Balmer Break Galaxy Candidates at $z\sim 6$: a Potential View on the Star-Formation Activity at $z\gtrsim 14$

Abstract

We search for galaxies with a strong Balmer break (Balmer Break Galaxies; BBGs) at $z\sim 6$ over a 0.41 deg${}^2$ effective area in the COSMOS field. Based on rich imaging data, including data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), three candidates are identified by their extremely red $K-[3.6]$ colors as well as by non-detection in X-ray, optical, far-infrared (FIR), and radio bands. The non-detection in the deep ALMA observations suggests that they are not dusty galaxies but BBGs at $z\sim 6$, although contamination from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) at $z\sim 0$ cannot be completely ruled out for the moment. Our spectral energy distribution (SED) analyses reveal that the BBG candidates at $z\sim 6$ have stellar masses of $\approx 5\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ dominated by old stellar populations with ages of $\gtrsim 700$ Myr. Assuming that all the three candidates are real BBGs at $z\sim 6$, we estimate the stellar mass density (SMD) to be $2.4_{-1.3}^{+2.3}\times 10^4{M}_{\odot }$ Mpc${}^{-3}$. This is consistent with an extrapolation from the lower redshift measurements. The onset of star formation in the three BBG candidates is expected to be several hundred million years before the observed epoch of $z\sim 6$. We estimate the star-formation rate density (SFRD) contributed by progenitors of the BBGs to be 2.4 -- 12 $\times 10^{-5}{M}_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$Mpc${}^{-3}$ at $z>14$ (99.7\% confidence range). Our result suggests a smooth evolution of the SFRD beyond $z=8$.

