Issue |
A&A
Volume 693, January 2025
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | L6 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Letters to the Editor | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202452794 | |
Published online | 03 January 2025 |
Letter to the Editor
Evolution of the star formation rate surface density main sequence
Insights from a semi-analytic simulation since z = 12
1
Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Słoneczna 36, 60-286 Poznań, Poland
2
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
3
Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
4
Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
5
INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, I-34131 Trieste, Italy
6
SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy
7
IFPU, Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, 34014 Trieste, Italy
⋆ Corresponding author; jakub.nadolny@amu.edu.pl, quba.nadolny@gmail.com
Received:
29
October
2024
Accepted:
28
November
2024
Context. Recent high-redshift (z > 4) spatially resolved observations with the James Webb Space Telescope have shown the evolution of the star formation rate (SFR) surface density (ΣSFR) and its main sequence in the ΣSFR − M* diagram (ΣSFRMS). The ΣSFRMS is already observed at cosmic morning (z ∼ 7.5). The use of ΣSFR is physically motivated because it is normalized by the area in which the star formation occurs, and this indirectly considers the gas density. The ΣSFR − M* diagram has been shown to complement the widely used (specific) SFR-M*, particularly when selecting passive galaxies.
Aims. We establish the ΣSFR evolution since z = 12 in the framework of the L-GALAXIES2020 semi-analytical model (SAM), and we interpret recent observations.
Methods. We estimated ΣSFR(–M*) and the cosmic star formation rate density (CSFRD) for the simulated galaxy population and for the subsamples, which were divided into stellar mass bins in the given redshift.
Results. The simulated ΣSFR decreases by ∼3.5 dex from z = 12 to z = 0. We show that galaxies with different stellar masses have different paths of ΣSFR evolution. We find that ΣSFRMS is already observed at z ∼ 11. The simulated ΣSFRMS agrees with the observed one at z = 0, 1, 2, 5, and 7.5 and with individual galaxies at z > 10. We show that the highest ΣSFRMS slope of 0.709 ± 0.005 is at z ∼ 3 and decreases to ∼0.085 ± 0.003 at z = 0. This is mostly driven by a rapid decrease in SFR with an additional size increase for the most massive galaxies in this redshift range. This coincides with the dominance of the most massive galaxies in the CSFRD from the SAM. Observations show the same picture, in which the ΣSFR evolutionary path depends on the stellar mass, that is, more massive galaxies have higher ΣSFR at all redshifts. Finally, using the slope and normalization evolution, we derived the simulated ΣSFRMS as a function of stellar mass and redshift.
Key words: galaxies: evolution / galaxies: high-redshift / galaxies: star formation
© The Authors 2025
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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