The Massive Ancient Galaxies At $z>3$ NEar-infrared (MAGAZ3NE) Survey: Confirmation of Extremely Rapid Star-Formation and Quenching Timescales for Massive Galaxies in the Early Universe

Abstract

We present near-infrared spectroscopic confirmations of a sample of 16 photometrically-selected galaxies with stellar masses log(M_star/M_sun) > 11 at redshift z > 3 from the XMM-VIDEO and COSMOS-UltraVISTA fields using Keck/MOSFIRE as part of the MAGAZ3NE survey. Eight of the ultra-massive galaxies (UMGs) have specific star formation rates (sSFR) < 0.03 Gyr-1, with negligible emission lines. Another seven UMGs show emission lines consistent with active galactic nuclei and/or star formation, while only one UMG has sSFR > 1 Gyr-1. Model star formation histories of these galaxies describe systems that formed the majority of their stars in vigorous bursts of several hundred Myr duration around 4 < z < 6during which hundreds to thousands of solar masses were formed per year. These formation ages of < 1 Gyr prior to observation are consistent with ages derived from measurements of Dn(4000) and EW0(Hδ). Rapid quenching followed these bursty star-forming periods, generally occurring less than 350 Myr before observation, resulting in post-starburst SEDs and spectra for half the sample. The rapid formation timescales are consistent with the extreme star formation rates observed in 4 < z < 7 dusty starbursts observed with ALMA, suggesting that such dusty galaxies are progenitors of these UMGs. While such formation histories have been suggested in previous studies, the large sample introduced here presents the most compelling evidence yet that vigorous star formation followed by rapid quenching is almost certainly the norm for high mass galaxies in the early universe. The UMGs presented here were selected to be brighter than Ks = 21.7 raising the intriguing possibility that even (fainter) older quiescent UMGs could exist at this epoch.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ. 18 pages, 11 figures in main text

References in corpus (109)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Binary companions of evolved stars in APOGEE DR14: Search method and catalog of ~5,000 companions
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey - The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products and Mosaics
• A new extensive library of PHOENIX stellar atmospheres and synthetic spectra
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• The epochs of early-type galaxy formation as a function of environment
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: calibration of subgrid physics and model variations
• Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): Stellar Feedback Explains Cosmologically Inefficient Star Formation
• The Dependence of Star Formation History and Internal Structure on Stellar Mass for 10^5 Low-Redshift Galaxies
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation
• The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe
• Introducing the Illustris Project: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Differential Galaxy Evolution in Cluster and Field Galaxies at z=0.3
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS
• Galaxy formation in the Planck Cosmology - I. Matching the observed evolution of star formation rates, colours and stellar masses
• The Spitzer Legacy Survey of the HST-ACS 2 sq. deg. COSMOS Field: survey strategy and first analysis
• A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34
• The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3
• Theoretical Evolution of Optical Strong Lines across Cosmic Time
• The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• Old Galaxies in the Young Universe
• A Public Ks-selected Catalog in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Population Parameters
• IRAC Mid-Infrared Imaging of the Hubble Deep Field South: Star Formation Histories and Stellar Masses of Red Galaxies at z>2
• What do we learn from IRAC observations of galaxies at 2 < z < 3.5?
