Probing the Nature of EROs through ASTRO-F/AKARI observations

TL;DR

This study uses ASTRO-F/AKARI infrared observations to analyze a complete sample of EROs, aiming to understand their nature, star formation rates, and mass assembly in the context of galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides new infrared data for EROs, enabling distinction between starburst and passive galaxies, and offers insights into their star formation and mass assembly processes.

Findings

63% identification rate in N3 filter

Ability to distinguish starburst from passive galaxies

Constraints on star formation rates and mass assembly

Abstract

We present a preliminary analysis of ASTRO-F data of a complete sample of ~150 EROs (R-K>5) down to K(Vega)<19, for which reliable photometric redshifts are available, in the range 0.8<z<2, selected over two fields (S7 and S2) of the MUNICS survey. The area covered is about 420 arcmin^2. We have imaged this area with AKARI telescope in N3 (3.4 micron), N60 (65 micron) and WL (150 micron) down to 12 microJy in the N3 filter, in order to detect the rest frame H or K-band emission, thus providing an excellent sampling of the SED of our EROs. From a first analysis we have an identification rate of ~63% in the N3 filter over the S7 field. These data allow us to distinguish starburst from passive early type phenomena, to meseaure the SFR of the starburst component and to constrain the mass assembly of early type galaxies.