Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 459, Issue 1, Pages L114-L118Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slw057
Keywords
methods: statistical; galaxies: fundamental parameters; galaxies: high-redshift; galaxies: photometry; galaxies: statistics; galaxies: stellar content
Categories
Funding
- Paranal Observatory [094.A-0410, 180.A-0776]
- European Research Council
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L000695/1, ST/J002844/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/G004994/1, ST/J002844/1, ST/L000695/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Despite decades of study, we still do not fully understand why some massive galaxies abruptly switch off their star formation in the early Universe, and what causes their rapid transition to the red sequence. Post-starburst galaxies provide a rare opportunity to study this transition phase, but few have currently been spectroscopically identified at high redshift (z > 1). In this paper, we present the spectroscopic verification of a new photometric technique to identify post-starbursts in high-redshift surveys. The method classifies the broad-band optical-near-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies using three spectral shape parameters (supercolours), derived from a principal component analysis of model SEDs. When applied to the multiwavelength photometric data in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey, this technique identified over 900 candidate post-starbursts at redshifts 0.5 < z < 2.0. In this study, we present deep optical spectroscopy for a subset of these galaxies, in order to confirm their post-starburst nature. Where a spectroscopic assessment was possible, we find the majority (19/24 galaxies; similar to 80 per cent) exhibit the strong Balmer absorption (H delta equivalent width W-lambda > 5 angstrom) and Balmer break, characteristic of post-starburst galaxies. We conclude that photometric methods can be used to select large samples of recently-quenched galaxies in the distant Universe.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available