• The VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) Survey
• MUFASA: Galaxy Formation Simulations With Meshless Hydrodynamics
• Environment and self-regulation in galaxy formation
• The Relation Between SFR and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 $\le z\le$ 6.5 in CANDELS
• Optical Star-Formation Rate Indicators
• Sub-millimeter galaxies as progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• A massive proto-cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z {\approx} 5.3
• NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey -- II. Age and Metallicity along the Red Sequence
• 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 Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation
• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• A dominant population of optically invisible massive galaxies in the early Universe
• Galaxy growth in a massive halo in the first billion years of cosmic history
• 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
• The MOSDEF Survey: Excitation Properties of $z\sim 2.3$ Star-forming Galaxies
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies
• Ongoing and co-evolving star formation in zCOSMOS galaxies hosting Active Galactic Nuclei
• Stellar Kinematics of z~2 Galaxies and the Inside-Out Growth of Quiescent Galaxies
• A New Diagnostic of Active Galactic Nuclei: Revealing Highly-Absorbed Systems at Redshift>0.3
• Keck Spectroscopy of distant GOODS Spheroidal Galaxies: Downsizing in a Hierarchical Universe
• A substantial population of massive quiescent galaxies at z~4 from ZFOURGE
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. II - Star Formation Histories and Galaxy Quenching
• Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors
• The evolution of star formation histories of quiescent galaxies
• Spitzer IRAC confirmation of z_850-dropout galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: stellar masses and ages at z~7
• ISM properties of a Massive Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy discovered at z ~ 7
• The MOSDEF Survey: Significant Evolution in the Rest-Frame Optical Emission Line Equivalent Widths of Star-Forming Galaxies at z=1.4-3.8
• On the SFR-M${}_{\ast }$ main sequence archetypal star-formation history and analytical models
• Red & Dead CANDELS: massive passive galaxies at the dawn of the Universe
• The Most Massive Galaxies at 3.0<z<4.0 in the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey: Properties and Improved Constraints on the Stellar Mass Function
• Discovery of a dark, massive, ALMA-only galaxy at z~5-6 in a tiny 3-millimeter survey
• A dusty star-forming galaxy at z=6 revealed by strong gravitational lensing
• Exploring the z=3-4 massive galaxy population with ZFOURGE: the prevalence of dusty and quiescent galaxies
• Jekyll & Hyde: quiescence and extreme obscuration in a pair of massive galaxies 1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): A forensic SED reconstruction of the cosmic star formation history and metallicity evolution by galaxy type
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. I - Evolution of Structural and Dynamical Properties
• An Extremely Massive Quiescent Galaxy at $z=3.493$: Evidence of Insufficiently Rapid Quenching Mechanisms in Theoretical Models
• Discovery of four apparently cold dusty galaxies at z=3.62-5.85 in the COSMOS field: direct evidence of CMB impact on high-redshift galaxy observables
• Environmental quenching and hierarchical cluster assembly: Evidence from spectroscopic ages of red-sequence galaxies in Coma
• Rise of the Titans: A Dusty, Hyper-Luminous "870 micron Riser" Galaxy at z~6
• The formation of massive, quiescent galaxies at cosmic noon
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion of a Massive Quenching Galaxy at z=4.01
• MOSFIRE Absorption Line Spectroscopy of z > 2 Quiescent Galaxies: Probing a Period of Rapid Size Growth
• Hidden in plain sight: a massive, dusty starburst in a galaxy protocluster at z=5.7 in the COSMOS field
• The NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey: Filter Definitions and First Results
• The Evolution of the Fractions of Quiescent and Star-forming Galaxies as a Function of Stellar Mass Since z=3: Increasing Importance of Massive, Dusty Star-forming Galaxies in the Early Universe
• Spitzer Matching survey of the UltraVISTA ultra-deep Stripes (SMUVS): Full-mission IRAC Mosaics and Catalogs
• COLDz: A High Space Density of Massive Dusty Starburst Galaxies ~1 Billion Years after the Big Bang
