Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time
Due to their extremely dust-obscured nature, much uncertainty still exists surrounding the stellar mass growth and content in dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at z > 1. In this work, we present a numerical model built using empirical data on DSFGs to estimate their stellar mass contributions...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acddde |
| _version_ | 1797697328294920192 |
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| author | Arianna S. Long Caitlin M. Casey Claudia del P. Lagos Erini L. Lambrides Jorge A. Zavala Jaclyn Champagne Olivia R. Cooper Asantha R. Cooray |
| author_facet | Arianna S. Long Caitlin M. Casey Claudia del P. Lagos Erini L. Lambrides Jorge A. Zavala Jaclyn Champagne Olivia R. Cooper Asantha R. Cooray |
| author_sort | Arianna S. Long |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to their extremely dust-obscured nature, much uncertainty still exists surrounding the stellar mass growth and content in dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at z > 1. In this work, we present a numerical model built using empirical data on DSFGs to estimate their stellar mass contributions across the first ∼10 Gyr of cosmic time. We generate a dust-obscured stellar mass function that extends beyond the mass limit of star-forming stellar mass functions in the literature, and predict that massive DSFGs constitute as much as 50%–100% of all star-forming galaxies with M ≥10 ^11 M _⊙ at z > 1. We predict the number density of massive DSFGs and find general agreement with observations, although more data is needed to narrow wide observational uncertainties. We forward-model mock massive DSFGs to their quiescent descendants and find remarkable agreement with observations from the literature demonstrating that, to first order, massive DSFGs are a sufficient ancestral population to describe the prevalence of massive quiescent galaxies at z > 1. We predict that massive DSFGs and their descendants contribute as much as 25%–60% to the cosmic stellar mass density during the peak of cosmic star formation, and predict an intense epoch of population growth during the ∼1 Gyr from z = 6 to 3 during which the majority of the most massive galaxies at high- z grow and then quench. Future studies seeking to understand massive galaxy growth and evolution in the early universe should strategize synergies with data from the latest observatories (e.g., JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) to better include the heavily dust-obscured galaxy population. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:38:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-78e71fba801d469595f36e43a45e8d5c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:38:45Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-78e71fba801d469595f36e43a45e8d5c2023-09-03T13:06:38ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572023-01-0195311110.3847/1538-4357/acdddeMissing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic TimeArianna S. Long0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7530-8857Caitlin M. Casey1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0930-6466Claudia del P. Lagos2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3021-8564Erini L. Lambrides3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3216-7190Jorge A. Zavala4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7051-1100Jaclyn Champagne5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6184-9097Olivia R. Cooper6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3881-1397Asantha R. Cooray7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3892-0190Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, USA ; arianna.sage.long@gmail.comDepartment of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, USA ; arianna.sage.long@gmail.comInternational Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), M468, University of Western Australia , 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia; ARC of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , AustraliaNASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road Greenbelt, MD 20771, USANational Astronomical Observatory of Japan , 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, JapanSteward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USAThe University of Texas at Austin , Department of Astronomy, Austin, TX, USADepartment of Physics & Astronomy, University of California , Irvine, 4129 Reines Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, USADue to their extremely dust-obscured nature, much uncertainty still exists surrounding the stellar mass growth and content in dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) at z > 1. In this work, we present a numerical model built using empirical data on DSFGs to estimate their stellar mass contributions across the first ∼10 Gyr of cosmic time. We generate a dust-obscured stellar mass function that extends beyond the mass limit of star-forming stellar mass functions in the literature, and predict that massive DSFGs constitute as much as 50%–100% of all star-forming galaxies with M ≥10 ^11 M _⊙ at z > 1. We predict the number density of massive DSFGs and find general agreement with observations, although more data is needed to narrow wide observational uncertainties. We forward-model mock massive DSFGs to their quiescent descendants and find remarkable agreement with observations from the literature demonstrating that, to first order, massive DSFGs are a sufficient ancestral population to describe the prevalence of massive quiescent galaxies at z > 1. We predict that massive DSFGs and their descendants contribute as much as 25%–60% to the cosmic stellar mass density during the peak of cosmic star formation, and predict an intense epoch of population growth during the ∼1 Gyr from z = 6 to 3 during which the majority of the most massive galaxies at high- z grow and then quench. Future studies seeking to understand massive galaxy growth and evolution in the early universe should strategize synergies with data from the latest observatories (e.g., JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) to better include the heavily dust-obscured galaxy population.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdddeGalaxy evolutionLuminous infrared galaxiesHigh-redshift galaxies |
| spellingShingle | Arianna S. Long Caitlin M. Casey Claudia del P. Lagos Erini L. Lambrides Jorge A. Zavala Jaclyn Champagne Olivia R. Cooper Asantha R. Cooray Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time The Astrophysical Journal Galaxy evolution Luminous infrared galaxies High-redshift galaxies |
| title | Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time |
| title_full | Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time |
| title_fullStr | Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time |
| title_short | Missing Giants: Predictions on Dust-obscured Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly Throughout Cosmic Time |
| title_sort | missing giants predictions on dust obscured galaxy stellar mass assembly throughout cosmic time |
| topic | Galaxy evolution Luminous infrared galaxies High-redshift galaxies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acddde |
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