The SFR-M Correlation Extends to Low Mass at High Redshift

Kartheik Iyer, Eric Gawiser, Romeel Davé, Philip Davis, Steven L. Finkelstein, Dritan Kodra, Anton M. Koekemoer, Peter Kurczynski, Jeffery A. Newman, Camilla Pacifici, Rachel S. Somerville

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

To achieve a fuller understanding of galaxy evolution, SED fitting can be used to recover quantities beyond stellar masses (M ) and star formation rates (SFRs). We use star formation histories (SFHs) reconstructed via the Dense Basis method of Iyer & Gawiser for a sample of 17,873 galaxies at 0.5 < z < 6 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey GOODS-S field to study the nature and evolution of the SFR-M correlation. The reconstructed SFHs represent trajectories in SFR-M space, enabling us to study galaxies at epochs earlier than observed by propagating them backward in time along these trajectories. We study the SFR-M correlation at z = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 using both direct fits to galaxies observed at those epochs and SFR-M trajectories of galaxies observed at lower redshifts. The SFR-M correlations obtained using the two approaches are found to be consistent with each other through a K-S test. Validation tests using SFHs from semi-analytic models and cosmological hydrodynamical simulations confirm the sensitivity of the method to changes in the slope, normalization, and shape of the SFR-M correlation. This technique allows us to further probe the low-mass regime of the correlation at high z by ∼1 dex and over an effective volume of ∼10×larger than possible with just direct fits. We find that the SFR-M correlation is consistent with being linear down to M ∼ 106 M o at z > 4. The evolution of the correlation is well described by , where t univ is the age of the universe in Gyr.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number120
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume866
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 20 2018

Keywords

  • galaxies: evolution
  • galaxies: star formation
  • techniques: photometric

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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