Self-consistent population spectral synthesis with FADO: II. Star formation history of galaxies in spectral synthesis methods
Ciro Pappalardo, Leandro S. M. Cardoso, Jean Michel Gomes, Polychronis Papaderos, José Afonso, Iris Breda, Andrew Humphrey, Tom Scott, Stergios Amarantidis, Isr… 展开作者
Ciro Pappalardo, Leandro S. M. Cardoso, Jean Michel Gomes, Polychronis Papaderos, José Afonso, Iris Breda, Andrew Humphrey, Tom Scott, Stergios Amarantidis, Israel Matute, Rodrigo Carvajal, Silvio Lorenzoni, Patricio Lagos, Ana Paulino-Afonso, Henrique Miranda
备注：
New version matching the published one. 19 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&A
The field of galaxy evolution will make a great leap forward in the next decade as a consequence of the huge effort by the scientific community in multi-object spectroscopic facilities. To maximise the impact of such incoming data, the analysis methods must also step up, extracting reliable information from the available spectra. In this paper, we aim to investigate the limits and the reliability of different spectral synthesis methods in the estimation of the mean stellar age and metallicity. The main question this work aims to address is which signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) are needed to reliably determine the mean stellar age and metallicity from a galaxy spectrum and how this depends on the tool used to model the spectra. To address this question we built a set of realistic simulated spectra containing stellar and nebular emission, reproducing the evolution of a galaxy in two limiting cases: a constant star formation rate and an exponentially declining star formation. We degraded the synthetic spectra built from these two star formation histories (SFHs) to different S/N and analysed them with three widely used spectral synthesis codes, namely FADO, STECKMAP, and STARLIGHT. For S/N < 5 all three tools show a large diversity in the results. The FADO and STARLIGHT tools find median differences in the light-weighted mean stellar age of ~0.1 dex, while STECKMAP shows a higher value of ~0.2 dex. Detailed investigations of the best-fit spectrum for galaxies with overestimated mass-weighted quantities point towards the inability of purely stellar models to fit the observed spectra around the Balmer jump. Our results imply that when a galaxy enters a phase of high specific star formation rate the neglect of the nebular continuum emission in the fitting process has a strong impact on the estimation of its SFH when purely stellar fitting codes are used, even in presence of high S/N spectra.
In this work, we investigate the reliability of spectral synthesis methods in the estimation of the mean stellar age and metallicity, addressing the question of which signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) are needed to determine these quantities. To address this problem we used simulated spectra containing stellar and nebular emission, reproducing the evolution of a galaxy for a constant and exponentially declining star formation law. The spectra have been degraded to different S/N and analysed with three different spectral synthesis codes: FADO, STARLIGHT, and STECKMAP assuming similar fitting set-ups…
The goal of population spectral synthesis (PSS) is to decipher from the spectrum of a galaxy the mass, age and metallicity of its constituent stellar populations. This technique has been established as a fundamental tool in extragalactic research. It has been extensively applied to large spectroscopic data sets, notably the SDSS, leading to important insights into the galaxy assembly history. However, despite significant improvements over the past decade, all current PSS codes suffer from two major deficiencies that inhibit us from gaining sharp insights into the star-formation history (SFH) o…
Spectral population synthesis (PS) is a fundamental tool in extragalactic research that aims to decipher the assembly history of galaxies from their SED. However, until recently all PS codes were restricted to purely stellar fits, neglecting the essential contribution of nebular emission (NE). With the advent of FADO, the now possible self-consistent modelling of stellar and NE opens new routes to the exploration of galaxy SFHs. The main goal of this study is to quantitatively explore the accuracy to which FADO can recover physical and evolutionary properties of galaxies and compare its output…
The code FADO is the first publicly available population spectral synthesis tool that treats the contribution from ionised gas to the observed emission self-consistently. We study the impact of the nebular contribution on the determination of the star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, and consequent effect on the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) at low redshift. We applied FADO to the spectral database of the SDSS to derive the physical properties of galaxies. As a comparison, we used the data in the MPA-JHU catalogue, which contains the properties of SDSS galaxies derived without the nebul…
