The Gas Accretion Rate of Galaxies over z ≈ 0–1.3

Abstract

We present here estimates of the average rates of accretion of neutral gas onto main-sequence galaxies and the conversion of atomic gas to molecular gas in these galaxies at two key epochs in galaxy evolution: (i) z ≈ 1.3–1.0, toward the end of the epoch of peak star formation activity in the Universe, and (ii) z ≈ 1–0, when the star formation activity declines by an order of magnitude. We determine the net gas accretion rate R _Acc and the molecular gas formation rate R _Mol by combining the relations between the stellar mass and the atomic gas mass, the molecular gas mass, and the star formation rate (SFR) at three epochs, z = 1.3, z = 1.0, and z = 0, with the assumption that galaxies evolve continuously on the star-forming main sequence. We find that, for all galaxies, R _Acc is far lower than the average SFR R _SFR at z ≈ 1.3–1.0; however, R _Mol is similar to R _SFR during this interval. Conversely, both R _Mol and R _Acc are significantly lower than R _SFR over the later interval, z ≈ 1–0. We find that massive main-sequence galaxies had already acquired most of their present-day baryonic mass by z ≈ 1.3. At z ≈ 1.3–1.0, the rapid conversion of the existing atomic gas to molecular gas was sufficient to maintain a high average SFR, despite the low net gas accretion rate. However, at later times, the combination of the lower net gas accretion rate and the lower molecular gas formation rate leads to a decline in the fuel available for star formation and results in the observed decrease in the SFR density of the Universe over the last 8 Gyr.

Keywords

• Galaxies