Star formation and dust obscuration at z~2: galaxies at the dawn of downsizing

Details Star formation and dust obscuration at z~2: galaxies at the dawn of downsizing Star formation and dust obscuration at z~2: galaxies at the dawn of downsizing

2009-05-11

arxiv.org/abs/0905.1674v1

Astrophys.J.698:L116-L120,2009

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters

Scientific paper

10.1088/0004-637X/698/2/L116

We present first results of a study aimed to constrain the star formation rate and dust content of galaxies at z~2. We use a sample of BzK-selected star-forming galaxies, drawn from the COSMOS survey, to perform a stacking analysis of their 1.4 GHz radio continuum as a function of different stellar population properties, after removing AGN contaminants from the sample. Dust unbiased star formation rates are derived from radio fluxes assuming the local radio-IR correlation. The main results of this work are: i) specific star formation rates are constant over about 1 dex in stellar mass and up to the highest stellar mass probed; ii) the dust attenuation is a strong function of galaxy stellar mass with more massive galaxies being more obscured than lower mass objects; iii) a single value of the UV extinction applied to all galaxies would lead to grossly underestimate the SFR in massive galaxies; iv) correcting the observed UV luminosities for dust attenuation based on the Calzetti recipe provide results in very good agreement with the radio derived ones; v) the mean specific star formation rate of our sample steadily decreases by a factor of ~4 with decreasing redshift from z=2.3 to 1.4 and a factor of ~40 down the local Universe. These empirical SFRs would cause galaxies to dramatically overgrow in mass if maintained all the way to low redshifts, we suggest that this does not happen because star formation is progressively quenched, likely starting from the most massive galaxies.

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