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The identification of post-starburst galaxies at z ~ 1 using multiwavelength photometry: A spectroscopic verification

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, ISSN: 1745-3933, Vol: 459, Issue: 1, Page: L114-L118
2016
  • 30
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 33
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
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Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    30
    • Citation Indexes
      30
  • Captures
    33

Article Description

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-nearinfrared 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 5 Å) 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.

Bibliographic Details

David T. Maltby; Omar Almaini; Nina A. Hatch; Vivienne Wild; Kate Rowlands; Ross J. McLure; James Dunlop; William G. Hartley; Chris Simpson; Michele Cirasuolo

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Physics and Astronomy; Earth and Planetary Sciences

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