arXiv comment29 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (117)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Seven-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
• The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance
• The Average Star Formation Histories of Galaxies in Dark Matter Halos from z=0-8
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• The James Webb Space Telescope
• On the normalisation of the cosmic star formation history
• A Simple Model for the Absorption of Starlight by Dust in Galaxies
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• The size distribution of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum
• The COSMOS2015 Catalog: Exploring the 1<z<6 Universe with half a million galaxies
• FIRE-2 Simulations: Physics versus Numerics in Galaxy Formation
• The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Survey: Overview and Survey Design
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Functions of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies to z = 4 from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Survey
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Hard X-ray selected AGNs in the XMDS Survey
• Relations Between Central Black Hole Mass and Total Galaxy Stellar Mass in the Local Universe
• Submillimeter Galaxies
• UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS
• AGN Black Hole Masses and Bolometric Luminosities
• The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES
• The COSMOS Survey: Hubble Space Telescope / Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) Observations and Data Processing
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function Over the First Two Billion Years
• The Spitzer Legacy Survey of the HST-ACS 2 sq. deg. COSMOS Field: survey strategy and first analysis
• Determining Star Formation Rates for Infrared Galaxies
• SCUBA-2: The 10000 pixel bolometer camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
• Revisiting the Infrared Spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei with a New Torus Emission Model
• A Steep Faint-End Slope of the UV Luminosity Function at z~2-3: Implications for the Global Stellar Mass Density and Star Formation in Low Mass Halos
• New constraints on the evolution of the stellar-to-dark matter connection: a combined analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing, clustering, and stellar mass functions from z=0.2 to z=1
• Second Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
• The Abundance of Star-Forming Galaxies in the Redshift Range 8.5 to 12: New Results from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• The Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey: overview and point source catalog
• PACS Evolutionary Probe (PEP) - A Herschel Key Program
• An updated analytic model for the attenuation by the intergalactic medium
• The Dearth of z~10 Galaxies in all HST Legacy Fields -- The Rapid Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the First 500 Myr
• The AGN Black Hole Mass Database
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: 850um maps, catalogues and number counts
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function at z= 4-8: A Steepening Low-mass-end Slope with Increasing Redshift
• The Most Luminous z~9-10 Galaxy Candidates yet Found: The Luminosity Function, Cosmic Star-Formation Rate, and the First Mass Density Estimate at 500 Myr
• Rest-frame ultraviolet-to-optical spectral characteristics of extremely metal-poor and metal-free galaxies
• The VLA-COSMOS Survey: II. Source Catalog of the Large Project
• A candidate redshift z ~ 10 galaxy and rapid changes in that population at an age of 500 Myr
• The abundance and clustering of dark haloes in the standard Lambda CDM cosmogony
• The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4<z<7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• The galaxy stellar mass function at 3.5<z<7.5 in the CANDELS/UDS, GOODS-South, and HUDF fields
• The XMM-Newton wide-field survey in the COSMOS field. The point-like X-ray source catalogue
• Full-Data Results of Hubble Frontier Fields: UV Luminosity Functions at $z\sim 6-10$ and a Consistent Picture of Cosmic Reionization
• A Herschel view of the far-infrared properties of submillimetre galaxies
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: The Infrared Excess of UV-selected z=2-10 galaxies as a function of UV-continuum Slope and Stellar Mass
• Probing the Dawn of Galaxies at z~9-12: New Constraints from HUDF12/XDF and CANDELS Data
• Predicting dust extinction from the stellar mass of a galaxy
• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• Deep Spitzer 24mic COSMOS imaging -- I. The evolution of luminous dusty galaxies - Confronting the models
• A dominant population of optically invisible massive galaxies in the early Universe
• "Big Three Dragons": a z = 7.15 Lyman BreakGalaxy Detected in [OIII] 88 $\mu$m, [CII] 158 $\mu$m, and Dust Continuum with ALMA
• The z = 9-10 galaxy population in the Hubble Frontier Fields and CLASH surveys: The z=9 LF and further evidence for a smooth decline in UV luminosity at z >= 8
• The Dead Sequence: A Clear Bimodality in Galaxy Colors from z=0 to z=2.5
• Fluctuating feedback-regulated escape fraction of ionizing radiation in low-mass, high-redshift galaxies
• Molecular Hydrogen in the FUSE Translucent Lines of Sight: The Full Sample
• Dust formation history of galaxies: a critical role of metallicity for the dust mass growth by accreting materials in the interstellar medium
• A substantial population of massive quiescent galaxies at z~4 from ZFOURGE
• Detection of the Far-infrared [O III] and Dust Emission in a Galaxy at Redshift 8.312: Early Metal Enrichment in the Heart of the Reionization Era
• A ~50,000 solar mass black hole in the nucleus of RGG 118
• Absorption-line probes of the prevalence and properties of outflows in present-day star-forming galaxies
• Direct measurements of dust attenuation in z~1.5 star-forming galaxies from 3D-HST: Implications for dust geometry and star formation rates
• Simulating galaxies in the reionization era with FIRE-2: galaxy scaling relations, stellar mass functions, and luminosity functions
• Smooth and Clumpy Dust Distribution in AGN: a Direct Comparison of two Commonly Explored Infrared Emission Models
• Panchromatic spectral energy distributions of Herschel sources
• Evolution of the galaxy stellar mass functions and UV luminosity functions at $z=6-9$ in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• Evidence for a Massive Post-Starburst Galaxy at z ~ 6.5
• A Comparison of Independent Star Formation Diagnostics for a UV-Selected Sample of Nearby Galaxies
• The VLA-COSMOS 3~GHz Large Project: Cosmic evolution of radio AGN and implications for radio-mode feedback since z~5
• GOLDRUSH. II. Clustering of Galaxies at $z\sim 4-6$ Revealed with the Half-Million Dropouts Over the 100 deg${}^2$ Area Corresponding to 1 Gpc${}^3$
• The star-formation rate density from z = 0-6
• SEDfit: Software for Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting of Photometric Data
• Red & Dead CANDELS: massive passive galaxies at the dawn of the Universe
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Source catalogue and properties
• Evolution of Stellar-to-Halo Mass Ratio at z=0-7 Identified by Clustering Analysis with the Hubble Legacy Imaging and Early Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey Data
• A Population of Massive and Evolved Galaxies at z$\ga$5
• The dust budget crisis in high-redshift submillimetre galaxies
• H-ATLAS/GAMA: Dusty early-type galaxies and passive spirals
• Expanded Search for z~10 Galaxies from HUDF09, ERS, and CANDELS Data: Evidence for Accelerated Evolution at z>8?
• A catalog of mid-infrared sources in the Extended Groth Strip
• Jekyll & Hyde: quiescence and extreme obscuration in a pair of massive galaxies 1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang
• Obscured star formation at z = 0.84 with HiZELS: the relationship between star formation rate and H-alpha or ultra-violet dust extinction
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion of a Massive Quenching Galaxy at z=4.01
• Spitzer 70 and 160-micron Observations of the COSMOS Field
• A systematic search for very massive galaxies at z > 4
• The Nature of Extremely Red H-[4.5]>4 Galaxies revealed with SEDS and CANDELS
• Searching for massive galaxies at z>=3.5 in GOODS-North
• The evolution of quiescent galaxies at high redshift (z > 1.4)
• Unveiling the oldest and most massive galaxies at very high redshift
• FirstLight II: Star formation rates of primeval galaxies from z=5-15
• Four IRAC Sources with an Extremely Red H-[3.6] Color: Passive or Dusty Galaxies at z>4.5?
• G10/COSMOS: 38 band (far-UV to far-IR) panchromatic photometry using LAMBDAR
• A Study of Massive and Evolved Galaxies at High Redshift
• Passive galaxies in the early Universe: ALMA confirmation of z~3-5 candidates in the CANDELS GOODS-South field
• The New Numerical Galaxy Catalog (${\nu }^2$GC): An Updated Semi-analytic Model of Galaxy and AGN with Large Cosmological N-body Simulation
• Constraints on Early Star Formation from the 21-cm Global Signal
• Possible identification of massive and evolved galaxies At z > 5
• MOIRCS Deep Survey. X. Evolution of Quiescent Galaxies as a Function of Stellar Mass at 0.5<z<2.5
• Spectral Energy Distributions of type 2 QSOs: obscured star formation at high redshifts