Spectral synthesis is a powerful tool for interpreting the physical properties of galaxies by decomposing their spectral energy distributions into the main luminosity contributors (e.g. stellar populations or ionised gas). However, the impact nebular emission has on the inferred properties of star-forming (SF) galaxies has been largely overlooked over the years. The objective of this work is to estimate the relations between stellar properties of SF galaxies from SDSS DR7 by simultaneously fitting the stellar and nebular continua with FADO and comparing them to the results derived using STARLI…
Extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) are a notable galaxy genus, ultimately being regarded as local prototypes of early galaxies at the cosmic noon. Robust characterisation of their stellar content, however, is hindered by the exceptionally high nebular emission present in their optical spectroscopic data. This study is dedicated into recovering the stellar properties of a sample of 414 EELGs as observed by the SDSS Survey. Such is achieved by means of the spectral synthesis code FADO, which self-consistently considers the stellar and nebular emission in an optical spectrum. Additionally, a …
The derivation of accurate stellar populations of galaxies is a non-trivial task because of the well-known age-metallicity degeneracy. We aim to break this degeneracy by invoking a chemical evolution model(CEM) for isolated disk galaxy, where its metallicity enrichment history(MEH) is modelled to be tightly linked to its star formation history(SFH). Our CEM has been successfully tested on several local group dwarf galaxies whose SFHs and MEHs have been both independently measured from deep color-magnitude diagrams of individual stars. By introducing the CEM into the stellar population fitting …
The calibrations linking observed luminosities to the star formation rate depend on the assumed stellar population synthesis model, initial mass function, star formation and metal enrichment history, and whether reprocessing by dust and gas is included. Consequently the shape and normalisation of the inferred cosmic star formation history is sensitive to these assumptions. Using v2.2.1 of the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (\bpass) model we determine a new set of calibration coefficients for the ultraviolet, thermal-infrared, and, hydrogen recombination lines. These ultraviolet and t…
As matter accretes onto the central supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN), X-rays are emitted. We present a population synthesis model that accounts for the summed X-ray emission from growing black holes; modulo the efficiency of converting mass to X-rays, this is effectively a record of the accreted mass. We need this population synthesis model to reproduce observed constraints from X-ray surveys: the X-ray number counts, the observed fraction of Compton-thick AGN [$\log$ (N$_{\rm H}$/cm$^{\rm -2}$) $>$ 24] and the spectrum of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB), after accoun…
Mass Metallicity Relationship of SDSS Star Forming Galaxies: Population Synthesis Analysis and Effects of Star Burst Length, Extinction Law, Initial Mass Function and Star Formation Rate
We present a summary of our project that studies galaxies hosting type Ia supernova (SN Ia) at different redshifts. We present Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC) optical spectroscopy of six SN Ia host galaxies at redshift $z\sim 0.4-0.5$. They are joined to a set of SN Ia host galaxies at intermediate-high redshift, which include galaxies from surveys SDSS and COSMOS. The final sample, after a selection of galaxy spectra in terms of signal-to-noise and other characteristics, consists of 680 galaxies with redshift in the range $0.04 < z < 1$. We perform an inverse stellar population synthesis wi…
Linking the Metallicity Enrichment History to the Star Formation History: An SFH-regulated Chemical Evolution Model and Its Implications for the Gas Cycling Process
Glance: A Comprehensive Framework for Galactic Archaeology
University of Vienna（维也纳大学）；Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM)（毫米波射电天文学研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）；Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI（日本综合研究大学院大学）；Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（国立天文台昴星望远镜）
The 11 Mpc H-alpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy (11HUGS) Survey traces the star formation activity of nearby galaxies. In addition within this volume the detection completeness of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) is high therefore by comparing these observed stellar births and deaths we can make a sensitive test of our understanding of how stars live and die. In this paper, we use the results of the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) code to simulate the 11HUGS galaxies H-alpha and far-ultraviolet (FUV) star formation rate indicators (SFRIs) and simultaneously match the core-collapse s…
Evolutionary models form a vital part of stellar population research to understand their evolution, but despite their long history of development, they often misrepresent and misinterpret the properties of stellar population observed through broadband and spectroscopic measurements. With the growing numbers of these synthesis models, model comparison becomes an important analysis to choose a suitable model for upgrade. Along with the model comparison, we reinvestigate the technique of modified Strömgren photometry to measure reliable parameter-sensitive colours and estimate precise model ages …
