Main Sequence of star-forming galaxies up to z~4
• HST/WFC3 Confirmation of the Inside-Out Growth of Massive Galaxies at 0<z<2 and Identification of their Star Forming Progenitors at z~3
• Rapid Decline of Lyman-alpha Emission Toward the Reionization Era
• Multi-Wavelength View of Kiloparsec-Scale Clumps in Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• How Well Can We Measure the Stellar Mass of a Galaxy: The Impact of the Assumed Star Formation History Model in SED Fitting
• A Simple Technique for Predicting High-Redshift Galaxy Evolution
• Extended Schmidt Law: Role Of Existing Stars In Current Star Formation
• A Census of Oxygen in Star-Forming Galaxies: An Empirical Model Linking Metallicities, Star Formation Rates and Outflows
• Metallicity-Dependent quenching of Star Formation at High Redshift in Small Galaxies
• On the Last 10 Billion Years of Stellar Mass Growth in Star-Forming Galaxies
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4
• How Do Star-Forming Galaxies at Z>3 Assemble Their Masses?
• ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z=3 to 0.5
• Texas Spectroscopic Search for Ly$\alpha$ Emission at the End of Reionization III. the Ly$\alpha$ Equivalent-width Distribution and Ionized Structures at $z>7$
• The MOSDEF survey: a stellar mass-SFR-metallicity relation exists at $z\sim 2.3$
• Using Cumulative Number Densities to Compare Galaxies across Cosmic Time
• An observational determination of the evolving extragalactic background light from the multiwavelength HST/CANDELS survey in the Fermi and CTA era
• Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift
• Galaxy evolution in overdense environments at high redshift: passive early-type galaxies in a cluster at redshift 2
• The MOSDEF Survey: Significant Evolution in the Rest-Frame Optical Emission Line Equivalent Widths of Star-Forming Galaxies at z=1.4-3.8
• The Bright End of the UV Luminosity Function at z~8: New Constraints from CANDELS Data in GOODS-South
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: IV. The Log-normal Star Formation History of Galaxies
• KMOS^3D: Dynamical constraints on the mass budget in early star-forming disks
• A consistent measure of the merger histories of massive galaxies using close-pair statistics I: Major mergers at $z<3.5$
• Are the ultra-high-redshift galaxies at z > 10 surprising in the context of standard galaxy formation models?
• The VANDELS survey: the stellar metallicities of star-forming galaxies at 2.5 < z < 5.0
• Halpha Equivalent Widths from the 3D-HST survey: evolution with redshift and dependence on stellar mass
• Slow Evolution of the Specific Star Formation Rate at z>2: The Impact of Dust, Emission Lines, and A Rising Star Formation History
• Stellar Absorption Line Analysis of Local Star-Forming Galaxies: The Relation Between Stellar Mass, Metallicity, Dust Attenuation and Star Formation Rate
• Ly-alpha Emitting Galaxies at z = 2.1: Stellar Masses, Dust and Star Formation Histories from Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting
• Dissecting the stellar mass-SFR correlation in z=1 star-forming disk galaxies
• An Extremely Massive Quiescent Galaxy at $z=3.493$: Evidence of Insufficiently Rapid Quenching Mechanisms in Theoretical Models
• Components of the Extragalactic Gamma Ray Background
• The Progenitors of Local Ultra-massive Galaxies Across Cosmic Time: from Dusty Star-bursting to Quiescent Stellar Populations
• HFF-DeepSpace Photometric Catalogs of the Twelve Hubble Frontier Fields, Clusters and Parallels: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts, and Stellar Masses
• Observations of environmental quenching in groups in the 11 Gyr since z=2.5: different quenching for central and satellite galaxies
• The MOSDEF Survey: The First Direct Measurements of the Nebular Dust Attenuation Curve at High Redshift
• Reconciling the observed star-forming sequence with the observed stellar mass function
• Tracing Galaxies Through Cosmic Time with Number Density Selection
