Relative merits of different types of rest-frame optical observations to constrain galaxy physical parameters

Abstract

We present a new approach to constrain galaxy physical parameters from the combined interpretation of stellar and nebular emission in wide ranges of observations. This approach relies on the Bayesian analysis of any type of galaxy spectral energy distribution using a comprehensive library of synthetic spectra assembled using state-of-the-art models of star formation and chemical enrichment histories, stellar population synthesis, nebular emission and attenuation by dust. We focus on the constraints set by 5-band photometry and low- and medium-resolution spectroscopy at optical rest wavelengths on a set of physical parameters characterizing the stars and the interstellar medium. Since these parameters cannot be known a priori for any galaxy sample, we assess the accuracy to which they can be retrieved by simulating `pseudo-observations' using models with known parameters. Assuming that these models are good approximations of true galaxies, we find that the combined analysis of stellar and nebular emission in low-resolution galaxy spectra provides valuable constraints on all physical parameters. At higher resolution, the analysis of the combined stellar and nebular emission in 12,660 SDSS star-forming galaxies using our approach yields likelihood distributions of stellar mass, gas-phase oxygen abundance, optical depth of the dust and specific star formation rate similar to those obtained in previous separate analyses of the stellar and nebular emission at the original (twice higher) SDSS spectral resolution. We show that the constraints derived on galaxy physical parameters from these different types of observations depend sensitively on signal-to-noise ratio. Our approach can be extended to the analysis of any type of observation across the wavelength range covered by spectral evolution models. [abridged]

24 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Full-resolution version available from ftp://ftp.iap.fr/pub/from_users/pacifici/paper_pacifici_hr.pdf

References in corpus (13)

• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• COSMOS Photometric Redshifts with 30-bands for 2-deg2
• Scaled solar tracks and isochrones in a large region of the Z-Y plane I. From the ZAMS to the TP-AGB end for 0.15 - 2.5 Mo stars
• The star formation histories of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Empirical determination of the shape of dust attenuation curves in star-forming galaxies
• Flux-calibrated stellar population models of Lick absorption-line indices with variable element abundance ratios
• Properties of Galaxy Groups in the SDSS: II.- AGN Feedback and Star Formation Truncation
• Spectral models for solar-scaled and alpha-enhanced stellar populations
• Erratum - The many lives of AGN: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• Dust Attenuation in Hydrodynamic Simulations of Spiral Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (106)