Cited by in corpus (23)

• A Comprehensive Study on Galaxies at z~9-16 Found in the Early JWST Data: UV Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Star-Formation History at the Pre-Reionization Epoch
• An Atlas of Color-selected Quiescent Galaxies at $z>3$ in Public $JWST$ Fields
• COSMOS2020: The Galaxy Stellar Mass Function: the assembly and star formation cessation of galaxies at $0.2<z\le 7.5$
• Evolution of the UV LF from z~15 to z~8 Using New JWST NIRCam Medium-Band Observations over the HUDF/XDF
• ALMA uncovers the [CII] emission and warm dust continuum in a z = 8.31 Lyman break galaxy
• A Search for H-Dropout Lyman Break Galaxies at z~12-16
• Accurate dust temperature determination in a $z=7.13$ galaxy
• Physical properties and evolution of (Sub-)millimeter selected galaxies in the galaxy formation simulation Shark
• High Equivalent Width of Hα+[N II] Emission in z~8 Lyman-break Galaxies from IRAC 5.8μm Observations: Evidence for Efficient Lyman-continuum Photon production in the Epoch of Re-ionization
• FOREVER22: galaxy formation in protocluster regions
• The Age of Discovery with the James Webb: Excavating the Spectral Signatures of the First Massive Black Holes
• COSMOS2020: Ubiquitous AGN Activity of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $0<z<5$ Revealed by X-ray and Radio Stacking
• The Number Densities and Stellar Populations of Massive Galaxies at 3 < z < 6: A Diverse, Rapidly Forming Population in the Early Universe
• RELICS: Properties of z>5.5 Galaxies Inferred from Spitzer and Hubble Imaging Including A Candidate z~6.8 Strong [OIII] Emitter
• A census of optically dark massive galaxies in the early Universe from magnification by lensing galaxy clusters
• The 300 pc resolution imaging of a z = 8.31 galaxy: Turbulent ionized gas and potential stellar feedback 600 million years after the Big Bang
• The Size and Pervasiveness of Ly$\alpha$-UV Spatial Offsets in Star-Forming Galaxies at $z\sim 6$
• Interrelation of the environment of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and massive galaxies at $2<z<4.5$
• Deep Spitzer/IRAC Data for z~10 galaxies Reveal Blue Balmer Break Colors: Young Stellar Populations at ~500 Myr of Cosmic Time
• Strong Balmer break objects at z ~ 7-10 uncovered with JWST
• JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of intermediate-mass quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3-4$
• A puzzling non-detection of [O III] and [C II] from a $z\approx 7.7$ galaxy observed with ALMA
• Enhanced spectrum of primordial perturbations, galaxy formation and small scale structure