Predicting Quiescence: The Dependence of Specific Star Formation Rate on Galaxy Size and Central Density at 0.5<z<2.5

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between star formation and structure, using a mass-complete sample of 27,893 galaxies at $0.5<z<2.5$ selected from 3D-HST. We confirm that star-forming galaxies are larger than quiescent galaxies at fixed stellar mass (M${}_{\star }$). However, in contrast with some simulations, there is only a weak relation between star formation rate (SFR) and size within the star-forming population: when dividing into quartiles based on residual offsets in SFR, we find that the sizes of star-forming galaxies in the lowest quartile are 0.27$\pm$0.06 dex smaller than the highest quartile. We show that 50% of star formation in galaxies at fixed M${}_{\star }$ takes place within a narrow range of sizes (0.26 dex). Taken together, these results suggest that there is an abrupt cessation of star formation after galaxies attain particular structural properties. Confirming earlier results, we find that central stellar density within a 1 kpc fixed physical radius is the key parameter connecting galaxy morphology and star formation histories: galaxies with high central densities are red and have increasingly lower SFR/M${}_{\star }$, whereas galaxies with low central densities are blue and have a roughly constant (higher) SFR/M${}_{\star }$ at a given redshift. We find remarkably little scatter in the average trends and a strong evolution of $>$0.5 dex in the central density threshold correlated with quiescence from $z\sim 0.7-2.0$. Neither a compact size nor high-$n$ are sufficient to assess the likelihood of quiescence for the average galaxy; rather, the combination of these two parameters together with M${}_{\star }$ results in a unique quenching threshold in central density/velocity.

20 pages, 15 figures, and 2 tables; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (29)

• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• Structure and star formation in galaxies out to z=3: evidence for surface density dependent evolution and upsizing
• The Atlas3D Project - XXX. Star formation histories and stellar population scaling relations of early-type galaxies
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation
• Natural Downsizing in Hierarchical Galaxy Formation
• Bulge mass is king: The dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The impact of interactions, bars, bulges, and AGN on star formation efficiency in local massive galaxies
• A Turnover in the Galaxy Main Sequence of Star Formation at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ for Redshifts $z<1.3$
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: ALMA resolves the rest-frame far-infrared emission of sub-millimeter galaxies
• The AIMSS Project I: Bridging the Star Cluster - Galaxy Divide
• Sub-kpc ALMA imaging of compact star-forming galaxies at z~2.5: revealing the formation of dense galactic cores in the progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Structural Properties of Central Galaxies in Groups and Clusters
• Two Conditions for Galaxy Quenching: Compact Centres and Massive Haloes
• Early formation of massive, compact, spheroidal galaxies with classical profiles by violent disc instability or mergers
• The SINS/zC-SINF Survey of z~2 Galaxy Kinematics: Rest-frame Morphology, Structure, and Colors from Near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• The Decomposed Bulge and Disk Size-Mass Relations of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in CANDELS
• Low Gas Fractions Connect Compact Star-Forming Galaxies to their z ~ 2 Quiescent Descendants
• The Relationship Between Star-formation Activity and Galaxy Structural Properties in CANDELS and a Semi-analytic Model
• From Diversity to Dichotomy, and Quenching: Milky-Way-Like and Massive-Galaxy Progenitors at 0.5<z<3.0
• The Role of Bulge Formation in the Homogenization of Stellar Populations at $z\sim 2$ as revealed by Internal Color Dispersion in CANDELS

Cited by in corpus (73)

