Paper I : Understanding the dominant modes

of Star Formation through Cosmic times

Group C

Alexandra Le Reste
Sepideh Kianfar
Mattia Sirressi
Scientific context
 The “main sequence” of
star-forming galaxies
correlation between star-formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (M*)

old paradigm: frequent burst induced by mergers,

justified by LIRG & ULIRG dominating at z=1 & z=2

main sequence favours a more stable star-formation history

Sample: deepest Herschel images
in 4 extragalactic fields
10762 far-IR detections + 62361 galaxies

from HST & ground-based catalogs (from UV to NIR)

they derive photometric redshifts, stellar masses and SFRs

ISM DUST IR

UV UV
YOUNG OBSERVER
OB STARS
Color-color diagram to discard the
passive galaxies

low for UV-bright

U-V galaxies

high for IR-bright

dusty massive
V-J galaxies
Statistics
● Need a sample that reflects the true population of galaxies at different redshifts

● Magnitude limited: probes the extremes at high redshift

Stacking
Information from other deep surveys
Combine the different galaxies in the bin
Combine the different galaxies in the bin
Combine the different galaxies in the bin

Average IR SFR + dispersion

 Combine the different galaxies in the bin

Average IR SFR + dispersion

Lose individual properties of galaxies in the bin but

Obtain global information for a certain bin
Results
The star formation rate (SFR)

Mass:
● low M well-fit with unity slope
-> universality of SF, bulge
has almost no role in SFR
● SFR at highest M falls

Redshift:
● sSFR increases with z
Mass evolution of SFR dispersion

● σSFR (dispersion) remains

constant over large fraction
of parameter space
● increases with low z and
high M
MS overview

● The main-sequence M and z range

-> 66-73% of the present M
● star-burst galaxies in all z and M
ranges -> 15% of SFR budget
Starburstiness

starburst galaxies: enhanced SFR

The mergers evolve significantly faster than the

observed starburts
Discussion &
Conclusions
● This paper proves the main sequence dispersion to be low

● Stellar feedback has to be reasonably low

● Simulations : mergers happen more frequently at high z

● Mergers in the local universe trigger starburst

Mergers are more inefficient at triggering SF at high z