Recent Star-formation in a Massive Slowly-Quenched Lensed Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.88

Abstract

In this letter, we reconstruct the formation pathway of MRG-S0851, a massive, $\log M_{\ast }/M_{\odot }=11.02\pm 0.04$, strongly lensed, red, galaxy at $z=1.883\pm 0.001$. While the global photometry and spatially-resolved outskirts of MRG-S0851 imply an early-formation scenario with a slowly decreasing or constant star-formation history, a joint fit of 2D grism spectroscopy and photometry reveals a more complex scenario: MRG-S0851 is likely to be experiencing a centrally-concentrated rejuvenation in the inner $\sim$1 kpc in the last $\sim$100 Myr of evolution. We estimate $0.5\pm 0.1\%$ of the total stellar mass is formed in this phase. Rejuvenation episodes are suggested to be infrequent for massive galaxies at $z\sim 2$, but as our analyses indicate, more examples of complex star-formation histories may yet be hidden within existing data. By adding a FUV color criterion to the standard U-V/V-J diagnostic, thereby heightening our sensitivity to recent star formation, we show that we can select populations of galaxies with similar spectral energy distributions to that of MRG-S0851, but note that deep follow-up spectroscopic observations and/or spatially resolved analyses are necessary to robustly confirm the rejuvenation of these candidates. Using our criteria with MRG-S0851 as a prototype, we estimate that $\sim$1\% of massive quiescent galaxies at $1<z<2$ are potentially rejuvenating.

Accepted for publication in ApJL, 10 pages, 5 figures

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