• CEERS Key Paper IV: Galaxies at $4<z<9$ are Bluer than They Appear -- Characterizing Galaxy Stellar Populations from Rest-Frame $\sim 1$ micron Imaging
• The physics of gas phase metallicity gradients in galaxies
• The First Billion Years project: constraining the dust attenuation law of star-forming galaxies at z $\simeq$ 5
• The Intrinsic Scatter Along The Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies at z ~ 0.7
• The Effects of Stellar Population and Gas Covering Fraction on the Emergent Lyman Alpha Emission of High-Redshift Galaxies
• The evolution of the star formation rate function in the EAGLE simulations: A comparison with UV, IR and H$\alpha$ observations from z ~ 8 to z ~ 0
• CLEAR I: Ages and Metallicities of Quiescent Galaxies at $1.0<\mathbf{z}<1.8$ Derived from Deep Hubble Space Telescope Grism Data
• A JWST/NIRSpec Exploration of the Connection between Ionization Parameter, Electron Density, and Star-Formation-Rate Surface Density in z=2.7-6.3 Galaxies
• 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
• The Average Physical Properties and Star Formation Histories of the UV-Brightest Star-Forming Galaxies at z~3.7
• Assembly of the Red Sequence in Infrared-Selected Galaxy Clusters from the IRAC Shallow Cluster Survey
• The MOSDEF-LRIS Survey: The Connection Between Massive Stars and Ionized Gas in Individual Galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• A Rest-frame Optical View on z~4 Galaxies I: Color and Age Distributions from Deep IRAC Photometry of the IUDF10 and GOODS Surveys
• What Are the Progenitors of Compact, Massive, Quiescent Galaxies at z=2.3? The Population of Massive Galaxies at z>3 from NMBS and CANDELS
• Merging Rates of Compact Binaries in Galaxies: Perspectives for Gravitational Wave Detections
• The mass, colour, and structural evolution of today's massive galaxies since z~5
• Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting of HETDEX Pilot Survey Lyman-alpha Emitters in COSMOS and GOODS-N
• The LBT Bootes Field Survey: I. The Rest-frame UV and Luminosity Functions and Clustering of Bright Lyman Break Galaxies at z~3
• Galaxies in X-ray Selected Clusters and Groups in Dark Energy Survey Data I: Stellar Mass Growth of Bright Central Galaxies Since z~1.2
• The SFR-M${}_{\ast }$ Correlation Extends to Low Mass at High Redshift
• The KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS): The Tully-Fisher Relation at z ~ 1
• Anomalously low metallicity regions in MaNGA star-forming galaxies: Accretion Caught in Action?
• The Quest for Dusty Star-forming Galaxies at High Redshift z>4
• The Main Sequences of Starforming Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei at High Redshift
• Paschen-line Constraints on Dust Attenuation and Star Formation at z~1-3 with JWST/NIRSpec
• Evolution of Galaxy Star Formation and Metallicity: Impact on Double Compact Objects Mergers
• Rest-frame UV--Optically Selected Galaxies at 2.3<z<3.5: Searching for Dusty Star-forming and Passively-Evolving Galaxies
• Discovery of Lyman Break Galaxies at z~7 from the ZFOURGE Survey
• The KMOS Cluster Survey (KCS) I: The fundamental plane and the formation ages of cluster galaxies at redshift $1.4<z<1.6$
• New Analytic Solutions for Galaxy Evolution: Gas, Stars, Metals and Dust in local Early-Type Galaxies and in their high-z Starforming Progenitors
• Evolution of Star-formation Properties of High-redshift Cluster Galaxies since $z=2$
• Stellar masses and star formation rates of lensed dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey
• An alternate approach to measure specific star formation rates at 2<z<7
• Stellar Populations of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=1-3 in the HST/WFC3 Early Release Science Observations
• Stellar Populations of UV-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei Host Galaxies at z ~ 2 - 3
• Physical Properties of Spectroscopically-Confirmed Galaxies at $z\ge 6$. III. Stellar Populations from SED Modeling with Secure Ly$\alpha$ Emission and Redshifts
