The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at z ∼ 1
- David J. Setton,
- Biprateep Dey,
- Gourav Khullar,
- Rachel Bezanson,
- Jeffrey A. Newman,
- Jessica N. Aguilar,
- Steven Ahlen,
- Brett H. Andrews,
- David Brooks,
- Axel de la Macorra,
- Arjun Dey,
- Sarah Eftekharzadeh,
- Andreu Font-Ribera,
- Satya Gontcho A Gontcho,
- Anthony Kremin,
- Stephanie Juneau,
- Martin Landriau,
- Aaron Meisner,
- Ramon Miquel,
- John Moustakas,
- Alan Pearl,
- Francisco Prada,
- Gregory Tarlé,
- Małgorzata Siudek,
- Benjamin Alan Weaver,
- Zhimin Zhou,
- Hu Zou
Affiliations
- David J. Setton
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Biprateep Dey
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Gourav Khullar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Rachel Bezanson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Jeffrey A. Newman
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Jessica N. Aguilar
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Steven Ahlen
- ORCiD
- Boston University , 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- Brett H. Andrews
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- David Brooks
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
- Axel de la Macorra
- Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México , Cd. de México C.P. 04510, Mexico
- Arjun Dey
- ORCiD
- NSF’s NOIRLab , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Sarah Eftekharzadeh
- ORCiD
- SOFIA Science Center , NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Andreu Font-Ribera
- ORCiD
- Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology , Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain
- Satya Gontcho A Gontcho
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Anthony Kremin
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Stephanie Juneau
- ORCiD
- NSF’s NOIRLab , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Martin Landriau
- ORCiD
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Aaron Meisner
- ORCiD
- NSF’s NOIRLab , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Ramon Miquel
- ORCiD
- Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology , Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats , Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
- John Moustakas
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Siena College , 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville, NY 12211, USA
- Alan Pearl
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ; [email protected]
- Francisco Prada
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) , Glorieta de la Astronomía, s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
- Gregory Tarlé
- ORCiD
- University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
- Małgorzata Siudek
- ORCiD
- Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC) , Campus UAB, Carrer de Magrans, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain; Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology , E-08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
- Benjamin Alan Weaver
- NSF’s NOIRLab , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Zhimin Zhou
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences , A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012, People's Republic of China
- Hu Zou
- ORCiD
- National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences , A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012, People's Republic of China
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acc9b5
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 947,
no. 2
p. L31
Abstract
We utilize ∼17,000 bright luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the novel Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Survey Validation spectroscopic sample, leveraging its deep (∼2.5 hr galaxy ^−1 exposure time) spectra to characterize the contribution of recently quenched galaxies to the massive galaxy population at 0.4 1) of our sample of recently quenched galaxies represents the largest spectroscopic sample of post-starburst galaxies at that epoch. At 0.4 11.2) LRGs by measuring the fraction of stellar mass each galaxy formed in the gigayear before observation, f _1 Gyr . Although galaxies with f _1 Gyr > 0.1 are rare at z ∼ 0.4 (≲0.5% of the population), by z ∼ 0.8, they constitute ∼3% of massive galaxies. Relaxing this threshold, we find that galaxies with f _1 Gyr > 5% constitute ∼10% of the massive galaxy population at z ∼ 0.8. We also identify a small but significant sample of galaxies at z = 1.1–1.3 that formed with f _1 Gyr > 50%, implying that they may be analogs to high-redshift quiescent galaxies that formed on similar timescales. Future analysis of this unprecedented sample promises to illuminate the physical mechanisms that drive the quenching of massive galaxies after cosmic noon.
Keywords
- Post-starburst galaxies
- Galaxies
- E+A galaxies
- Galaxy quenching
- Quenched galaxies
- Galaxy spectroscopy
