The nature of the red disk-like galaxies at high redshift: dust attenuation and intrinsically red stellar populations

Abstract

We investigate which conditions of dust attenuation and stellar populations allow models of dusty, continuously star-forming, bulge-less disk galaxies at 0.8<z<3.2 to meet the different colour selection criteria of high-z ``red'' galaxies (e.g. Rc-K>5.3, Ic-K>4, J-K>2.3). As a main novelty, we use stellar population models that include the thermally pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution. The star formation rate of the models declines exponentially as a function of time, the e-folding time being longer than 3 Gyr. In addition, we use calculations of radiative transfer of the stellar and scattered radiation through different dusty interstellar media in order to explore the wide parameter space of dust attenuation. We find that synthetic disks can exhibit red optical/near-infrared colours because of reddening by dust, but only if they have been forming stars for at least about 1 Gyr. Extremely few models barely exhibit Rc-K>5.3, if the inclination i=90 deg and if the opacity 2*tauV>6. Hence, Rc-K-selected galaxies at 1<z<2 most probably are either systems with an old, passively evolving bulge or starbursts. Synthetic disks at 1<z<2 exhibit 4<Ic-K<4.8, if they are seen edge on (i.e. at i about 90 deg) and if 2*tauV>0.5. This explains the large fraction of observed, edge-on disk-like galaxies with Ks<19.5 and F814W-Ks>4. Finally, models with 2<z<3.2 exhibit 2.3<J-K<3, with no bias towards i about 90 deg and for a large range in opacity (e.g. 2*tauV>1 for i about 70 deg). In conclusion, red disk-like galaxies at 0.8<z<3.2 may not necessarily be dustier than nearby disk galaxies (with 0.5<2*tauV<2) and/or much older than about 1 Gyr. This result is due both to a realistic description of dust attenuation and to the emission contribution by TP-AGB stars... (Abridged)

arXiv comment16 pages, 8 ps figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (78)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• A Flat Universe from High-Resolution Maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
• The Formation of Galactic Disks
• Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe: II. The Utraviolet Extragalactic Background
• A Quantitative Comparison of SMC, LMC, and Milky Way UV to NIR Extinction Curves
• The Dust Opacity of Star-Forming Galaxies
• A new photometric technique for the joint selection of star-forming and passive galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5
• The Chandra Deep Field South: Optical Spectroscopy I
• Dust Formation in Primordial Type II Supernovae
• First stars, very massive black holes and metals
• A Significant Population of Red, Near-IR Selected High Redshift Galaxies
• Dust in the Early Universe: Dust Formation in the Ejecta of Population III Supernovae
• A median redshift of 2.4 for galaxies bright at submillimetre wavelengths
• The Ages of Elliptical Galaxies in a Merger Model
• The Size Evolution of High Redshift Galaxies
• Mass models of the Milky Way
• Multiple Scattering in Clumpy Media. II. Galactic Environments
• The K20 survey. I. Disentangling old and dusty star-forming galaxies in the ERO population
• Star formation history and dust attenuation in galaxies drawn from ultraviolet surveys
• Gas Physics, Disk Fragmentation, and Bulge Formation in Young Galaxies
• Dust Formation In Early Galaxies
• Probing Beyond the Epoch of Hydrogen Reionization with 21 Centimeter Radiation
• Dust in Starburst Galaxies
• An analytical model for the history of cosmic star formation
• Galaxy Size Evolution at High Redshift and Surface Brightness Selection Effects: Constraints from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Optical-IR Spectral Energy Distributions of z>2 Lyman Break Galaxies
• Optical Selection of Galaxies at Redshifts 1<z<3
• Far-Infrared Galaxies in the Far-Ultraviolet
• Evolved Galaxies at z > 1.5 from the Gemini Deep Deep Survey: The Formation Epoch of Massive Stellar Systems
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. III. Attenuation of stellar light in spiral galaxies
• Intergalactic Dust and Observations of Type Ia Supernovae
• The Formation of Dust Lanes: Implications for Galaxy Evolution
• Evolution of Disk Galaxies in the GOODS-South Field: Number Densities and Size Distribution
• A Substantial Population of Red Galaxies at z > 2: Modeling of the Spectral Energy Distributions of an Extended Sample
• Stellar Populations and Kinematics of Red Galaxies at z>2: Implications for the Formation of Massive Galaxies
• Extremely red galaxies: age and dust degeneracy solved ?
• The evolutionary sequence of active galactic nuclei and galaxy formation revealed
• Dust Attenuation in Late-Type Galaxies. I. Effects on Bulge and Disk Components
• Hubble Space Telescope images of submillimeter sources: large, irregular galaxies at high redshift
• Observing the Formation of the Hubble Sequence in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey
• Subaru Deep Survey I. Near-Infrared Observations
• Morphologies and Spectral Energy Distributions of Extremely Red Galaxies in the GOODS-South Field
• The Diversity of Extremely Red Objects
• The DIRTY Model II: Self-Consistent Treatment of Dust Heating and Emission in a 3-D Radiative Transfer Code
• An Atlas of Monte Carlo Models of Dust Extinction in Galaxies for Cosmological Applications
• The density of very massive evolved galaxies to z~1.7
• A comprehensive set of elemental abundances in damped Ly-alpha systems: revealing the nature of these high-redshift galaxies
• Dust-Induced Systematic Errors in UV-Derived Star Formation Rates
• Large disk-like galaxies at high redshift
• Spatially Resolved Ultraviolet, H-alpha, Infrared, and Radio Star Formation in M81
• IGM metal enrichment through dust sputtering
• The HELLAS2XMM survey. V. Near-Infrared observations of X-ray sources with extreme X/O ratios
• HST/WFPC2 Morphologies of K-selected Extremely Red Galaxies
• Explorations in Hubble Space: A Quantitative Tuning Fork
• The manifold spectra and morphologies of EROs
• Extinction curves expected in young galaxies
• The Dust in Lyman Break Galaxies
• Near-Infrared Colors of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies
• Modelling SCUBA sources in a Lambda-CDM cosmology: hot starbursts or cold extended galactic dust?
• Seeing Galaxies though Thick and Thin. IV. The Superimposed Spiral Galaxies of NGC 3314
• Distant red galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Gas and Dust in the Extremely Red Object ERO J164502+4626.4
• A Disk Galaxy of Old Stars at z ~ 2.5
• Hyper Extremely Red Objects in the Subaru Deep Field: Evidence for Primordial Elliptical Galaxies in the Dusty Starburst Phase
• When the Hubble Sequence Appeared ?: Morphology, Color, and Number-Density Evolution of the Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field North
• Looking for obscured QSOs in the X-ray emitting ERO population
• Amount of intergalactic dust: constraints from distant supernovae and thermal history of intergalactic medium
• Optical Spectroscopy of K-selected Extremely Red Galaxies
• Bulges
• Extremely Red Objects in The Lockman Hole
• An HST Morphological Survey of Faint EROs
• Extremely red galaxies: dust attenuation and classification
• Chandra Constraints on the AGN Fraction and Star Formation Rate of Red z>~2 Galaxies in the FIRES MS1054-03 Field
• Number Counts of Bright Extremely Red Objects: Evolved Massive Galaxies at z~1
• Properties of Extremely Red Objects in an Overdense Region
• The nature of X-ray selected EROs

Cited by in corpus (13)

• A physical model for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation: multi-epoch validation
• The Millennium Galaxy Catalogue: the B-band attenuation of bulge and disc light and the implied cosmic dust and stellar mass densities
• GMASS ultradeep spectroscopy of galaxies at z ~ 2. IV. The variety of dust populations
• The X-ray luminous galaxy cluster population at 0.9<z<~1.6 as revealed by the XMM-Newton Distant Cluster Project
• 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 X-ray luminous galaxy cluster XMMU J1007.4+1237 at z=1.56 - The dawn of starburst activity in cluster cores
• Discovery of a massive X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z=1.579
• Presence of dust with a UV bump in massive, star-forming galaxies at 1 < z < 2.5
• Morphologies of Two Massive Old Galaxies at z ~ 2.5
• Galaxy population properties of the massive X-ray luminous galaxy cluster XDCP J0044.0-2033 at z=1.58: red-sequence formation, massive galaxy assembly, and central star formation activity
• First simultaneous optical/near-infrared imaging of an X-ray selected, high-redshift cluster of galaxies with GROND: the galaxy population of XMMU J0338.7+0030 at z=1.1
• Stellar Populations of Luminous Evolved Galaxies at z~1.5
• The grey extinction of the ionizing cluster in NGC 3603 from ultraviolet to optical wavelengths