VTechWorks staff will be away for the Thanksgiving holiday beginning at noon on Wednesday, November 27, through Friday, November 29. We will resume normal operations on Monday, December 2. Thank you for your patience.

Browsing by Author "Rodighiero, G."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Complex Physics of Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at High Redshifts as Revealed by Herschel and Spitzer
    Lo Faro, B.; Franceschini, A.; Vaccari, M.; Silva, L.; Rodighiero, G.; Berta, S.; Bock, J.; Burgarella, D.; Buat, V.; Cava, A.; Clements, D. L.; Cooray, A.; Farrah, D.; Feltre, A.; Solares, E. A. G.; Hurley, P.; Lutz, D.; Magdis, G. E.; Magnelli, B.; Marchetti, L.; Oliver, S. J.; Page, M. J.; Popesso, P.; Pozzi, F.; Rigopoulou, D.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Roseboom, I. G.; Scott, D.; Smith, A. J.; Symeonidis, M.; Wang, L.; Wuyts, S. (IOP Publishing Ltd., 2013-01)
    We combine far-infrared photometry from Herschel (PEP/HerMES) with deep mid-infrared spectroscopy from Spitzer to investigate the nature and the mass assembly history of a sample of 31 luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs) at z similar to 1 and 2 selected in GOODS-S with 24 mu m fluxes between 0.2 and 0.5 mJy. We model the data with a self-consistent physical model (GRASIL) which includes a state-of-the-art treatment of dust extinction and reprocessing. We find that all of our galaxies appear to require massive populations of old (>1 Gyr) stars and, at the same time, to host a moderate ongoing activity of star formation (SFR <= 100 M-circle dot yr(-1)). The bulk of the stars appear to have been formed a few Gyr before the observation in essentially all cases. Only five galaxies of the sample require a recent starburst superimposed on a quiescent star formation history. We also find discrepancies between our results and those based on optical-only spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting for the same objects; by fitting their observed SEDs with our physical model we find higher extinctions (by Delta A(V) similar to 0.81 and 1.14) and higher stellar masses (by Delta log(M-*) similar to 0.16 and 0.36 dex) for z similar to 1 and z similar to 2 (U)LIRGs, respectively. The stellar mass difference is larger for the most dust-obscured objects. We also find lower SFRs than those computed from LIR using the Kennicutt relation due to the significant contribution to the dust heating by intermediate-age stellar populations through "cirrus" emission (similar to 73% and similar to 66% of the total L-IR for z similar to 1 and z similar to 2 (U)LIRGs, respectively).
  • Thumbnail Image
    The evolution of the dust and gas content in galaxies
    Santini, P.; Maiolino, R.; Magnelli, B.; Lutz, D.; Lamastra, A.; Causi, G. L.; Eales, S.; Andreani, P.; Berta, S.; Buat, V.; Cooray, A.; Cresci, G.; Daddi, E.; Farrah, D.; Fontana, A.; Franceschini, A.; Genzel, R.; Granato, G.; Grazian, A.; Le Floc'h, E.; Magdis, G. E.; Magliocchetti, M.; Mannucci, F.; Menci, N.; Nordon, R.; Oliver, S.; Popesso, P.; Pozzi, F.; Riguccini, L.; Rodighiero, G.; Rosario, D. J.; Salvato, M.; Scott, D.; Silva, L.; Tacconi, L.; Viero, M.; Wang, L.; Wuyts, S.; Xu, K. (EDP SCIENCES, 2014-02)
    We use deep Herschel observations taken with both PACS and SPIRE imaging cameras to estimate the dust mass of a sample of galaxies extracted from the GOODS-S, GOODS-N and the COSMOS fields. We divide the redshift-stellar mass (M-star)-star formation rate (SFR) parameter space into small bins and investigate average properties over this grid. In the first part of the work we investigate the scaling relations between dust mass, stellar mass and SFR out to z = 2.5. No clear evolution of the dust mass with redshift is observed at a given SFR and stellar mass. We find a tight correlation between the SFR and the dust mass, which, under reasonable assumptions, is likely a consequence of the Schmidt-Kennicutt (S-K) relation. The previously observed correlation between the stellar content and the dust content flattens or sometimes disappears when considering galaxies with the same SFR. Our finding suggests that most of the correlation between dust mass and stellar mass obtained by previous studies is likely a consequence of the correlation between the dust mass and the SFR combined with the main sequence, i.e., the tight relation observed between the stellar mass and the SFR and followed by the majority of star-forming galaxies. We then investigate the gas content as inferred from dust mass measurements. We convert the dust mass into gas mass by assuming that the dust-to-gas ratio scales linearly with the gas metallicity (as supported by many observations). For normal star-forming galaxies (on the main sequence) the inferred relation between the SFR and the gas mass (integrated S-K relation) broadly agrees with the results of previous studies based on CO measurements, despite the completely different approaches. We observe that all galaxies in the sample follow, within uncertainties, the same S-K relation. However, when investigated in redshift intervals, the S-K relation shows a moderate, but significant redshift evolution. The bulk of the galaxy population at z similar to 2 converts gas into stars with an efficiency (star formation efficiency, SFE = SFR/M-gas, equal to the inverse of the depletion time) about 5 times higher than at z similar to 0. However, it is not clear what fraction of such variation of the SFE is due to an intrinsic redshift evolution and what fraction is simply a consequence of high-z galaxies having, on average, higher SFR, combined with the super-linear slope of the S-K relation (while other studies find a linear slope). We confirm that the gas fraction (f(gas) = M-gas/(M-gas + M-star)) decreases with stellar mass and increases with the SFR. We observe no evolution with redshift once M-star and SFR are fixed. We explain these trends by introducing a universal relation between gas fraction, stellar mass and SFR that does not evolve with redshift, at least out to z similar to 2.5. Galaxies move across this relation as their gas content evolves across the cosmic epochs. We use the 3D fundamental f(gas)-M-star-SFR relation, along with the evolution of the main sequence with redshift, to estimate the evolution of the gas fraction in the average population of galaxies as a function of redshift and as a function of stellar mass: we find that M-star greater than or similar to 10(11) M-circle dot galaxies show the strongest evolution at z greater than or similar to 1. 3 and a flatter trend at lower redshift, while f(gas) decreases more regularly over the entire redshift range probed in M-star less than or similar to 10(11) M-circle dot galaxies, in agreement with a downsizing scenario.