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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/29913
Title: | Red and dead CANDELS: massive passive galaxies at the dawn of the Universe | Authors: | MERLIN, Emiliano Fortuni, F. Torelli, M. SANTINI, Paola CASTELLANO, MARCO FONTANA, Adriano Grazian, A. PENTERICCI, Laura Pilo, S. Schmidt, K. B. |
Issue Date: | 2019 | Journal: | MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY | Number: | 490 | Issue: | 3 | First Page: | 3309 | Abstract: | We search the five CANDELS fields (COSMOS, EGS, GOODS-North, GOODS-South, and UDS) for passively evolving a.k.a. `red and dead' massive galaxies in the first 2 Gyr after the big bang, integrating and updating the work on GOODS-South presented in a previous paper. We perform SED-fitting on photometric data, with top-hat star-formation histories to model an early and abrupt quenching, and using a probabilistic approach to select only robust candidates. Using libraries without (with) spectral lines emission, starting from a total of more than 20 000 z > 3 sources we end up with 102 (40) candidates, including one at z = 6.7. This implies a minimal number density of 1.73 ± 0.17 × 10<SUP>-5</SUP> (6.69 ± 1.08 × 10<SUP>-6</SUP>) Mpc<SUP>-3</SUP> for 3 < z < 5; applying a correction factor to account for incompleteness yields 2.30 ± 0.20 × 10<SUP>-5</SUP>. We compare these values with those from five recent hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, finding a reasonable agreement at z < 4; tensions arise at earlier epochs. Finally, we use the star-formation histories from the best-fitting models to estimate the contribution of the high-redshift passive galaxies to the global star formation rate density during their phase of activity, finding that they account for ∼5-10 per cent of the total star formation at 3 < z < 8, despite being only ∼ 0.5{{ per cent}} of the total in number. The resulting picture is that early and strong star formation activity, building massive galaxies on short time-scales and followed by a quick and abrupt quenching, is a rare but crucial phenomenon in the early Universe: the evolution of the cosmos must be heavily influenced by the short but powerful activity of these pristine monsters. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/29913 | URL: | https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/490/3/3309/5571825 | ISSN: | 0035-8711 | DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stz2615 | Bibcode ADS: | 2019MNRAS.490.3309M | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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1909.07996.pdf | postprint | 3.59 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
stz2615.pdf | Pdf editoriale | 7.57 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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