Studying Large and Small Scale Environments of Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies
Abstract
Studying the environments of 0.4<z<1.2 UV-selected galaxies, as examples of extreme star-forming galaxies (with star formation rates in the range of 3-30 M_sol/yr), we explore the relationship between high rates of star-formation, host halo mass and pair fractions. We study the large-scale and small-scale environments of local Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies (UVLGs) by measuring angular correlation functions. We cross-correlate these systems with other galaxy samples: a volume-limited sample (ALL), a Blue Luminous Galaxy sample (BLG) and a Luminous Red Galaxy sample (LRG). We determine the UVLG comoving correlation length to be r_0=4.8(+11.6/-2.4) h^-1 Mpc at <z> =1.0, which is unable to constrain the halo mass for this sample. However, we find that UVLGs form close (separation < 30 kpc) pairs with the ALL sample, but do not frequently form pairs with LRGs. A rare subset of UVLGs, those with the highest FUV surface brightnesses, are believed to be local analogs of high redshift Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) and are called Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs). LBGs and LBAs share similar characteristics (i.e., color, size, surface brightness, specific star formation rates, metallicities, and dust content). Recent HST images of z~0.2 LBAs show disturbed morphologies, signs of mergers and interactions. UVLGs may be influenced by interactions with other galaxies and we discuss this result in terms of other high star-forming, merging systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0906.1010,
title = {Studying Large and Small Scale Environments of Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies},
author = {Antara R. Basu-Zych and David Schiminovich and Sebastien Heinis and Roderik Overzier and Tim Heckman and Michel Zamojski and Olivier Ilbert and Anton M. Koekemoer and Tom A. Barlow and Luciana Bianchi and Tim Conrow and Jose Donas and Karl G. Forster and Peter G. Friedman and Young-Wook Lee and Barry F. Madore and D. Christopher Martin and Bruno Milliard and Patrick Morrissey and Susan G. Neff and R. Michael Rich Samir Salim and Mark Seibert and Todd A. Small and Alex S. Szalay and Ted K. Wyder and Sukyoung Yi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.1010},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
35 pages, 10 Figures, accepted for publication in ApJ