We have obtained the mass-metallicity (M-Z) relation at different lookback times for the same set of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, using the stellar metallicities estimated with our spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT. We have found that this relation steepens and spans a wider range in both mass and metallicity at higher redshifts. We have modeled the time evolution of stellar metallicity with a closed-box chemical evolution model, for galaxies of different types and masses. Our results suggest that the M-Z relation for galaxies with present-day stellar masses down to 10^10 M_sun …
We show the results of a study using the spectral synthesis technique study for the full MaNGA sample showing their Chemical Enrichment History (ChEH) as well as the evolution of the stellar mass-metallicity relation (MZR) over cosmic time. We find that the more massive galaxies became enriched first and the lower mass galaxies did so later, producing a change in the MZR which becomes shallower in time. Separating the sample into morphology and star-forming status bins some particularly interesting results appear: The mass dependency of the MZR becomes less relevant for later morphological typ…
The Local Group (LG) is an environment accessible to detailed studies of galaxy formation, providing a complement to the early universe. In particular, spectroscopy of resolved stellar populations in the LG provides kinematical and chemical information for individual stars that can be used to infer the history of $L_\star$ galaxies like the Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31). The Gaia revolution in the MW has enabled comprehensive observational studies of the MW's formation history. The exquisite detail in which the MW has been studied is currently not achievable in any other $L_\star$ galaxy.…
Pseudo-bulges are expected to markedly differ from classical, quasi-monolithically forming bulges in their star formation history (SFH) and chemical abundance patterns. To test this simple expectation, we carry out a comparative structural and spectral synthesis analysis of 106 red, massive galaxies issued from the SDSS, subdivided into bulgeless, pseudo-bulge and classical bulge galaxies according to their photometric characteristics, and further obeying a specific selection to minimize uncertainties in the analysis and ensure an unbiased derivation and comparison of SFHs. Our 2D photometry a…
Deriving a simple, analytic galaxy star formation history (SFH) using observational data is a complex task without the proper tool to hand. We therefore present SNITCH, an open source code written in Python, developed to quickly (~2 minutes) infer the parameters describing an analytic SFH model from the emission and absorption features of a galaxy spectrum dominated by star formation gas ionisation. SNITCH uses the Flexible Stellar Population Synthesis models of Conroy et al. (2009), the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline and a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method in order to infer three parameters (time…
We investigate the relationship between host galaxies' stellar content and active galactic nuclei (AGN) for optically selected QSOs with z$<$0.5. There are total 82 QSOs we select from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) . These 82 QSOs both have Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data and measurable stellar content. With the help of the stellar population synthesis code STARLIGHT, we determine the luminosity fraction of AGN ,stellar population ages and star-formation history (SFH) of host galaxies. We find out there is a correlation between the star formation history and AGN property whic…
X-ray studies of normal late-type galaxies have shown that non-nuclear X-ray emission is typically dominated by X-ray binaries, and provides a useful measure of star formation activity. We have modeled the X-ray evolution of late-type galaxies over the $\sim$ 14 Gyr of cosmic history, with an evolutionary population synthesis code developed by Hurley et al. Our calculations reveal a decrease of the X-ray luminosity-to-mass ratio $L_{\rm X}/M$ with time, in agreement with observations (Fig.~7$a$). We show that this decrease is a natural consequence of stellar and binary evolution and mass accum…
We aim to investigate the connections existing between the density profiles of the stellar populations used to define a gravitationally bound stellar system and their star formation history: we do this by developing a general framework accounting for both classical stellar population theory and classical stellar dynamics. We extend the work of Pasetto et al. (2012) on a single composite-stellar population (CSP) to multiple CSPs, including also a phase-space description of the CSP concept. In this framework, we use the concept of distribution function to define the CSP in terms of mass, metalli…
