Green peas in the southern sky: Broad-band color selection and spectroscopic follow up

Abstract

We present a systematic search for 1696 Green Pea (GP) galaxy candidates in the southern hemisphere selected from the Dark Energy Survey Data Release 2 (DES DR2) and provide preliminary results from spectroscopic follow-up observations of 26 targets chosen among them. Our selection criteria include the colors in $gri$-bands and compact morphology in the color composite images. The multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution fitting shows that the selected GP candidates exhibit star formation rates up to several tens ${\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$. With the mean stellar mass of $\log M_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }=8.6$, GP candidates are located at roughly 1 dex above the main sequence of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 0.3$. Spectroscopic follow-up observations of the GP candidates with Gemini/GMOS are underway. All 26 targets are spectroscopically confirmed to be at $z=0.3-0.41$ and have [OIII] equivalent width larger than 85$\mathring{A}$, classified to be starbursts with low to moderate dust attenuation. These confirmed GPs show a lower metallicity offset from the mass-metallicity relation of local star-forming galaxies, indicating that GPs are less chemically evolved systems at their early stage of evolution.

14 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