The Assembly of High Redshift Galaxies Probed by Imaging Spectroscopy

• Applicant: Dr. Natascha M. Förster Schreiber
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5448583

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

Understanding how galaxies form and grow within the hierarchical framework of Cold Dark Matter remains a great challenge. Over the past six years, our ambitious program of near-infrared imaging spectroscopy with SINFONI at the ESO VLT and of millimeter interferometry at the IRAM Plateau de Bure of massive high-redshift star-forming galaxies has made substantial contributions, advancing our knowledge about the internal workings of galaxies in the early Universe. It has revealed the dynamics and properties of well over 100 distant galaxies in unprecendented detail, including the exciting discovery of a significant population of turbulent gas-rich disks at z∼2, whose evolution appears to be driven by efficient secular processes and whose star formation may be fueled by fairly smooth but rapid gas accretion via “cold flows.” The results are shedding new light on the origin of the massive spheroid and disk components of today’s galaxies, the connection between bulge and disk formation, and the physical processes driving mass accretion, star formation, chemical enrichment, and feedback from star formation and AGN activity at early cosmic times.

Publications

• (2005): Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Two Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies at z ~ 2.8. In: ApJ 625 (2), L83-L86
  Lutz, D.; Valiante, E.; Sturm, E.; Genzel, R.; Tacconi, L. J.; Lehnert, M. D. et al.
  
• (2006): High‐Resolution Millimeter Imaging of Submillimeter Galaxies. In: ApJ 640 (1), S. 228–240
  Tacconi, L. J.; Neri, R.; Chapman, S. C.; Genzel, R.; Smail, I.; Ivison, R. J. et al.
  
• (2006): SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ∼ 2 UV‐selected Galaxies: Rotation Curves and Dynamical Evolution. In: ApJ 645 (2), S. 1062-1075
  Forster Schreiber, N. M.; Genzel, R.; Lehnert, M. D.; Bouche, N.; Verma, A.; Erb, D. K.; Shapley, A. E.; Steidel, C. C.; Davies, R.; Lutz, D.; Nesvadba, N.; Tacconi, L. J.; Eisenhauer, F.; Abuter, R.; Gilbert, A.; Gillessen, S.; Sternberg, A.
  
• (2006): The rapid formation of a large rotating disk galaxy three billion years after the Big Bang. In: Nature 442 (7104), S. 786–789
  Genzel, R.; Tacconi, L. J.; Eisenhauer, F.; Schreiber, N. M. Förster; Cimatti, A.; Daddi, E.; Bouché, N.; Davies, R.; Lehnert, M. D.; Lutz, D.; Nesvadba, N.; Verma, A.; Abuter, R.; Shapiro, K.; Sternberg, A.; Renzini, A.; Kong, X.; Arimoto, N.; Mignoli, M.
  
• (2007): A Mid‐Infrared Spectroscopic Study of Submillimeter Galaxies: Luminous Starbursts at High Redshift. In: ApJ 660 (2), S. 1060–1071
  Valiante, E.; Lutz, D.; Sturm, E.; Genzel, R.; Tacconi, L. J.; Lehnert, M. D.; Baker, A. J.
  
• (2007): Dynamical Properties of z ∼ 2 Star‐forming Galaxies and a Universal Star Formation Relation. In: ApJ 671 (1), S. 303–309
  Bouche, N.; Cresci, G.; Davies, R.; Eisenhauer, F.; Forster Schreiber, N. M.; Genzel, R.; Gillessen, S.; Lehnert, M.; Lutz, D.; Nesvadba, N.; Shapiro, K. L.; Sternberg, A.; Tacconi, L. J.; Verma, A.; Cimatti, A.; Daddi, E.; Renzini, A.; Erb, D. K.; Shapley, A.; Steidel, C. C.
  
• (2007): Intense Star Formation and Feedback at High Redshift: Spatially Resolved Properties of the z = 2.6 Submillimeter Galaxy SMM J14011+0252. In: ApJ 657 (2), S. 725–737
  Nesvadba, N. P. H.; Lehnert, M. D.; Genzel, R.; Eisenhauer, F.; Baker, A. J.; Seitz, S. et al.
  