• CIGALE: a python Code Investigating GALaxy Emission
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• Inferring the star-formation histories of massive quiescent galaxies with BAGPIPES: Evidence for multiple quenching mechanisms
• How to Measure Galaxy Star Formation Histories II: Nonparametric Models
• Modelling and interpreting spectral energy distributions of galaxies with BEAGLE
• Modelling the nebular emission from primeval to present-day star-forming galaxies
• The Relation Between SFR and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 $\le z\le$ 6.5 in CANDELS
• How to measure galaxy star-formation histories I: Parametric models
• A CANDELS - 3D-HST Synergy: Resolved Star Formation Patterns at 0.7 < z < 1.5
• Spectroscopic detection of CIV in a galaxy at z=7.045: Implications for the ionizing spectra of reionization-era galaxies
• A redshift-independent efficiency model: star formation and stellar masses in dark matter halos at z>4
• Constraining the properties of AGN host galaxies with Spectral Energy Distribution modeling
• An Atlas of Galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-Infrared
• An Older, More Quiescent Universe from Panchromatic SED Fitting of the 3D-HST Survey
• Ultraviolet Emission Lines in Young Low Mass Galaxies at z~2: Physical Properties and Implications for Studies at z>7
• The VANDELS survey: the star-formation histories of massive quiescent galaxies at 1.0 < z < 1.3
• Encoding the infrared excess (IRX) in the NUVrK color diagram for star-forming galaxies
• Spectroscopic detections of CIII]1909 at z~6-7: A new probe of early star forming galaxies and cosmic reionisation
• The VLT LEGA-C Spectroscopic Survey: The Physics of Galaxies at a Lookback Time of 7 Gyr
• Firefly (Fitting IteRativEly For Likelihood analYsis): a full spectral fitting code
• CANDELS+3D-HST: compact SFGs at z~2-3, the progenitors of the first quiescent galaxies
• The evolution of star formation histories of quiescent galaxies
• The Art of Measuring Physical Parameters in Galaxies: A Critical Assessment of Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Techniques
• How Well Can We Measure the Stellar Mass of a Galaxy: The Impact of the Assumed Star Formation History Model in SED Fitting
• Photometric Redshift with Bayesian Priors on Physical Properties of Galaxies
• Herschel-ATLAS: Multi-wavelength SEDs and physical properties of 250 micron-selected galaxies at z < 0.5
• Insights into the content and spatial distribution of dust from the integrated spectral properties of galaxies
• CEERS Key Paper III: The Diversity of Galaxy Structure and Morphology at z=3-9 with JWST
• SHARDS: an optical spectro-photometric survey of distant galaxies
• Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift
• CEERS Key Paper V: A triality on the nature of HST-dark galaxies
• Should we believe the results of UV-mm galaxy SED modelling?
• The Nature of Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at z=1-2: Kinematics and Metallicities from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
• The quenching of the star formation activity in cluster galaxies
• Determining the stellar masses of submillimetre galaxies: the critical importance of star formation histories
• From the far-ultraviolet to the far-infrared -- galaxy emission at $0\le z\le 10$ in the Shark semi-analytic model
• The rise and fall of the star formation histories of blue galaxies at redshifts 0.2<z<1.4
• Stars were born in significantly denser regions in the early Universe
• On the importance of using appropriate spectral models to derive physical properties of galaxies at 0.7<z<2.8
• GASP III. JO36: a case of multiple environmental effects at play?
• Log-normal star formation histories in simulated and observed galaxies
• Consequences of bursty star formation on galaxy observables at high redshifts
• A new method for classifying galaxy SEDs from multi-wavelength photometry
• Ultraviolet to infrared emission of z>1 galaxies: Can we derive reliable star formation rates and stellar masses?
• Fitting Analysis using Differential Evolution Optimization (FADO): Spectral population synthesis through genetic optimization under self-consistency boundary conditions
• Dust attenuation and Halpha emission in a sample of galaxies observed with Herschel at $0.6<z<1.6$
• Horizon-AGN virtual observatory - 1. SED-fitting performance and forecasts for future imaging surveys
• Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy of Extreme Starbursts Across Cosmic Time: The Role of Dwarf Galaxies in the Star Formation History of the Universe
• Large Scale Structures in the CANDELS Fields: The Role of the Environment in Star Formation Activity
• Stellar Populations of over one thousand $z\sim 0.8$ Galaxies from LEGA-C: Ages and Star Formation Histories from D${}_n$4000 and H$\delta$
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- VI. Simulated lightcones and galaxy clustering predictions
• Confirmation of Small Dynamical and Stellar Masses for Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at z~2
• Measuring Galaxy Star Formation Rates From Integrated Photometry: Insights from Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Resolved Stars
• Introducing piXedfit -- a Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Code Designed for Resolved Sources