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. I: The Importance of the Progenitor Effect in the Observed Properties of Quiescent Galaxies at $z\approx 2$
• Tracing galaxy populations through cosmic time: A critical test of methods for connecting the same galaxies between different redshifts at $z<3$
• Beyond UVJ: Color Selection of Galaxies in the JWST Era
• Galaxy environments over cosmic time: the non-evolving radial galaxy distributions around massive galaxies since z=1.6
• {\sc mirkwood:} Fast and Accurate SED Modeling Using Machine Learning
• Texas Spectroscopic Search for Ly$\alpha$ Emission at the End of Reionization I. Constraining the Ly$\alpha$ Equivalent Width Distribution at 6.0 < $z$ < 7.0
• Unbiased Differential Size Evolution and the Inside-Out Growth of Galaxies in the Deep CANDELS GOODS Fields at $1\le z\le 7$
• The Evolution of Galaxies at Constant Number Density: A Less Biased View of Star Formation, Quenching, and Structural Formation
• Galactic winds and stellar populations in Lyman $\alpha$ emitting galaxies at z ~ 3.1
• Stellar Mass Function of Active and Quiescent Galaxies via the Continuity Equation
• AstraeusIV : Quantifying the star formation histories of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• Unveiling the nature of 11 dusty star-forming galaxies at the peak of cosmic star formation history
• Dust in the first galaxies
• A Uniform History for Galaxy Evolution
• Coevolution of metallicity and star formation in galaxies to z=3.7: II. A theoretical model
• Differences and similarities of stellar populations in LAEs and LBGs at $z\sim$ 3.4 - 6.8
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. II. Galaxies Develop Massive and Dense Stellar Cores as They Evolve and Head Toward Quiescence at Cosmic Noon
• Evidence for Reduced Specific Star Formation Rates in the Centers of Massive Galaxies at z = 4
• Evolution of the Gas Mass Fraction of Progenitors to Today's Massive Galaxies: ALMA Observations in the CANDELS GOODS-S Field
• Real or Interloper? The Redshift Likelihoods of z>8 Galaxies in the HUDF12
• SImulator of GAlaxy Millimetre/submillimetre Emission (SIGAME): CO emission from massive z=2 main-sequence galaxies
• The Diversity of Growth Histories of Milky Way-mass Galaxies
• The Black Hole Mass Function Across Cosmic Times II. Heavy Seeds and (Super)Massive Black Holes
• Star Formation Histories from SEDs and CMDs Agree: Evidence for Synchronized Star Formation in Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies over the Past 3 Gyr
• Steadily Increasing Star Formation Rates in Galaxies Observed at 3 <~ z <~ 5 in the CANDELS/GOODS-S Field
• Optical-faint, Far-infrared-bright Herschel Sources in the CANDELS Fields: Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies at z>1 and the Effect of Source Blending
• What Regulates Galaxy Evolution? Open Questions in Our Understanding of Galaxy Formation and Evolution
• Detection of Prominent Stellar Disks in the Progenitors of Present-day Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• A Semi-Analytical Line Transfer (SALT) Model III: Galactic Inflows
• Galaxy growth from redshift 5 to 0 at fixed comoving number density
• Stellar Populations of Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxies in the HETDEX Survey I: An Analysis of LAEs in the GOODS-N Field
• Connecting the Dots: Tracking Galaxy Evolution Using Constant Cumulative Number Density at 3<z<7
• Can galaxy evolution mimic cosmic reionization?
• ZFIRE: The Beginning of the End for Massive Galaxies at z ~ 2 and Why Environment Matters
• The inflow and outflow rate evolution of local Milky Way-mass star-forming galaxies since z=1.3
• The Stellar Population of Metal-Poor Galaxies at z $\approx$ 0.8 and the Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relation
• The multi-component fitting to the star formation histories in the TNG simulation
• Gamma Analytical Modeling Evolution (GAME) I: The physical implications of deriving the stellar mass functions from z=0 to z=8