Setton, David J;
Dey, Biprateep;
Khullar, Gourav;
Bezanson, Rachel;
Newman, Jeffrey A;
Aguilar, Jessica N;
Ahlen, Steven;
... Zou, Hu; + view all
(2023)
DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at z similar to 1.
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
, 947
(2)
, Article L31. 10.3847/2041-8213/acc9b5.
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Abstract
We utilize ∼17,000 bright luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the novel Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey Validation spectroscopic sample, leveraging its deep (∼2.5 hr galaxy^{−1} exposure time) spectra to characterize the contribution of recently quenched galaxies to the massive galaxy population at 0.4 < z < 1.3. We use Prospector to infer nonparametric star formation histories and identify a significant population of recently quenched galaxies that have joined the quiescent population within the past ∼1 Gyr. The highest-redshift subset (277 at z > 1) of our sample of recently quenched galaxies represents the largest spectroscopic sample of poststarburst galaxies at that epoch. At 0.4 < z < 0.8, we measure the number density of quiescent LRGs, finding that recently quenched galaxies constitute a growing fraction of the massive galaxy population with increasing lookback time. Finally, we quantify the importance of this population among massive (log(M_{star}/M_{sun} > 11.2) LRGs by measuring the fraction of stellar mass each galaxy formed in the gigayear before observation, f1 Gyr. Although galaxies with f1 Gyr > 0.1 are rare at z ∼ 0.4 (≲0.5% of the population), by z ∼ 0.8, they constitute ∼3% of massive galaxies. Relaxing this threshold, we find that galaxies with f1 Gyr > 5% constitute ∼10% of the massive galaxy population at z ∼ 0.8. We also identify a small but significant sample of galaxies at z = 1.1–1.3 that formed with f_{1} Gyr > 50%, implying that they may be analogs to high-redshift quiescent galaxies that formed on similar timescales. Future analysis of this unprecedented sample promises to illuminate the physical mechanisms that drive the quenching of massive galaxies after cosmic noon.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at z similar to 1 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8213/acc9b5 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213%2Facc9b5 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 IOP Publishing. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Post-starburst galaxies (2176); Galaxies (573); E+A galaxies (424); Galaxy quenching (2040); Quenched galaxies (2016); Galaxy spectroscopy (2171); Redshift surveys (1378) |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169982 |
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