Physical properties of compact star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2-3$

Abstract

We present a study on the physical properties of compact star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) with $M_{\ast }\ge 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ and $2\le z\le 3$ in the COSMOS and GOODS-S fields. We find that massive cSFGs have a comoving number density of $(1.0\pm 0.1)\times 10^{-4}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-3}$. The cSFGs are distributed at nearly the same locus on the main sequence as extended star-forming galaxies (eSFGs) and dominate the high-mass end. On the rest-frame $U-V$ vs. $V-J$ and $U-B$ vs. $M_{\mathrm{B}}$ diagrams, cSFGs are mainly distributed at the middle of eSFGs and compact quiescent galaxies (cQGs) in all colors, but are more inclined to "red sequence" than "green valley" galaxies. We also find that cSFGs have distributions similar to cQGs on the nonparametric morphology diagrams. The cQGs and cSFGs have larger $Gini$ and smaller $M_{20}$, while eSFGs have the reverse. About one-third of cSFGs show signatures of postmergers, and almost none of them can be recognized as disks. Moreover, those visually extended cSFGs all have lower $Gini$ coefficients ($Gini<0.4$), indicating that the $Gini$ coefficient could be used to clean out noncompact galaxies in a sample of candidate cSFGs. The X-ray-detected counterparts are more frequent among cSFGs than that in eSFGs and cQGs, implying that cSFGs have previously experienced violent gas-rich interactions(such as major mergers or disk instabilities), which could trigger both star formation and black hole growth in an active phase.

Publication in ApJ

References in corpus (16)

• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation
• Spitzer's Contribution to the AGN Population
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Keck-I MOSFIRE spectroscopy of compact star-forming galaxies at z$\gtrsim$2: High velocity dispersions in progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• The Gemini Deep Deep Survey: VIII. When Did Early-type Galaxies Form?
• A cosmological context for compact massive galaxies
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• The Properties of Hα Emission-Line Galaxies at z = 2.24
• HerMES : SPIRE detection of high redshift massive compact galaxies in GOODS-N field

Cited by in corpus (8)

• An ALMA survey of submillimetre galaxies in the COSMOS field: Physical properties derived from energy balance spectral energy distribution modelling
• The Relationship Between Star-formation Activity and Galaxy Structural Properties in CANDELS and a Semi-analytic Model
• The formation pathways of compact elliptical galaxies
• Dust Temperature of Compact Star-forming Galaxies at $z\sim 1-3$ in 3D-{\it HST}/CANDELS
• The effect of the morphological quenching mechanism on star formation activity at 0.5 < z < 1.5 in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• The physical properties of massive green valley galaxies as a function of environments at $0.5<z<2.5$ in 3D-\textit{HST}/CANDELS fields
• Local Two-Sample Testing: A New Tool for Analysing High-Dimensional Astronomical Data
• Compact star forming galaxies as the progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies: clustering result