Prof. Matt Jarvis

Abstract:

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are typically identified through radio, mid-infrared, or X-ray emission or through the presence of broad and/or narrow emission lines. AGN can also leave an imprint on a galaxy’s spectral energy distribution (SED) through the re-processing of photons by the dusty torus. Using the SED fitting code PROSPECT with an incorporated AGN component, we fit the far-ultraviolet to far-infrared SEDs of ∼494 000 galaxies in the D10-COSMOS field and ∼230 000 galaxies from the GAMA survey. By combining an AGN component with a flexible star formation and metallicity implementation, we obtain estimates for the AGN luminosities, stellar masses, star formation histories, and metallicity histories for each of our galaxies. We find that PROSPECT can identify AGN components in 91 per cent of galaxies pre-selected as containing AGN through narrow-emission line ratios and the presence of broad lines. Our PROSPECT-derived AGN luminosities show close agreement with luminosities derived for X-ray selected AGN using both the X-ray flux and previous SED fitting results. We show that incorporating the flexibility of an AGN component when fitting the SEDs of galaxies with no AGN has no significant impact on the derived galaxy properties. However, in order to obtain accurate estimates of the stellar properties of AGN host galaxies, it is crucial to include an AGN component in the SED fitting process. We use our derived AGN luminosities to map the evolution of the AGN luminosity function for 0 < z < 2 and find good agreement with previous measurements and predictions from theoretical models.

Abstract:

We present Lyα and ultraviolet (UV)-continuum luminosity functions (LFs) of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z = 2.0-3.5 determined by the untargeted optical spectroscopic survey of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We combine deep Subaru imaging with HETDEX spectra resulting in 11.4 deg2 of fiber spectra sky coverage, obtaining 18,320 galaxies spectroscopically identified with Lyα emission, 2126 of which host type 1 AGNs showing broad (FWHM > 1000 km s-1) Lyα emission lines. We derive the Lyα (UV) LF over 2 orders of magnitude covering bright galaxies and AGNs in (-27 < MUV < -20) by the 1/Vmax estimator. Our results reveal that the bright-end hump of the Lyα LF is composed of type 1 AGNs. In conjunction with previous spectroscopic results at the faint end, we measure a slope of the best-fit Schechter function to be αSch=-1.70-0.14+0.13, which indicates that αSch steepens from z = 2-3 toward high redshift. Our UV LF agrees well with previous AGN UV LFs and extends to faint-AGN and bright-galaxy regimes. The number fraction of Lyα-emitting objects (XLAE) increases from MUV∗ ∼ -21 to bright magnitude due to the contribution of type 1 AGNs, while previous studies claim that XLyα decreases from faint magnitudes to MUV∗, suggesting a valley in the XLyα-magnitude relation at MUV∗. Comparing our UV LF of type 1 AGNs at z = 2-3 with those at z = 0, we find that the number density of faint (MUV > -21) type 1 AGNs increases from z ∼ 2 to 0, as opposed to the evolution of bright (MUV < -21) type 1 AGNs, suggesting AGN downsizing in the rest-frame UV luminosity.

Abstract:

We present the evolution of the star formation dispersion–stellar mass relation (σ_SFR–M_⋆) in the DEVILS D10 region using new measurements derived using the PROSPECT spectral energy distribution fitting code. We find that σ_SFR–M_⋆ shows the characteristic ‘U-shape’ at intermediate stellar masses from 0.1 < z < 0.7 for a number of metrics, including using the deconvolved intrinsic dispersion. A physical interpretation of this relation is the combination of stochastic star formation and stellar feedback causing large scatter at low stellar masses and AGN feedback causing asymmetric scatter at high stellar masses. As such, the shape of this distribution and its evolution encodes detailed information about the astrophysical processes affecting star formation, feedback and the lifecycle of galaxies. We find that the stellar mass that the minimum σ_SFR occurs evolves linearly with redshift, moving to higher stellar masses with increasing lookback time and traces the turnover in the star-forming sequence. This minimum σ_SFR point is also found to occur at a fixed specific star formation rate (sSFR) at all epochs (sSFR ∼ 10^−9.6 Gyr⁻¹). The physical interpretation of this is that there exists a maximum sSFR at which galaxies can internally self-regulate on the tight sequence of star formation. At higher sSFRs, stochastic stellar processes begin to cause galaxies to be pushed both above and below the star-forming sequence leading to increased SFR dispersion. As the Universe evolves, a higher fraction of galaxies will drop below this sSFR threshold, causing the dispersion of the low stellar mass end of the star-forming sequence to decrease with time.

Abstract:

We present the 1.4 GHz radio luminosity functions (RLFs) of galaxies in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, measured above and below the 5σ detection threshold, using a Bayesian model-fitting technique. The radio flux densities from Very Large Array (VLA)-COSMOS 3-GHz data are extracted at the position of stellar-mass-selected galaxies. We fit a local RLF model, which is a combination of active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies (SFGs), in 10 redshift bins with a pure luminosity evolution model. Our RLF exceeds previous determinations at low radio luminosities at z < 1.6 with the same radio data, due to our ability to directly constrain the knee and faint-end slope of the RLF. Beyond z ∼2, we find that the SFG part of the RLF exhibits a negative evolution (L∗ moves to lower luminosities) due to the decrease in low stellar-mass galaxies in our sample at high redshifts. From the RLF for SFGs, we determine the evolution in the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD), which we find to be consistent with the established behaviour up to z ∼1 using far-infrared data, but exceeds that from the previous radio-based work for the reasons highlighted above. Beyond z ∼1.5 the cosmic SFRD declines. We note that the relation between radio luminosity and star formation rate is crucial in measuring the cosmic SFRD from radio data at z > 1.5. We investigate the effects of stellar mass on the total RLF by splitting our sample into low (108.5 ≤ M/M ≤ 1010) and high ($Mgt 10^{10}, mathrm{M}_{odot }$) stellar-mass subsets. We find that the SFRD is dominated by sources in the high stellar masses bin, at all redshifts.