Recent star formation in high-redshift early-type galaxies: insights from the rest-frame UV
Abstract
We combine deep UBVRIzJK photometry from the MUSYC survey with redshifts from the COMBO-17 survey to study the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) properties of 674 high-redshift (0.5<z<1) early-type galaxies, drawn from the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS). Galaxy morphologies are determined through visual inspection of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images taken from the GEMS survey. We harness the sensitivity of the UV to young (<1 Gyrs old) stars to quantify the recent star formation history of the early-type population. We find compelling evidence that early-types of all luminosities form stars over the lifetime of the Universe, although the bulk of their star formation is already complete at high redshift. Luminous (-23<M(V)<-20.5) early-types form 10-15 percent of their mass after z=1, while their less luminous (M(V)>-20.5) counterparts form 30-60 percent of their mass in the same redshift range.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0711.1637,
title = {Recent star formation in high-redshift early-type galaxies: insights from the rest-frame UV},
author = {S. Kaviraj and S. K. Yi and E. Gawiser and P. G. van Dokkum and S. Khochfar and K. Schawinski and J. Silk},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.1637},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
To appear in the proceedings of the IAU 245, eds. M. Bureau, E. Athanassoula, and B. Barbuy