• HerMES: The Rest-Frame UV Emission and A Lensing Model for the z=6.34 Luminous Dusty Starburst Galaxy HFLS3
• Chasing passive galaxies in the early Universe: a critical analysis in CANDELS GOODS-South
• CLEAR I: Ages and Metallicities of Quiescent Galaxies at $1.0<\mathbf{z}<1.8$ Derived from Deep Hubble Space Telescope Grism Data
• Halpha and 4000 Angstrom Break Measurements for ~3500 K-selected Galaxies at 0.5<z<2.0
• The early early type: discovery of a passive galaxy at z=3
• Resolving Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$: I. Search for Gravitationally Lensed Sources and Characterization of their Structure, Stellar Populations, and Line Emission
• 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$
• Optically-faint massive Balmer Break Galaxies at z>3 in the CANDELS/GOODS fields
• Stellar Metallicities and Elemental Abundance Ratios of z~1.4 Massive Quiescent Galaxies
• CLEAR II: Evidence for Early Formation of the Most Compact Quiescent Galaxies at High Redshift
• The mass, colour, and structural evolution of today's massive galaxies since z~5
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of an Ultra Massive and Compact Galaxy at z=3.35: A Detailed Look at an Early Progenitor of Local Most Massive Ellipticals
• The Typical Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z$\sim$3 is a Post-starburst
• SPLASH-SXDF Multi-wavelength Photometric Catalog
• A spectroscopic follow-up program of very massive galaxies at 3<z<4: confirmation of spectroscopic redshifts, and a high fraction of powerful AGN
• Resolved Multi-element Stellar Chemical Abundances in the Brightest Quiescent Galaxy at z $\sim$ 2
• Combining Dark Energy Survey Science Verification Data with Near Infrared Data from the ESO VISTA Hemisphere Survey
• Stellar masses and star formation rates of lensed dusty star-forming galaxies from the SPT survey
• A Census of Broad-Line Active Galactic Nuclei in Nearby Galaxies: Coeval Star Formation and Rapid Black Hole Growth
• ZFOURGE: Using Composite Spectral Energy Distributions to Characterize Galaxy Populations at 1<z<4
• The rest-frame optical sizes of massive galaxies with suppressed star formation at $z\sim 4$
• Selection of massive evolved galaxies at $3\le z\le 4.5$ in the CANDELS fields
• On the (Lack of) Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Massive Galaxies from $z$=1.5 to 0.4
• UV to IR Luminosities and Dust Attenuation Determined from ~4000 K-Selected Galaxies at 1<z<3 in the ZFOURGE Survey
• Ultramassive dense early-type galaxies: velocity dispersions and number density evolution since z=1.6
• Candidate Massive Galaxies at $z\sim 4$ in the Dark Energy Survey

Cited by in corpus (65)

• 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 $0.2<z\le 7.5$
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• A surprising abundance of massive quiescent galaxies at 3 < z < 5 in the first data from JWST CEERS
• A massive galaxy that formed its stars at $z\sim 11$
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Protocluster at $z=3.37$ with a High Fraction of Quiescent Galaxies
• A population of faint, old, and massive quiescent galaxies at 3 < z < 4 revealed by JWST NIRSpec Spectroscopy
• Mapping Obscuration to Reionization with ALMA (MORA): 2mm Efficiently Selects the Highest-Redshift Obscured Galaxies
• Mini-quenching of $z=4-8$ galaxies by bursty star formation
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey: The reversal of the star-formation rate $-$ density relation at $2<z<5$
• CEERS Key Paper III: The Resolved Host Properties of AGN at 3 < z < 5 with JWST
• COSMOS2020: Discovery of a protocluster of massive quiescent galaxies at $z=2.77$
• COSMOS2020: Exploring the dawn of quenching for massive galaxies at 3 < z < 5 with a new colour selection method
• The Rapid Build-up of Massive Early-type Galaxies. Supersolar Metallicity, High Velocity Dispersion and Young Age for an ETG at z=3.35
• The bending of the star-forming main sequence traces the cold- to hot-accretion transition mass over 0<z<4
• Rapid Quenching of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
• HST grism spectroscopy of z~3 massive quiescent galaxies: Approaching the metamorphosis
• Cosmic Vine: A z=3.44 large-scale structure hosting massive quiescent galaxies
• Beyond UVJ: Color Selection of Galaxies in the JWST Era
• MAGAZ3NE: High Stellar Velocity Dispersions for Ultra-Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$
