The VLA Frontier Field Survey: A Comparison of the Radio and UV/optical size of $0.3\lesssim z\lesssim 3$ star-forming galaxies

Abstract

To investigate the growth history of galaxies, we measure the rest-frame radio, ultraviolet (UV), and optical sizes of 98 radio-selected, star-forming galaxies (SFGs) distributed over $0.3\lesssim z\lesssim 3$ and median stellar mass of $\log (M_{\star }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })\approx 10.4$. We compare the size of galaxy stellar disks, traced by rest-frame optical emission, relative to the overall extent of star formation activity that is traced by radio continuum emission. Galaxies in our sample are identified in three Hubble Frontier Fields: MACSJ0416.1$-$2403, MACSJ0717.5+3745, and MACSJ1149.5+2223. Radio continuum sizes are derived from 3 GHz and 6 GHz radio images ($\lesssim 0$''$.6$ resolution, $\approx 0.9\mu \mathrm{Jy}\mathrm{bea}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$ noise level) from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. Rest-frame UV and optical sizes are derived using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the ACS and WFC3 instruments. We find no clear dependence between the 3 GHz radio size and stellar mass of SFGs, which contrasts with the positive correlation between the UV/optical size and stellar mass of galaxies. Focusing on SFGs with $\log (M_{\star }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })>10$, we find that the radio/UV/optical emission tends to be more compact in galaxies with high star-formation rates ($\mathrm{SFR}\gtrsim 100{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$), suggesting that a central, compact starburst (and/or an Active Galactic Nucleus) resides in the most luminous galaxies of our sample. We also find that the physical radio/UV/optical size of radio-selected SFGs with $\log (M_{\star }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot })>10$ increases by a factor of $1.5-2$ from $z\approx 3$ to $z\approx 0.3$, yet the radio emission remains two-to-three times more compact than that from the UV/optical. These findings indicate that these massive, {radio-selected} SFGs at $0.3\lesssim z\lesssim 3$ tend to harbor centrally enhanced star formation activity relative to their outer-disks.

30 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (46)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• The Evolution of Galaxy Structure over Cosmic Time
• Structure and star formation in galaxies out to z=3: evidence for surface density dependent evolution and upsizing
• Rapid formation of exponential disks and bulges at high redshift from the dynamical evolution of clump cluster and chain galaxies
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Kiloparsec-scale dust disks in high-redshift luminous submillimeter galaxies
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: ALMA resolves the rest-frame far-infrared emission of sub-millimeter galaxies
• Mass and magnification maps for the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields clusters: implications for high redshift studies
• Lens models and magnification maps of the six Hubble Frontier Fields clusters
• GOODS-HERSCHEL: star formation, dust attenuation and the FIR-radio correlation on the Main Sequence of star-forming galaxies up to z~4
• The far-infrared/radio correlation and radio spectral index of galaxies in the SFR-M* plane up to z 2
• Star formation is boosted (and quenched) from the inside out: radial star formation profiles from MaNGA
• Unstable disks at high redshift: Evidence for smooth accretion in galaxy formation
• VLA and ALMA Imaging of Intense, Galaxy-Wide Star Formation in z ~ 2 Galaxies
• Hubble Frontier Fields : A High Precision Strong Lensing Analysis of Galaxy Cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403 using ~200 Multiple Images
• Automated Mining of the ALMA Archive in the COSMOS Field (A3COSMOS): II. Cold Molecular Gas Evolution out to Redshift 6
• The VLA-COSMOS Survey: III. Further Catalog Analysis and the Radio Source Counts
• High-redshift major mergers weakly enhance star formation
• Connecting Far-Infrared and Radio Morphologies of Disk Galaxies: Cosmic-Ray Electron Diffusion After Star Formation Episodes
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: High-resolution dust continuum morphologies and the link between sub-millimetre galaxies and spheroid formation
• An ALMA/NOEMA survey of the molecular gas properties of high-redshift star-forming galaxies
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. IV Correcting apparent disk scalelengths and central surface brightnesses for the effect of dust at optical and near-infrared wavelengths
• The dust-to-stellar mass ratio as a valuable tool to probe the evolution of local and distant star forming galaxies
• The Radio Continuum-Star Formation Rate Relation in WSRT SINGS Galaxies
• Structural evolution in massive galaxies at z~2
• The ALMA Frontier Fields survey I: 1.1 mm continuum detections in Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1-2403 and MACSJ1149.5+2223
• Extreme dust disks in Arp 220 as revealed by ALMA
• Revealing the Stellar Mass and Dust Distributions of Submillimeter Galaxies at Redshift 2
• Chandra and JVLA observations of HST Frontier Fields cluster MACS J0717.5+3745
• The colors and sizes of recently quenched galaxies: a result of compact starburst before quenching
• The structural and size evolution of star-forming galaxies over the last 11 Gyrs
• Radio continuum size evolution of star-forming galaxies over 0.35 < z < 2.25
• MegaMorph: classifying galaxy morphology using multi-wavelength Sérsic profile fits
• The ALMA Frontier Fields Survey - II. Multiwavelength Photometric analysis of 1.1mm continuum sources in Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1-2403 and MACSJ1149.5+2223
• The eMERGE Survey I: Very Large Array 5.5 GHz observations of the GOODS-North Field
• Nature of Faint Radio Sources in GOODS-North and GOODS-South Fields - I. Spectral Index and Radio-FIR Correlation
• An ALMA Survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS Field: The Far-infrared/Radio correlation for High-redshift Dusty Star-forming Galaxies
• How Robust Are the Size Measurements of High-redshift Compact Galaxies?
• A Uniform History for Galaxy Evolution
• Searching for obscured AGN in z $\sim$ 2 submillimetre galaxies

Cited by in corpus (11)

• ALMA reveals extended cool gas and hot ionized outflows in a typical star-forming galaxy at $z=7.13$
• A${}^3$COSMOS: A census on the molecular gas mass and extent of main-sequence galaxies across cosmic time
• Deep Radio Interferometric Imaging with POLISH: DSA-2000 and weak lensing
• Sub-millimetre compactness as a critical dimension to understand the Main Sequence of star-forming galaxies
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Starbursts in the main sequence reveal compact star formation regulating galaxy evolution prequenching
• A new census of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at z=0.7-2 with JWST MIRI
• JWST/CEERS sheds light on dusty star-forming galaxies: forming bulges, lopsidedness and outside-in quenching at cosmic noon
• COLDz: Probing Cosmic Star Formation With Radio Free-free Emission
• A model for the infrared-radio correlation of main-sequence galaxies at GHz frequencies and its variation on redshift and stellar mass
• Self-Similar Buildup and Inside-Out Growth: Tracing the Evolution of Intermediate to High-Mass Star-Forming Galaxies Since $z=2$
• A VLA Survey of Late-time Radio Emission from Superluminous Supernovae and the Host Galaxies