Keck-I mosfire spectroscopy of compact star-forming galaxies at z ≳ 2: High velocity dispersions in progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies

Guillermo Barro*, Jonathan R. Trump, David C. Koo, Avishai Dekel, Susan A. Kassin, Dale D. Kocevski, Sandra M. Faber, Arjen Van Der Wel, Yicheng Guo, Pablo G. Pérez-González, Elisa Toloba, Jerome J. Fang, Camilla Pacifici, Raymond Simons, Randy D. Campbell, Daniel Ceverino, Steven L. Finkelstein, Bob Goodrich, Marc Kassis, Anton M. KoekemoerNicholas P. Konidaris, Rachael C. Livermore, James E. Lyke, Bahram Mobasher, Hooshang Nayyeri, Michael Peth, Joel R. Primack, Luca Rizzi, Rachel S. Somerville, Gregory D. Wirth, Adi Zolotov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

73 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present Keck-I MOSFIRE near-infrared spectroscopy for a sample of 13 compact star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at redshift 2 ≤ z ≤ 2.5 with star formation rates of SFR ∼ 100 M yr-1 and masses of log(M/M) ∼10.8. Their high integrated gas velocity dispersions of σint km s-1, as measured from emission lines of Hα and [O III], and the resultant M int relation and M &sstarf;-Mdyn all match well to those of compact quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 2, as measured from stellar absorption lines. Since log(M /Mdyn) =-0.06 ± 0.2 dex, these compact SFGs appear to be dynamically relaxed and evolved, i.e., depleted in gas and dark matter (<13%), and present larger σint than their non-compact SFG counterparts at the same epoch. Without infusion of external gas, depletion timescales are short, less than ∼300 Myr. This discovery adds another link to our new dynamical chain of evidence that compact SFGs at z ≳ 2 are already losing gas to become the immediate progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies by z ∼ 2.

Original languageEnglish
Article number145
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume795
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Nov 2014

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • galaxies: high-redshift
  • galaxies: photometry
  • galaxies: starburst

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