We have identified 1027 star forming complexes in a sample of 46 galaxies from the Spirals, Bridges, and Tails (SB&T) sample of interacting galaxies, and 693 star forming complexes in a sample of 38 non-interacting spiral (NIS) galaxies in $8\rm{μm}$ observations from the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera. We have used archival multi-wavelength UV-to IR observations to fit the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) of our clumps with the Code Investigating GALaxy Emission (CIGALE) using a double exponentially declined star formation history (SFH). We derive SFRs, stellar masses, ages and frac…
We present deep broad-band imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of three compact, low-mass starburst galaxies at redshift z\sim0.2-0.3, also referred to as Green Peas (GP). We measure physical properties of the ionized gas and derive abundances for several species with high precision. We find that the three GPs display relatively low extinction, low oxygen abundances, and remarkably high N/O ratios We also report on the detection of clear signatures of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in these galaxies. We carry out a pilot spectral synthesis study using a combination of both population and evolutionary sy…
I briefly review what has been recently learned from determinations of mean stellar ages and abundances from integrated light studies of early-type galaxies, and discuss some new questions posed by recent data. A short discussion of spectroscopic ages is presented, but the main focus of this review is on the abundances of Fe, Mg, Ca, N, and C, obtained from comparisons of measurements taken in integrated spectra of galaxies with predictions from stellar population synthesis models.
We compare the impacts of uncertainties in both binary population synthesis models and the cosmic star formation history on the predicted rates of Gravitational Wave compact binary merger (GW) events. These uncertainties cause the predicted rates of GW events to vary by up to an order of magnitude. Varying the volume-averaged star formation rate density history of the Universe causes the weakest change to our predictions, while varying the metallicity evolution has the strongest effect. Double neutron-star merger rates are more sensitive to assumed neutron-star kick velocity than the cosmic st…
The cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency, Gaia, has revealed properties of 260 000 white dwarfs in the Galaxy, allowing us for the first time to constrain the evolution of white dwarfs with a large sample. Complementary surveys (CoRoT,Kepler, K2, APOGEE andGaia-ESO), will revolutionize our understanding of the formation and history of our Galaxy, providing accurate stellar masses, radii, ages, distances, and chemical properties for very large samples of stars across different Galactic stellar populations. To exploit the potential of the combination of spectroscopic, seismic and ast…
We have obtained the time and space-resolved star formation history (SFH) of M51a (NGC 5194) by fitting GALEX, SDSS, and near infrared pixel-by-pixel photometry to a comprehensive library of stellar population synthesis models drawn from the Synthetic Spectral Atlas of Galaxies (SSAG). We fit for each space-resolved element (pixel) an independent model where the SFH is averaged in 137 age bins, each one 100 Myr wide. We used the Bayesian Successive Priors (BSP) algorithm to mitigate the bias in the present-day spatial mass distribution. We test BSP with different prior probability distribution…
Deep HST/ACS photometry of the young cluster NGC 602, located in the remote low density "wing" of the Small Magellanic Cloud, reveals numerous pre-main sequence stars as well as young stars on the main sequence. The resolved stellar content thus provides a basis for studying the star formation history into recent times and constraining several stellar population properties, such as the present day mass function, the initial mass function and the binary fraction. To better characterize the pre-main sequence population, we present a new set of model stellar evolutionary tracks for this evolution…
Models of stellar population synthesis (SPS) are the fundamental tool that relates the physical properties of a galaxy to its spectral energy distribution (SED). In this paper, we present DSPS: a python package for stellar population synthesis. All of the functionality in DSPS is implemented natively in the JAX library for automatic differentiation, and so our predictions for galaxy photometry are fully differentiable, and directly inherit the performance benefits of JAX, including portability onto GPUs. DSPS also implements several novel features, such as i) a flexible empirical model for ste…
A period of quenching between the formation of the thick and thin disks of the Milky Way has been recently proposed to explain the observed age-[α/Fe] distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood. However, robust constraints on stellar ages are currently available for only a limited number of stars. The all-sky survey TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will observe the brightest stars in the sky and thus can be used to investigate the age distributions of stars in these components of the Galaxy via asteroseismology, where previously this has been difficult using other techniques.…
