MOSEL: Strong [OIII]5007 Å Emitting Galaxies at (3<z<4) from the ZFOURGE Survey

Abstract

To understand how strong emission line galaxies (ELGs) contribute to the overall growth of galaxies and star formation history of the universe, we target Strong ELGs (SELGs) from the ZFOURGE imaging survey that have blended (Hb+[OIII]) rest-frame equivalent widths of >230A and 2.5<zphot<4.0. Using Keck/MOSFIRE, we measure 49 redshifts for galaxies brighter than Ks=25 mag as part of our Multi-Object Spectroscopic Emission Line (MOSEL) survey. Our spectroscopic success rate is ~53% and zphot uncertainty is sigma_z= [Delta(z)/(1+z)]=0.0135. We confirm 31 ELGs at 3<zspec<3.8 and show that Strong ELGs have spectroscopic rest-frame [OIII]5007A equivalent widths of 100-500A and tend to be lower mass systems [log(Mstar/Msun)~8.2-9.6] compared to more typical star-forming galaxies. The Strong ELGs lie ~0.9 dex above the star-forming main-sequence at z~3.5 and have high inferred gas fractions of fgas~>60%, i.e. the inferred gas masses can easily fuel a starburst to double stellar masses within ~10-100 Myr. Combined with recent results using ZFOURGE, our analysis indicates that 1) strong [OIII]5007A emission signals an early episode of intense stellar growth in low mass (Mstar<0.1M*) galaxies and 2) many, if not most, galaxies at z>3 go through this starburst phase. If true, low-mass galaxies with strong [OIII]5007A emission (EW_rest>200A) may be an increasingly important source of ionizing UV radiation at z>3.

Astrophysical Journal, in press

References in corpus (18)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Cosmic Reionization and Early Star-Forming Galaxies: A Joint Analysis of New Constraints from Planck and Hubble Space Telescope
• The Relation Between SFR and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 $\le z\le$ 6.5 in CANDELS
• Nebular Emission Line Ratios in z~2-3 Star-Forming Galaxies with KBSS-MOSFIRE: Exploring the Impact of Ionization, Excitation, and Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Ratio
• The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE): ultraviolet to far-infrared catalogs, medium-bandwidth photometric redshifts with improved accuracy, stellar masses, and confirmation of quiescent galaxies to z~3.5
• ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z=3 to 0.5
• The Nature of Extreme Emission Line Galaxies at z=1-2: Kinematics and Metallicities from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
• Exploring the z=3-4 massive galaxy population with ZFOURGE: the prevalence of dusty and quiescent galaxies
• A Hard Ionizing Spectrum in z=3-4 Ly-alpha Emitters with Intense [OIII] Emission: Analogs of Galaxies in the Reionization Era?
• The Size Evolution of Star-forming Galaxies Since z~7 Using ZFOURGE
• ZFIRE: A KECK/MOSFIRE Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxies in Rich Environments at z~2
• Cold-Mode Accretion: Driving the Fundamental Mass-Metallicity Relation at z~2
• Extreme emission-line galaxies out to z$\sim$1 in zCOSMOS. I. Sample and characterization of global properties
• Emission-Line Galaxies from the PEARS Hubble Ultra Deep Field: A 2-D Detection Method and First Results
• ZFIRE: Similar Stellar Growth in H$\alpha$-emitting Cluster and Field Galaxies at z~2

Cited by in corpus (14)

• 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
• Low-redshift compact star-forming galaxies as analogues of high-redshift star-forming galaxies
• MgII in the JWST Era: a Probe of Lyman Continuum Escape?
• Beyond UVJ: Color Selection of Galaxies in the JWST Era
• Blue Rest-Frame UV-Optical Colors in z~8 Galaxies from GREATS: Very Young Stellar Populations at ~650 Myr of Cosmic Time
• Broad-band selection, spectroscopic identification, and physical properties of a population of extreme emission line galaxies at 3<z<3.7
• New insights on the nebular emission, ionizing radiation and low metallicity of Green Peas from advanced modelling
• MOSEL Survey: Extremely weak outflows in EoR analogues at z=3-4
• MOSEL survey: JWST reveals major mergers/strong interactions drive the extreme emission lines in the early universe
• MOSEL and IllustrisTNG: Massive Extended Galaxies at z=2 Quench Later Than Normal-size Galaxies
• A Cautionary Tale of LyC Escape Fraction Estimates from High Redshift Galaxies
• Chemical Abundances of a Sample of Oxygen-dominated Galaxies
• The Physical Properties of Star-Forming Galaxies with Strong [O III] Lines at z=3.25
• Introducing the FLAMINGOS-2 Split-K Medium Band Filters: The Impact on Photometric Selection of High-z Galaxies in the FENIKS-pilot survey