PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 FROM NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY WITH MAGELLAN FIRE
The Astrophysical Journal American Astronomical Society 785:2 (2014) 153
Predicting future space near-ir grism surveys using the WFC3 infrared spectroscopic parallels survey
Astrophysical Journal 779:1 (2013)
Abstract:
We present near-infrared emission line counts and luminosity functions from the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) program for 29 fields (0.037 deg2) observed using both the G102 and G141 grism. Altogether we identify 1048 emission line galaxies with observed equivalent widths greater than 40 Å, 467 of which have multiple detected emission lines. We use simulations to correct for significant (>20%) incompleteness introduced in part by the non-dithered, non-rotated nature of the grism parallels. The WISP survey is sensitive to fainter flux levels ((3-5) × 10-17 erg s-1 cm-2) than the future space near-infrared grism missions aimed at baryonic acoustic oscillation cosmology ((1-4) × 10-16 erg s-1 cm-2), allowing us to probe the fainter emission line galaxies that the shallower future surveys may miss. Cumulative number counts of 0.7 < z < 1.5 galaxies reach 10,000 deg-2 above an Hα flux of 2 × 10-16 erg s-1 cm-2. Hα-emitting galaxies with comparable [O III] flux are roughly five times less common than galaxies with just Hα emission at those flux levels. Galaxies with low Hα/[O III] ratios are very rare at the brighter fluxes that future near-infrared grism surveys will probe; our survey finds no galaxies with Hα/[O III] < 0.95 that have Hα flux greater than 3 × 10-16 erg s -1 cm-2. Our Hα luminosity function contains a comparable number density of faint line emitters to that found by the Near IR Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer near-infrared grism surveys, but significantly fewer (factors of 3-4 less) high-luminosity emitters. We also find that our high-redshift (z = 0.9-1.5) counts are in agreement with the high-redshift (z = 1.47) narrowband Hα survey of HiZELS (Sobral et al.), while our lower redshift luminosity function (z = 0.3-0.9) falls slightly below their z = 0.84 result. The evolution in both the Hα luminosity function from z = 0.3-1.5 and the [O III] luminosity function from z = 0.7-2.3 is almost entirely in the L parameter, which steadily increases with redshift over those ranges. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..Low masses and high redshifts: The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation
Astrophysical Journal Letters 776:2 (2013)
Abstract:
We present the first robust measurement of the high redshift mass-metallicity (MZ) relation at 108 ≲ M/M ⊙ ≲ 1010, obtained by stacking spectra of 83 emission-line galaxies with secure redshifts between 1.3 ≲ z ≲ 2.3. For these redshifts, infrared grism spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 is sensitive to the R 23 metallicity diagnostic: ([O II] λλ3726, 3729 + [O III] λλ4959, 5007)/Hβ. Using spectra stacked in four mass quartiles, we find a MZ relation that declines significantly with decreasing mass, extending from 12+log(O/H) = 8.8 at M = 109.8 M ⊙, to 12+log(O/H) = 8.2 at M = 10 8.2 M ⊙. After correcting for systematic offsets between metallicity indicators, we compare our MZ relation to measurements from the stacked spectra of galaxies with M ≳ 109.5 M ⊙ and z ∼ 2.3. Within the statistical uncertainties, our MZ relation agrees with the z ∼ 2.3 result, particularly since our somewhat higher metallicities (by around 0.1 dex) are qualitatively consistent with the lower mean redshift (z = 1.76) of our sample. For the masses probed by our data, the MZ relation shows a steep slope which is suggestive of feedback from energy-driven winds, and a cosmological downsizing evolution where high mass galaxies reach the local MZ relation at earlier times. In addition, we show that our sample falls on an extrapolation of the star-forming main sequence (the SFR-M * relation) at this redshift. This result indicates that grism emission-line selected samples do not have preferentially high star formation rates (SFRs). Finally, we report no evidence for evolution of the mass-metallicity-SFR plane; our stack-averaged measurements show excellent agreement with the local relation. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Confronting predictions of the galaxy stellar mass function with observations at high redshift
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 429:3 (2013) 2098-2103
Abstract:
We investigate the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function at high redshift (z ≥ 5) using a pair of large cosmological hydrodynamical simulations: MassiveBlack and Massive Black-II. By combining these simulations, we can study the properties of galaxies with stellar masses greater than 108M⊙ h-1 and (comoving) number densities of log10(φ [Mpc-3 dex-1 h3]) > -8. Observational determinations of the galaxy stellar mass function at very high redshift typically assume a relation between the observed ultraviolet (UV) luminosity and stellar massto- light ratio which is applied to high-redshift samples in order to estimate stellar masses. This relation can also be measured from the simulations. We do this, finding two significant differences with the usual observational assumption: it evolves strongly with redshift and has a different shape. Using this relation to make a consistent comparison between galaxy stellar mass functions, we find that at z=6 and above the simulation predictions are in good agreement with observed data over the whole mass range. Without using the correct UV luminosity and stellar mass-to-light ratio, the discrepancy would be up to two orders of magnitude for large galaxies (>1010M⊙ h-1). At z = 5, however, the stellar mass function for low-mass galaxies (<109M⊙ h-1) is overpredicted by factors of a few, consistent with the behaviour of the UV luminosity function, and perhaps a sign that feedback in the simulation is not efficient enough for these galaxies. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.Constraining the bright-end of the UV luminosity function for z ≈ 7-9 galaxies: Results from CANDELS/GOODS-South
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 429:1 (2013) 150-158