• The ages, masses and star-formation rates of spectroscopically confirmed z~6 galaxies in CANDELS
• The Impact of Star Formation Histories on Stellar Mass Estimation: Implications from the Local Group Dwarf Galaxies
• Massive and old quiescent galaxies at high redshift
• Mock Lightcones and Theory Friendly Catalogs for the CANDELS Survey
• Star Formation and Stellar Mass Assembly in Dark Matter Halos: From Giants to Dwarfs
• Deriving star formation histories from photometry using energy balance spectral energy distribution modelling
• Timing the evolution of quiescent and star-forming local galaxies
• Caught in the act: gas and stellar velocity dispersions in a fast quenching compact star-forming galaxy at z~1.7
• Local starburst galaxies and their descendants
• An X-ray Detected Group of Quiescent Early-type Galaxies at z=1.6 in the Chandra Deep Field South
• The mass-metallicity relation at z~1-2 and its dependence on star formation rate
• The stellar metallicities of massive quiescent galaxies at 1.0 < z < 1.3 from KMOS+VANDELS
• GRB 980425 host: [CII], [OI] and CO lines reveal recent enhancement of star formation due to atomic gas inflow
• Delay Time Distributions of Type Ia Supernovae From Galaxy and Cosmic Star Formation Histories
• Panchromatic SED modelling of spatially-resolved galaxies
• A Comprehensive Bayesian Discrimination of the Simple Stellar Population Model, Star Formation History and Dust Attenuation Law in the Spectral Energy Distribution Modeling of Galaxies
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. I: The Importance of the Progenitor Effect in the Observed Properties of Quiescent Galaxies at $z\approx 2$
• Investigating the Stellar Mass Growth Histories of Satellite Galaxies as a Function of Infall Time using Phase-Space
• Ages of massive galaxies at $0.5<z<2.0$ from 3D-HST rest-frame optical spectroscopy
• Surrogate modelling the Baryonic Universe I: The colour of star formation
• Diffstar: A Fully Parametric Physical Model for Galaxy Assembly History
• Quantifying the suppression of the (un)-obscured star formation in galaxy cluster cores at 0.2$\lesssim$$z$$\lesssim$0.9
• Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam View of Quasar Host Galaxies at z < 1
• HST survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster in the H${}_2$O 1.4 $\mu$m absorption band: II. The substellar IMF down to planetary masses
• Self-consistent population spectral synthesis with FADO - I. The importance of nebular emission in modelling star-forming galaxies
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. II. Galaxies Develop Massive and Dense Stellar Cores as They Evolve and Head Toward Quiescence at Cosmic Noon
• DSPS: Differentiable Stellar Population Synthesis
• Single Colour Diagnostics of the Mass-to-light Ratio: Predictions from Galaxy Formation Models
• Forensic reconstruction of galaxy colour evolution and population characterisation
• Mass Functions, Luminosity Functions, and Completeness Measurements from Clustering Redshifts
• Using Colors to Improve Photometric Metallicity Estimates for Galaxies
• Late Bloomer Galaxies: Growing Up in Cosmic Autumn
• Dust Attenuation Curves at z $\sim$ 0.8 from LEGA-C: Precise Constraints on the Slope and 2175$\mathring{A}$ Bump Strength
• Star Formation Histories from SEDs and CMDs Agree: Evidence for Synchronized Star Formation in Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies over the Past 3 Gyr
• Measuring the delay time distribution of binary neutron stars. III. Using the individual star formation histories of gravitational wave event host galaxies in the local universe
• Galaxy properties from J-PAS narrow-band photometry
• Resolved and Integrated Stellar Masses in the SDSS-IV/MaNGA Survey, Paper I: PCA spectral fitting & stellar mass-to-light ratio estimates
• How to measure metallicity from five-band photometry with supervised machine learning algorithms
• The Stellar Mass Assembly of Low Redshift, Massive, Central Galaxies in SDSS and the TNG300 simulation
• COSMOS-Web: A history of galaxy migrations over the stellar mass-star formation rate plane
• Machine learning synthetic spectra for probabilistic redshift estimation: SYTH-Z
• PRIMER & JADES reveal an abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at 2 < z < 5
• The Baltimore Oriole's Nest: Cool Winds from the Inner and Outer Parts of a Star-Forming Galaxy at z=1.3
• Simulation-based inference of galaxy properties from JWST pixels
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). XIII. G800L optical spectra from the parallel fields
• Recent stellar mass assembly of low-mass star-forming galaxies at redshifts 0.3 < z < 0.9
• Improved SED-Fitting Assumptions Result in Inside-Out Quenching at $z\sim 0.5$ and Quenching at All Radii Simultaneously at $z\sim 1$
• Dust contribution to the panchromatic galaxy emission
• From Halos to Galaxies. X: Decoding Galaxy SEDs with Physical Priors and Accurate Star Formation History Reconstruction
• Beetroots: spatially-regularized Bayesian inference of physical parameter maps -- Application to Orion
• The multi-component fitting to the star formation histories in the TNG simulation
• MIDIS: Unveiling the Star Formation History in massive galaxies at $1<z<4.5$ with spectro-photometric analysis