TY - JOUR
T1 - The interstellar medium of quiescent galaxies and its evolution with time
AU - Magdis, Georgios E.
AU - GOBAT, RAPHAEL ALEXANDRE SIMON
AU - Valentino, Francesco
AU - Daddi, Emanuele
AU - Zanella, Anita
AU - Kokorev, Vasily
AU - Toft, Sune
AU - Jin, Shuowen
AU - Whitaker, Katherine E.
N1 - Funding Information:
GEM and FV acknowledge the Villum Fonden research Grant 13160 ?Gas to stars, stars to dust: tracing star formation across cosmic time? and the Cosmic Dawn Center of Excellence funded by the Danish National Research Foundation under then Grant No. 140. FV acknowledges support from the Carlsberg Foundation research grant CF18-0388 ?Galaxies: Rise And Death?. S. J. acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) under AYA2017-84061-P, co-financed by FEDER (European Regional Development Funds). K.E.W. wishes to acknowledge funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - We characterise the basic far-IR properties and the gas mass fraction of massive (⟨ log(M∗/M⊙ )⟩ ≈ 11.0) quiescent galaxies (QGs) and explore how these evolve from z = 2.0 to the present day. We use robust, multi-wavelength (mid- to far-IR and sub-millimetre to radio) stacking ensembles of homogeneously selected and mass complete samples of log(M∗/M⊙ )≳ 10.8 QGs. We find that the dust to stellar mass ratio (Mdust/M∗) rises steeply as a function of redshift up to z ∼ 1.0 and then remains flat at least out to z = 2.0. Using Mdust as a proxy of gas mass (Mgas), we find a similar trend for the evolution of the gas mass fraction (fgas), with z > 1.0 QGs having fgas ≈ 7.0% (for solar metallicity). This fgas is three to ten times lower than that of normal star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at their corresponding redshift but ≳ 3 and ≳ 10 times larger compared to that of z = 0.5 and local QGs. Furthermore, the inferred gas depletion time scales are comparable to those of local SFGs and systematically longer than those of main sequence galaxies at their corresponding redshifts. Our analysis also reveals that the average dust temperature (Td) of massive QGs remains roughly constant (⟨ Td»= 21.0 ± 2.0 K) at least out to z ≈ 2.0 and is substantially colder (ΔTd ≈ 10 K) compared to that of SFGs. This motivated us to construct and release a redshift-invariant template IR SED, that we used to make predictions for ALMA observations and to explore systematic effects in the Mgas estimates of massive, high-z QGs. Finally, we discuss how a simple model that considers progenitor bias can effectively reproduce the observed evolution of Mdust/M∗ and fgas. Our results indicate universal initial interstellar medium conditions for quenched galaxies and a large degree of uniformity in their internal processes across cosmic time.
AB - We characterise the basic far-IR properties and the gas mass fraction of massive (⟨ log(M∗/M⊙ )⟩ ≈ 11.0) quiescent galaxies (QGs) and explore how these evolve from z = 2.0 to the present day. We use robust, multi-wavelength (mid- to far-IR and sub-millimetre to radio) stacking ensembles of homogeneously selected and mass complete samples of log(M∗/M⊙ )≳ 10.8 QGs. We find that the dust to stellar mass ratio (Mdust/M∗) rises steeply as a function of redshift up to z ∼ 1.0 and then remains flat at least out to z = 2.0. Using Mdust as a proxy of gas mass (Mgas), we find a similar trend for the evolution of the gas mass fraction (fgas), with z > 1.0 QGs having fgas ≈ 7.0% (for solar metallicity). This fgas is three to ten times lower than that of normal star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at their corresponding redshift but ≳ 3 and ≳ 10 times larger compared to that of z = 0.5 and local QGs. Furthermore, the inferred gas depletion time scales are comparable to those of local SFGs and systematically longer than those of main sequence galaxies at their corresponding redshifts. Our analysis also reveals that the average dust temperature (Td) of massive QGs remains roughly constant (⟨ Td»= 21.0 ± 2.0 K) at least out to z ≈ 2.0 and is substantially colder (ΔTd ≈ 10 K) compared to that of SFGs. This motivated us to construct and release a redshift-invariant template IR SED, that we used to make predictions for ALMA observations and to explore systematic effects in the Mgas estimates of massive, high-z QGs. Finally, we discuss how a simple model that considers progenitor bias can effectively reproduce the observed evolution of Mdust/M∗ and fgas. Our results indicate universal initial interstellar medium conditions for quenched galaxies and a large degree of uniformity in their internal processes across cosmic time.
KW - Galaxies: evolution
KW - Galaxies: formation
KW - Galaxies: ISM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102137783&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202039280
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202039280
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102137783
VL - 647
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
SN - 0004-6361
M1 - A33
ER -