Introducing PxP: A Population Synthesis Framework for Predicting YSO Properties
University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）；University of Florida（佛罗里达大学）；National Radio Astronomy Observatory（国家射电天文台）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP（拉普拉塔天体物理研究所，阿根廷国家科学研究委员会-拉普拉塔国立大学）
The evolution of differential ages of passive galaxies at different redshifts (cosmic chronometers) has been proved to be a method potentially able to constrain the Hubble parameter in a cosmology-independent way, but the systematic uncertainties must be carefully evaluated. In this paper, we compute the contribution to the full covariance matrix of systematic uncertainties due to the choice of initial mass function, stellar library, and metallicity, exploring a variety of stellar population synthesis models. Through simulations in the redshift range 0<z<1.5 we find that the choice of the stel…
We present new synthesis models of the extragalactic background light (EBL) from far infra-red (FIR) to TeV gamma-rays, with an emphasis on the extreme ultraviolet (UV) background which is responsible for the observed ionization and thermal state of the intergalactic medium across the cosmic time. Our models use updated values of the star formation rate density and dust attenuation in galaxies, QSO emissivity, and the distribution of H I gas in the IGM. Two of the most uncertain parameters in these models, the escape fraction of H I ionizing photons from galaxies and the spectral energy distri…
We analyze the volume-limited nearly complete 100 pc sample of 95 halo white dwarf candidates identified by the second data release of Gaia. Based on a detailed population synthesis model, we apply a method that relies on Gaia astrometry and photometry to accurately derive the individual white dwarf parameters (mass, radius, effective temperature, bolometric luminosity and age). This method is tested with 25 white dwarfs of our sample for which we took optical spectra and performed spectroscopic analysis. We build and analyse the halo white dwarf luminosity function, for which we find for the …
We present a comparison of the frequencies of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) giant and main-sequence turnoff stars, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration, with predictions from asymptotic giant-branch (AGB) mass-transfer models. We consider two initial mass functions (IMFs)-a Salpeter IMF, and a mass function with a characteristic mass of 10 solar mass. These comparisons indicate good agreement between the observed CEMP frequencies for stars with [Fe/H] > -1.5 and a Salpeter IMF, but not with an IMF having a higher char…
We investigate the impact of uncertainty in the metallicity-specific star formation rate over cosmic time on predictions of the rates and masses of double compact object mergers observable through gravitational waves. We find that this uncertainty can change the predicted detectable merger rate by more than an order of magnitude, comparable to contributions from uncertain physical assumptions regarding binary evolution, such as mass transfer efficiency or supernova kicks. We statistically compare the results produced by the COMPAS population synthesis suite against a catalog of gravitational-w…
47 Tucanae is one of the most interesting and well observed and theoretically studied globular clusters. This allows us to study the reliability of our understanding of white dwarf cooling sequences, to confront different methods to determine its age, and to assess other important characteristics, like its star formation history. Here we present a population synthesis study of the cooling sequence of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. In particular, we study the distribution of effective temperatures, the shape of the color-magnitude diagram, and the corresponding magnitude and color distributio…
White dwarf stars are a well-established tool for studying Galactic stellar populations. Two white dwarfs in a tight binary system offer us an additional messenger - gravitational waves - for exploring the Milky Way and its immediate surroundings. Gravitational waves produced by double white dwarf (DWD) binaries can be detected by the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Numerous and widespread DWDs have the potential to probe shapes, masses and formation histories of the stellar populations in the Galactic neighbourhood. In this work we outline a method for estimating the total s…
From cosmological simulations to binary black hole mergers: The impact of using analytical star formation history models on gravitational-wave source populations
University of California, San Diego（加州大学圣地亚哥分校）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；Radboud University（拉德堡德大学）；Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences（波兰科学院尼古拉·哥白尼天文学中心）；Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie (ZAH), Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik（海德堡大学天体物理中心理论天体物理研究所）
