Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

We investigate the nature of star-forming galaxies with reduced specific star formation rate (sSFR) and high stellar masses, those ‘green valley’ objects that seemingly cause a reported bending, or flattening, of the star-forming main sequence. The fact that such objects host large bulges recently led some to suggest that the internal formation of bulges was a late event that induced the sSFRs of massive galaxies to drop in a slow downfall, and thus the main sequence to bend. We have studied in detail a sample of 10 galaxies at 0.45 < z < 1 with secure SFR from Herschel, deep Keck optical spectroscopy, and HST imaging from CANDELS allowing us to perform multiwavelength bulge to disc decomposition, and to derive star formation histories for the separated bulge and disc components. We find that the bulges hosted in these systems below main sequence are virtually all maximally old, with ages approaching the age of the Universe at the time of observation, while discs are young (〈 T50〉 ∼ 1.5 Gyr). We conclude that, at least based on our sample, the bending of the main sequence is, for a major part, due to rejuvenation, and we disfavour mechanisms that postulate the internal formation of bulges at late times. The very old stellar ages of our bulges suggest a number density of early-type galaxies at z = 1–3 higher than actually observed. If confirmed, this might represent one of the first direct validations of hierarchical assembly of bulges at high redshifts.

Abstract:

Observations find a median star formation efficiency per free-fall time in Milky Way Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) on the order of $\epsilon_{\rm ff}\sim 1\%$ with dispersions of $\sim0.5\,{\rm dex}$. The origin of this scatter in $\epsilon_{\rm ff}$ is still debated and difficult to reproduce with analytical models. We track the formation, evolution and destruction of GMCs in a hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy and by deriving cloud properties in an observationally motivated way, measure the distribution of star formation efficiencies which are in excellent agreement with observations. We find no significant link between $\epsilon_{\rm ff}$ and any measured global property of GMCs (e.g. gas mass, velocity dispersion). Instead, a wide range of efficiencies exist in the entire parameter space. From the cloud evolutionary tracks, we find that each cloud follow a \emph{unique} evolutionary path which gives rise to wide diversity in all properties. We argue that it is this diversity in cloud properties, above all else, that results in the dispersion of $\epsilon_{\rm ff}$.