Clumpiness of galaxies revealed in the near-infrared with COSMOS-Web. Substructures at 1 < z < 4 and their link to stellar mass and star formation
/ Authors
W. Mercier, B. Kalita, M. Shuntov, R. Arango-Toro, O. Ilbert, L. Tresse, Y. Dubois, C. Laigle, H. Hatamnia, Nicolas McMahon
and 23 more authors
A. Faisst, I. Cox, M. Trebitsch, L. Michel-Dansac, Si-Yue Yu, M. Hirschmann, M. Huertas-Company, A. Long, A. Koekemoer, G. Aufort, Joseph S. W. Lewis, G. Gozaliasl, R. Rich, J. Rhodes, H. McCracken, Caitlin M. Casey, J. Kartaltepe, B. Robertson, M. Franco, Daizhong Liu, H. Akins, N. Allen, S. Toft
/ Abstract
Clumps in the rest-frame UV emission of galaxies at z łesssim 3 have been observed for decades. Since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope ( ), a large population is detected in the rest-frame near-infrared (NIR), raising questions about their formation mechanism. We investigate the presence and properties of NIR overdensities (hereafter substructures, including clumps) in star-forming and quiescent galaxies at 1 < z < 4 to understand their link to the evolution of their host galaxy. We identified substructures in /NIRCam F277W and F444W residual images at a rest-frame wavelength of . 1 The fraction of galaxies with substructures with M_⋆ > has steadily decreased with cosmic time from 40% at z = 4 to 10% at z = 1. NIR clumps, the most common type of small substructure, are much fainter (2% of the total galaxy flux) than similar UV clumps in the literature. Nearly all galaxies at the high-mass end of the main sequence (MS), starburst, and green valley regions have substructures. However, we do not find substructures in low-mass galaxies in the green valley and red sequence. Although massive galaxies on the MS and in the green valley have a 40% probability of hosting multiple clumps, the majority of clumpy galaxies host only a single clump. e9 The fraction of clumpy galaxies in the rest-frame NIR is determined by the stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) of the host galaxies. Its evolution with redshift is due to galaxies moving toward lower SFRs at z łesssim 2 and the buildup of low-mass galaxies in the green valley and red sequence. Based on their spatial distribution in edge-on galaxies, we infer that most substructures are produced in situ via disk fragmentation. Galaxy mergers may still play a role at high stellar masses, especially at a low SFR.
Journal: Astronomy & Astrophysics