Physical properties of local star-forming analogues to z ∼ 5 Lyman-break galaxies
Abstract
Intense, compact, star-forming galaxies are rare in the local Universe but ubiquitous at high redshift. We interpret the 0.1-22 μm spectral energy distributions of a sample of 180 galaxies at 0.05 < z < 0.25 selected for extremely high surface densities of inferred star formation in the ultraviolet. By comparison with well-established stellar population synthesis models, we find that our sample comprises young (∼60-400 Myr), moderate mass (∼6 × 109 M⊙) star-forming galaxies with little dust extinction (mean stellar continuum extinction Econt(B - V) ∼ 0.1) and find star formation rates of a few tens of solar masses per year. We use our inferred masses to determine a mean specific star formation rate for this sample of ∼10-9 yr-1, and compare this to the specific star formation rates in distant Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs), and in other low-redshift populations. We conclude that our sample's characteristics overlap significantly with those of the z ∼ 5 LBG population, making ours the first local analogue population well tuned to match those high-redshift galaxies. We consider implications for the origin and evolution of early galaxies.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stw722
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1603.07332
- Bibcode:
- 2016MNRAS.459.2591G
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: evolution;
- galaxies: high redshift;
- galaxies: star formation;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication by MNRAS. 14 pages, 15 figures, 1 table