• The Size Evolution of Star-forming and Quenched Galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation
• The Constant Average Relationship between Dust-obscured Star Formation and Stellar Mass from $z=0$ to $z=2.5$
• Star formation is boosted (and quenched) from the inside out: radial star formation profiles from MaNGA
• Effect of local environment and stellar mass on galaxy quenching and morphology at $0.5<z<2.0$
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Spatially Resolving the Main Sequence of Star Formation
• Extending the evolution of the stellar mass-size relation at $z\le 2$ to low stellar mass galaxies from HFF and CANDELS
• CANDELS: Elevated Black Hole Growth in the Progenitors of Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z~2
• Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program: A Mass-Dependent Slope of the Galaxy Size-Mass Relation at $z<1$
• xGASS: HI fueling of star formation in disk-dominated galaxies
• The Sizes of Quasar Host Galaxies with the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
• Color gradients along the quiescent galaxy sequence: clues to quenching and structural growth
• Coincidence between morphology and star-formation activity through cosmic time: the impact of the bulge growth
• Galaxy Sizes Since $z=2$ from the Perspective of Stellar Mass Distribution within Galaxies
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in a Compact, Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.522
• X-shooter Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of 15 Ultra Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Starbursts in the main sequence reveal compact star formation regulating galaxy evolution prequenching
• Spatially Resolved Stellar Populations of $0.3<z<6.0$ Galaxies in WHL0137-08 and MACS0647+70 Clusters as Revealed by JWST: How do Galaxies Grow and Quench Over Cosmic Time?
• A New View of the Size-Mass Distribution of Galaxies: Using $r_{20}$ and $r_{80}$ instead of $r_{50}$
• JADES + JEMS: A Detailed Look at the Buildup of Central Stellar Cores and Suppression of Star Formation in Galaxies at Redshifts 3 < z < 4.5
• Diagnosing DASH: A Catalog of Structural Properties for the COSMOS-DASH Survey
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. I: The Importance of the Progenitor Effect in the Observed Properties of Quiescent Galaxies at $z\approx 2$
• Spiral Structure Boosts Star Formation in Disk Galaxies
• JWST CEERS probes the role of stellar mass and morphology in obscuring galaxies
• High-resolution, 3D radiative transfer modelling III. The DustPedia barred galaxies
• Spectro-photometric decomposition of galaxy structural components
• Early-type galaxy density profiles from IllustrisTNG: II. Evolutionary trend of the total density profile
• Linking Characteristics of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Population with Galaxy Properties: A Quantitative Approach Using the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database
• Gravitational Potential and Surface Density Drive Stellar Populations -- II. Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Size-Mass relation at Rest-Frame $1.5\mu$m from JWST/NIRCam in the COSMOS-WEB and PRIMER-COSMOS fields
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Roles of AGNs and Dynamical Processes in Star Formation Quenching in Nearby Disk Galaxies
• On the formation of massive quiescent galaxies with diverse morphologies in the TNG50 simulation
• Compact, bulge dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z~3
• Towards an Understanding of the Massive Red Spiral Galaxy Formation
• The Compact Structures of Massive $z\sim 0.7$ Post-Starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Sample
• Recent Star-formation in a Massive Slowly-Quenched Lensed Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.88
• CLEAR: The Evolution of Spatially Resolved Star Formation in Galaxies between $0.5\lesssim z\lesssim 1.7$ using H$\alpha$ Emission Line Maps
• The size-luminosity relation of lensed galaxies at $z=6-9$ in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• Star formation quenching imprinted on the internal structure of naked red nuggets
• Early metal enrichment of gas-rich galaxies at z~5
• What is Important? Morphological Asymmetries are Useful Predictors of Star Formation Rates of Star-forming Galaxies in SDSS Stripe 82
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. II. Galaxies Develop Massive and Dense Stellar Cores as They Evolve and Head Toward Quiescence at Cosmic Noon
• Rest-Frame Near-Infrared Radial Light Profiles up to z=3 from JWST/NIRCam: Wavelength Dependence of the Sérsic Index
• Similarities and uniqueness of Ly$\alpha$ emitters among star-forming galaxies at z=2.5
• DAWN JWST Archive: Morphology from profile fitting of over 340 000 galaxies in major fields
• More is better: Strong constraints on the stellar properties of LEGA-C z ~ 1 galaxies with Prospector
• Extended star-forming region within galaxies in a dense proto-cluster core at z=2.53
• The Puzzling Origin of Massive Compact Galaxies in MaNGA
• Massive Red Spiral Galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey
• JADES Ultra-red Flattened Objects: Morphologies and Spatial Gradients in Color and Stellar Populations
• Evolution of the Sérsic Index up to z=2.5 from JWST and HST
• An environment-dependent halo mass function as a driver for the early quenching of $z\ge 1.5$ cluster galaxies
• The physical connection between central stellar surface density and stellar spin in SAMI and MaNGA nearby galaxies
• HST Detection of Extended Neutral Hydrogen in a Massive Elliptical at z = 0.4
• Probing galaxy evolution from $z=0$ to $z\simeq 10$ through galaxy scaling relations in three L-Galaxies flavours
• DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z}\sim 1.2$ have compact structures and dense cores
• Critical Stellar Central Densities Drive Galaxy Quenching in the Nearby Universe
• Empirical Dust Attenuation Model Leads to More Realistic UVJ Diagram for TNG100 Galaxies
• HELLO project: High-$z$ Evolution of Large and Luminous Objects
• The Differential Assembly History of the Centers and Outskirts of Main Sequence Galaxies at $z\sim 2.3$
• Evidence for Non-smooth Quenching in Massive Galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• JWST Reveals Bulge-dominated Star-forming Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
• Pair Lines of Sight Observations of Multiphase Gas Bearing O VI in a Galaxy Environment
• Self-Similar Buildup and Inside-Out Growth: Tracing the Evolution of Intermediate to High-Mass Star-Forming Galaxies Since $z=2$
• The inflow and outflow rate evolution of local Milky Way-mass star-forming galaxies since z=1.3
• The link between galaxy structure properties and star formation in local galaxies
• Nearby dwarf galaxies with extreme star formation rates: a window into dwarf-galaxy evolution in the early Universe
• Dissecting the mass quenching in TNG50: Galaxy size determines the quenching mode
• A Bending in the Size-mass Relation of Star-forming Galaxies across $0.5<z<6.0$ at a Critical Stellar Mass of $10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ Revealed by JWST
• A big step forward with SHARP: spatially resolved stellar population properties in passive galaxies at z > 1.5
• The LEGA-C galaxy survey: multiple quenching channels for quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• The LEGA-C and SAMI Galaxy Surveys: Quiescent Stellar Populations and the Mass-Size Plane across 6 Gyr
• Size-Mass Relation Shows Its Colours: Contrasting Physical Imprints of Galaxy Evolution in Rest-Frame UV and Optical
• Everything Every Band All at Once I: A Global Morphology Catalog in Abell 2744 based on UNCOVER/MegaScience