English

Star formation law in the EoR from [CII] and CIII] lines

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2020-03-25 v1

Abstract

We present a novel method to simultaneously characterise the star formation law and the interstellar medium properties of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) through the combination of [CII] 158μ\mum (and its known relation with star formation rate) and CIII]λ\lambda1909{\AA} emission line data. The method, based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm, allows to determine the target galaxy average density, nn, gas metallicity, ZZ, and burstiness parameter, κs\kappa_s, quantifying deviations from the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation. As an application, we consider COS-3018 (z=6.854), the only EoR Lyman Break Galaxy so far detected in both [CII] and CIII]. We show that COS-3018 is a moderate starburst (κs3\kappa_s \approx 3), with Z0.4ZZ\approx 0.4\, Z_{\odot}, and n500cm3n \approx 500\, {\rm cm^{-3}}. Our method will be optimally applied to joint ALMA and JWST targets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2003.06443,
  title  = {Star formation law in the EoR from [CII] and CIII] lines},
  author = {L. Vallini and A. Ferrara and A. Pallottini and S. Carniani and S. Gallerani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.06443},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure, Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters