The relationship between star formation rates, local density and stellar mass up to z∼ 3 in the GOODS NICMOS Survey Article

Grützbauch, R, Conselice, CJ, Bauer, AE et al. (2011). The relationship between star formation rates, local density and stellar mass up to z∼ 3 in the GOODS NICMOS Survey . MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 418(2), 938-948. 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.19559.x

cited authors

  • Grützbauch, R; Conselice, CJ; Bauer, AE; Bluck, AFL; Chuter, RW; Buitrago, F; Mortlock, A; Weinzirl, T; Jogee, S

authors

abstract

  • We investigate the relation between star formation rates and local galaxy environment for a stellar-mass-selected galaxy sample in the redshift range 1.5 ≤z≤ 3. We use near-infrared imaging from an extremely deep Hubble Space Telescope survey, the GOODS NICMOS Survey (GNS), to measure local galaxy densities based on the nearest neighbour approach, while star formation rates are estimated from rest-frame ultraviolet fluxes. Due to our imaging depth, we can examine galaxies down to a colour-independent stellar mass completeness limit of logM*= 9.5M⊙ at z∼ 3. We find a strong dependence of star formation activity on galaxy stellar mass over the whole redshift range, which does not depend on local environment. The average star formation rates are largely independent of local environment, apart from those in the highest relative overdensities. Galaxies in overdensities of a factor of >5 have on average lower star formation rates by a factor of 2-3, but only up to redshifts of z∼ 2. We do not see any evidence for active galactic nucleus activity influencing these relations. We also investigate the influence of the very local environment on star formation activity by counting neighbours within 30kpc radius. This shows that galaxies with two or more close neighbours have on average significantly lower star formation rates as well as lower specific star formation rates up to z∼ 2.5. We suggest that this might be due to star formation quenching induced by galaxy merging processes. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

publication date

  • December 1, 2011

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 938

end page

  • 948

volume

  • 418

issue

  • 2