The spatial extent and distribution of star formation in 3D-HST mergers at z ∼ 1.5

被引:17
作者
Schmidt, Kasper B. [1 ,2 ]
Rix, Hans-Walter [1 ]
da Cunha, Elisabete [1 ]
Brammer, Gabriel B. [3 ]
Cox, Thomas J. [4 ]
van Dokkum, Pieter [5 ]
Schreiber, Natascha M. Foerster [6 ]
Franx, Marijn [7 ]
Fumagalli, Mattia [7 ]
Jonsson, Patrik [8 ]
Lundgren, Britt [5 ]
Maseda, Michael V. [1 ]
Momcheva, Ivelina [5 ]
Nelson, Erica J. [5 ]
Skelton, Rosalind E. [5 ]
van der Wel, Arjen [1 ]
Whitaker, Katherine E. [9 ]
机构
[1] Max Planck Inst Astron, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
[2] Univ Calif Santa Barbara, Dept Phys, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 USA
[3] European So Observ, Santiago 19, Chile
[4] Carnegie Observ, Pasadena, CA 91101 USA
[5] Yale Univ, Dept Astron, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
[6] Max Planck Inst Extraterr Phys, D-85748 Garching, Germany
[7] Leiden Univ, Leiden Observ, NL-2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
[8] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
[9] NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Astrophys Sci Div, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
关键词
galaxies: formation; galaxies: interactions; galaxies: starburst; galaxies: structure; INTEGRAL FIELD SPECTROSCOPY; DISC GALAXY MERGERS; DARK ENERGY SURVEY; ULTRA-DEEP-FIELD; FORMING GALAXIES; MASSIVE GALAXIES; HIGH-REDSHIFT; FORMATION HISTORY; NEARBY GALAXIES; MAJOR MERGERS;
D O I
10.1093/mnras/stt459
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
We present an analysis of the spatial distribution of star formation in a sample of 60 visually identified galaxy merger candidates at z > 1. Our sample, drawn from the 3D-HST survey, is flux limited and was selected to have high star formation rates based on fits of their broad-band, low spatial resolution spectral energy distributions. It includes plausible pre-merger (close pairs) and post-merger (single objects with tidal features) systems, with total stellar masses and star formation rates derived from multiwavelength photometry. Here we use near-infrared slitless spectra from 3D-HST which produce H alpha or [O III] emission line maps as proxies for star formation maps. This provides a first comprehensive high-resolution, empirical picture of where star formation occurred in galaxy mergers at the epoch of peak cosmic star formation rate. We find that detectable star formation can occur in one or both galaxy centres, or in tidal tails. The most common case (58 per cent) is that star formation is largely concentrated in a single, compact region, coincident with the centre of (one of) the merger components. No correlations between star formation morphology and redshift, total stellar mass or star formation rate are found. A restricted set of hydrodynamical merger simulations between similarly massive and gas-rich objects implies that star formation should be detectable in both merger components, when the gas fractions of the individual components are the same. This suggests that z similar to 1.5 mergers typically occur between galaxies whose gas fractions, masses and/or star formation rates are distinctly different from one another.
引用
收藏
页码:285 / 300
页数:16
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