Recovering the star formation histories of recently-quenched galaxies: the impact of model and prior choices

Abstract

Accurate models of the star formation histories (SFHs) of recently-quenched galaxies can provide constraints on when and how galaxies shut down their star formation. The recent development of "non-parametric" SFH models promises the flexibility required to make these measurements. However, model and prior choices significantly affect derived SFHs, particularly for post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) which have sharp changes in their recent SFH. In this paper, we create mock PSBs, then use the Prospector SED fitting software to test how well four different SFH models recover key properties. We find that a two-component parametric model performs well for our simple mock galaxies, but is sensitive to model mismatches. The fixed- and flexible-bin non-parametric models included in Prospector are able to rapidly quench a major burst of star formation, but systematically underestimate the post-burst age by up to 200 Myr. We develop a custom SFH model that allows for additional flexibility in the recent SFH. Our flexible non-parametric model is able to constrain post-burst ages with no significant offset and just ~90 Myr of scatter. Our results suggest that while standard non-parametric models are able to recover first-order quantities of the SFH (mass, SFR, average age), accurately recovering higher-order quantities (burst fraction, quenching time) requires careful consideration of model flexibility. These mock recovery tests are a critical part of future SFH studies. Finally, we show that our new, public SFH model is able to accurately recover the properties of mock star-forming and quiescent galaxies and is suitable for broader use in the SED fitting community.

24 pages, 10 figures. Posted after referee report; comments welcome. Key results in Figures 8 & 9. New SFH model publicly available as "continuity_psb_sfh" in Prospector: https://github.com/bd-j/prospector

References in corpus (23)

• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• 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
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: construction, observational verification and new results
• Stellar Population Inference with Prospector
• How Well Can We Measure the Stellar Mass of a Galaxy: The Impact of the Assumed Star Formation History Model in SED Fitting
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• The evolution of post-starburst galaxies from z=2 to z= 0.5
• Non-parametric Star Formation History Reconstruction with Gaussian Processes I: Counting Major Episodes of Star Formation
• The UV properties of E+A galaxies: constraints on feedback-driven quenching of star formation
• The Argo Simulation: I. Quenching of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift as a Result of Cosmological Starvation
• The Diversity and Variability of Star Formation Histories in Models of Galaxy Evolution
• The star formation histories of z~1 post-starburst galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at $z<1$
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• CLEAR II: Evidence for Early Formation of the Most Compact Quiescent Galaxies at High Redshift
• Color gradients along the quiescent galaxy sequence: clues to quenching and structural growth
• The Diverse Molecular Gas Content of Massive Galaxies Undergoing Quenching at z~1
• The Role of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Quenching of Massive Galaxies in the SQuiGGLE Survey
• How Well Can We Measure Galaxy Dust Attenuation Curves? The Impact of the Assumed Star-Dust Geometry Model in SED Fitting
• Recent Star-formation in a Massive Slowly-Quenched Lensed Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.88
• Detecting episodes of star formation using Bayesian model selection

Cited by in corpus (32)

• JWST NIRCam+NIRSpec: Interstellar medium and stellar populations of young galaxies with rising star formation and evolving gas reservoirs
• A massive galaxy that formed its stars at $z\sim 11$
• Spatially Resolved Properties of High Redshift Galaxies in the SMACS0723 JWST ERO Field
• Quantifying the Effects of Known Unknowns on Inferred High-redshift Galaxy Properties: Burstiness, the IMF, and Nebular Physics
• Identification of a transition from stochastic to secular star formation around $z=9$ with JWST
• Rapid Quenching of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
• JADES + JEMS: A Detailed Look at the Buildup of Central Stellar Cores and Suppression of Star Formation in Galaxies at Redshifts 3 < z < 4.5
• Outshining in the Spatially Resolved Analysis of a Strongly-Lensed Galaxy at z=6.072 with JWST NIRCam
• In pursuit of giants: II. Evolution of dusty quiescent galaxies over the last six billion years from the hCOSMOS survey
• GOODS-ALMA 2.0: Last gigayear star formation histories of the so-called starbursts within the main sequence
• Chemical evolution of local post-starburst galaxies: Implications for the mass-metallicity relation
• The large molecular gas fraction of post-starburst galaxies at z > 1
• Merger Signatures are Common, but not Universal, In Massive, Recently-Quenched Galaxies at z~0.7
• DIGS: Deep Inference of Galaxy Spectra with Neural Posterior Estimation
• The dark side of galaxy stellar populations II: The dependence of star formation histories on halo mass and on the scatter of the main sequence
• Evolution of the Sérsic Index up to z=2.5 from JWST and HST
• Behind the Spotlight: A systematic assessment of outshining using NIRCam medium-bands in the JADES Origins Field
• DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Observational Evidence of Low Ongoing Star Formation Rates in Gas-Rich Post-Starburst Galaxies
• RUBIES spectroscopically confirms the high number density of quiescent galaxies from $2<\mathbf{z}<5$
• Unveiling Multiple Physical Processes on a Cluster Galaxy at z=0.3 Using JWST
• Measuring Dust Attenuation Curves of SINGS/KINGFISH Galaxies Using Swift/UVOT Photometry
• Measuring Resolved Star Formation Histories from High-Precision Color-Magnitude Diagrams with StarFormationHistories.jl
• Modeling Star Formation Histories of Changing-Look AGN Host Galaxies with Prospector
• Reconstructing galaxy star formation histories from COSMOS2020 photometry using simulation-based inference
• Flexible Simulation Based Inference for Galaxy Photometric Fitting with Synthesizer
• Recent star formation in 0.5<z<1.5 quiescent galaxies
• The LEGA-C galaxy survey: multiple quenching channels for quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• Testing a New Star Formation History Model from Principal Component Analysis to Facilitate Spectral Synthesis Modeling
• The Delay Time Distribution of Tidal Disruption Events
• pop-cosmos: Star formation over 12 Gyr from generative modelling of a deep infrared-selected galaxy catalogue
• The Nature of High-Redshift Massive Quiescent Galaxies -- Searching for RUBIES-UDS-QG-z7 in FLARES