English

The main sequence of star forming galaxies II. A non evolving slope at the high mass end

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2019-10-02 v1

Abstract

By using the deepest available mid and far infrared surveys in the CANDELS, GOODS and COSMOS fields we study the evolution of the Main Sequence (MS) of star forming galaxies (SFGs) from z~0 to` ~2.5 at stellar masses larger than 10^{10} M_{\odot}. The MS slope and scatter are consistent with a re-scaled version of the local relation and distribution, shifted at higher values of SFR according to ~(1+z)^{3.2}. The relation exhibits a bending at the high mass end and a slightly increasing scatter as a function of the stellar mass. We show that the previously reported evolution of the MS slope, in the considered mass and redshift range, is due to a selection effect. The distribution of galaxies in the MS region at fixed stellar mass is well represented by a single log-normal distribution at all redshifts and masses, with starburst galaxies (SBs) occupying the tail at high SFR.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.07760,
  title  = {The main sequence of star forming galaxies II. A non evolving slope at the high mass end},
  author = {P. Popesso and L. Morselli and A. Concas and C. Schreiber and G. Rodighiero and G. Cresci and S. Belli and O. Ilbert and G. Erfanianfar and C. Mancini and H. Inami and M. Dickinson and M. Pannella and D. Elbaz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.07760},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication by MNRAS