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arXiv · 2112.03935

The galaxy starburst/main-sequence bimodality over five decades in stellar mass at z ~ 3-6.5

Pierluigi Rinaldi·Karina I. Caputi·Sophie E. van Mierlo·Matthew L. N. Ashby·Gabriel B. Caminha·Edoardo Iani
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Abstract

We study the relation between stellar mass (M*) and star formation rate (SFR) for star-forming galaxies over approximately five decades in stellar mass (5.5 <~ log10(M*/Msun) <~ 10.5) at z ~ 3-6.5. This unprecedented coverage has been possible thanks to the joint analysis of blank non-lensed fields (COSMOS/SMUVS) and cluster lensing fields (Hubble Frontier Fields) which allow us to reach very low stellar masses. Previous works have revealed the existence of a clear bimodality in the SFR-M* plane with a star-formation Main Sequence and a starburst cloud at z ~ 4-5. Here we show that this bimodality extends to all star-forming galaxies and is valid in the whole redshift range z ~ 3-6.5. We find that starbursts constitute at least 20% of all star-forming galaxies with M* >~ 10^9 Msun at these redshifts and reach a peak of 40% at z=4-5. More importantly, 60% to 90% of the total SFR budget at these redshifts is contained in starburst galaxies, indicating that the starburst mode of star-formation is dominant at high redshifts. Almost all the low stellar-mass starbursts with log10(M*/Msun) <~ 8.5 have ages comparable to the typical timescales of a starburst event, suggesting that these galaxies are being caught in the process of formation. Interestingly, galaxy formation models fail to predict the starburst/main-sequence bimodality and starbursts overall, suggesting that the starburst phenomenon may be driven by physical processes occurring at smaller scales than those probed by these models.

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Pierluigi Rinaldi, Karina I. Caputi, Sophie E. van Mierlo, Matthew L. N. Ashby, Gabriel B. Caminha, Edoardo Iani. 2022-03-21. The galaxy starburst/main-sequence bimodality over five decades in stellar mass at z ~ 3-6.5. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fac5d39

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