• The Number Densities and Stellar Populations of Massive Galaxies at 3 < z < 6: A Diverse, Rapidly Forming Population in the Early Universe
• A High-Resolution Investigation of the Multi-Phase ISM in a Galaxy during the First Two Billion Years
• The First Quiescent Galaxies in TNG300
• An ancient massive quiescent galaxy found in a gas-rich z ~ 3 group
• Compact, bulge dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z~3
• The GOGREEN survey: Dependence of galaxy properties on halo mass at z > 1 and implications for environmental quenching
• Gas outflows in two recently quenched galaxies at z = 4 and 7
• Elentári: A $z\sim 3.3$ Proto-Supercluster in COSMOS
• Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions
• Chaotic and Clumpy Galaxy Formation in an Extremely Massive Reionization-Era Halo
• Implications of the Environments of Radio-detected AGN in a Complex Protostructure at z$\sim$3.3
• The Compact Structures of Massive $z\sim 0.7$ Post-Starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Sample
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. IX: First spectroscopic confirmation of low-mass quiescent galaxies at $z>2$ with NIRISS
• An AGN with an ionized gas outflow in a massive quiescent galaxy in a protocluster at $\mathbf{z}=3.09$
• Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-Obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time
• The ALMA REBELS Survey: Discovery of a massive, highly star-forming and morphologically complex ULIRG at $z=7.31$
• The NEWFIRM HETDEX Survey: Photometric Catalog and a Conservative Sample of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at z=3-5 over 17.5 deg^2 in the SHELA Field
• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Survey: Massive z$\sim$0.6 Post-Starburst Galaxies Exhibit Flat Age Gradients
• The GOGREEN Survey: Constraining the Satellite Quenching Timescale in Massive Clusters at $\mathbf{z}\gtrsim 1$
• On the origin of star formation quenching in massive galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$ in the cosmological simulations IllustrisTNG
• Bulge formation inside quiescent lopsided stellar disks: connecting accretion, star formation and morphological transformation in a z ~ 3 galaxy group
• Molecular Outflows in z > 6 QSO Hosts Driven by Star Formation
• Interrelation of the environment of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and massive galaxies at $2<z<4.5$
• Early results from GLASS-JWST XV: properties of the faintest red sources in the NIRCAM deep fields
• The [CII] 158 $\mu$m emission line as a gas mass tracer in high redshift quiescent galaxies
• New constraints on the evolution of the MHI-M* scaling relation combining CHILES and MIGHTEE-HI data
• Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment in Protoclusters
• Revisiting the Color-Color Selection: Submillimeter and AGN Properties of NUV-r-J Selected Quiescent Galaxies
• MAGAZ3NE: Massive, Extremely Dusty Galaxies at $z\sim 2$ Lead to Photometric Overestimation of Number Densities of the Most Massive Galaxies at $3<z<4$
• Gas properties as a function of environment in the proto-supercluster Hyperion at z ~ 2.45
• A massive quiescent galaxy confirmed in a protocluster at z=3.09
• Probing the earliest phases in the formation of massive galaxies with simulated HST+JWST imaging data from Illustris
• TP-AGB stars and stellar population properties of a post-starburst galaxy at $z\sim 2$ through optical and NIR spectroscopy with JWST
• Bright [CII]158$\mu$m Streamers as a Beacon for Giant Galaxy Formation in SPT2349$-$56 at $z=4.3$
• Merging history of massive galaxies at 3<z<6
• The HST-Hyperion Survey: Companion Fraction and Overdensity in a z ~ 2.5 Proto-supercluster
• Dynamical properties and star formation history of a low-mass quenched galaxy at Cosmic Noon
• High-Redshift Merger Model for Low-Frequency Gravitational Wave Background
• MIDIS: Unveiling the Star Formation History in massive galaxies at $1<z<4.5$ with spectro-photometric analysis
• The Connection between Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies and the First Massive Quenched Galaxies
• pop-cosmos: Star formation over 12 Gyr from generative modelling of a deep infrared-selected galaxy catalogue
• Low star-formation activity and low gas content of quiescent galaxies at $z=$ 3.5-4.0 constrained with ALMA
• A semi-analytical perspective on massive red galaxies: I. Assembly history, environment & redshift evolution
• Lack of influence of the environment in the earliest stages of massive galaxy formation