• (2008): From Rings to Bulges: Evidence for Rapid Secular Galaxy Evolution at z ∼ 2 from Integral Field Spectroscopy in the SINS Survey. In: ApJ 687 (1), S. 59–77
  Genzel, R.; Burkert, A.; Bouché, N.; Cresci, G.; Förster Schreiber, N. M.; Shapley, A.; Shapiro, K.; Tacconi, L. J.; Buschkamp, P.; Cimatti, A.; Daddi, E.; Davies, R.; Eisenhauer, F.; Erb, D. K.; Genel, S.; Gerhard, O.; Hicks, E.; Lutz, D.; Naab, T.; Ott, T.; Rabien, S.; Renzini, A.; Steidel, C. C.; Sternberg, A.; Lilly, S. J.
  
• (2008): Kinemetry of SINS High‐Redshift Star‐Forming Galaxies: Distinguishing Rotating Disks from Major Mergers. In: ApJ 682 (1), S. 231–251
  Shapiro, Kristen L.; Genzel, Reinhard; Förster Schreiber, Natascha M.; Tacconi, Linda J.; Bouché, Nicolas; Cresci, Giovanni; Davies, Richard; Eisenhauer, Frank; Johansson, Peter H.; Krajnović, Davor; Lutz, Dieter; Naab, Thorsten; Arimoto, Nobuo; Arribas, Santiago; Cimatti, Andrea; Colina, Luis; Daddi, Emanuele; Daigle, Olivier; Erb, Dawn; Hernandez, Olivier; Kong, Xu; Mignoli, Marco; Onodera, Masato; Renzini, Alvio; Shapley, Alice; Steidel, Charles
  
• (2008): Submillimeter Galaxies at z ∼ 2: Evidence for Major Mergers and Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF, and CO‐H 2 Conversion Factor. In: ApJ 680 (1), S. 246–262
  Tacconi, L. J.; Genzel, R.; Smail, I.; Neri, R.; Chapman, S. C.; Ivison, R. J. et al.
  
• (2009). The SINS Survey: Broad Emission Lines in High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 701(2), 955
  Shapiro, Kristen L.; Genzel, Reinhard; Quataert, Eliot; Förster Schreiber, Natascha M.; Davies, Richard; Tacconi, Linda et al.
  
• (2009). The SINS survey: modeling the dynamics of z∼ 2 galaxies and the high-z Tully-Fisher relation. The Astrophysical Journal, 697(1), 115
  Cresci, G., Hicks, E. K. S., Genzel, R., et al.
  
• The SINS Survey: SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies. 2009, ApJ, 706, 1364
  Förster Schreiber, N. M., Genzel, R., Bouché, N., et al.
  
• (2010): A study of the gas-star formation relation over cosmic time★. In: Mon Not R Astron Soc 407 (4), S. 2091–2108
  Genzel, R.; Tacconi, L. J.; Gracia-Carpio, J.; Sternberg, A.; Cooper, M. C.; Shapiro, K. et al.
  
• (2010): High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star-forming galaxies in the young Universe. In: Nature 463 (7282), S. 781–784
  Tacconi, L. J.; Genzel, R.; Neri, R.; Cox, P.; Cooper, M. C.; Shapiro, K. et al.
  
• (2010): Star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2 and the formation of the metal-rich globular cluster population. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 403 (1), L36-L40
  Shapiro, Kristen L.; Genzel, Reinhard; Förster Schreiber, Natascha M.
  
• (2011). Constraints on the assembly and dynamics of galaxies. I. Detailed rest-frame optical morphologies on kiloparsec scale of z∼ 2 star-forming galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 731(1), 6
  Förster Schreiber, N.M., Shapley, A.E., Erb, D.K., et al.
  
• (2011). Constraints on the assembly and dynamics of galaxies. II. Properties of kiloparsec-scale clumps in rest-frame optical emission of z∼ 2 star-forming galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 739(1), 45
  Förster Schreiber, N.M., Shapley, A. E., Genzel, R., et al.
  
• (2011). The Sins survey of z∼ 2 galaxy kinematics: properties of the giant star-forming clumps. The Astrophysical Journal, 733(2), 101
  Genzel, R., Newman, S., Jones, T., et al.
  
• (2009). The SINS survey: SINFONI integral field spectroscopy of z∼ 2 star-forming galaxies. The Astrophysical Journal, 706(2), 1364.
  Forster Schreiber, N. M., Genzel, R., Bouche, N., et al.