Investigating The Growing Population of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

Sydney Sherman; Shardha Jogee; Jonathan Florez; Matthew L. Stevans; Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij; Isak Wold; Steven L. Finkelstein; Casey Papovich; Robin Ciardullo; Caryl Gronwall; Sofía A. Cora; Tomás Hough; Cristian A. Vega-Martínez

doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3167

paper

Investigating The Growing Population of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

arXiv:2010.04741 · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3167

Abstract

We explore the buildup of quiescent galaxies using a sample of 28,469 massive ( $M_{⋆} \geq 1 0^{11}$ M $_{⊙}$ ) galaxies at redshifts $1.5 < z < 3.0$ , drawn from a 17.5 deg $^{2}$ area (0.33 Gpc $^{3}$ comoving volume at these redshifts). This allows for a robust study of the quiescent fraction as a function of mass at $1.5 < z < 3.0$ with a sample $\sim$ 40 times larger at log( $M_{⋆}$ / $M_{⊙}$ ) $\geq 11.5$ than previous studies. We derive the quiescent fraction using three methods: specific star-formation rate, distance from the main sequence, and UVJ color-color selection. All three methods give similar values at $1.5 < z < 2.0$ , however the results differ by up to a factor of two at $2.0 < z < 3.0$ . At redshifts $1.5 < z < 3.0$ the quiescent fraction increases as a function of stellar mass. By $z = 2$ , only 3.3 Gyr after the Big Bang, the universe has quenched $\sim$ 25% of $M_{⋆} = 1 0^{11}$ M $_{⊙}$ galaxies and $\sim$ 45% of $M_{⋆} = 1 0^{12}$ M $_{⊙}$ galaxies. We discuss physical mechanisms across a range of epochs and environments that could explain our results. We compare our results with predictions from hydrodynamical simulations SIMBA and IllustrisTNG and semi-analytic models (SAMs) SAG, SAGE, and Galacticus. The quiescent fraction from IllustrisTNG is higher than our empirical result by a factor of $2 - 5$ , while those from SIMBA and the three SAMs are lower by a factor of $1.5 - 10$ at $1.5 < z < 3.0$ .

arXiv comment22 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Investigating The Growing Population of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

Abstract

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