The Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Properties at z=2

TL;DR

This study investigates how galaxy properties at z=2.15 vary with environment, revealing that cluster galaxies are more evolved and assembled earlier than field galaxies, indicating environment influences galaxy evolution early in cosmic history.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of galaxy properties in cluster and field environments at z=2.15 using consistent SED fitting methods, highlighting early environmental effects on galaxy evolution.

Findings

Cluster galaxies are older with shorter star formation timescales.

Cluster galaxies have lower star formation rates and dust extinction.

Mass assembly in cluster galaxies occurs ~1 Gyr earlier than in field galaxies.

Abstract

We report on the environmental dependence of galaxy properties at z=2.15. We construct multi-band photometric data sets in the (proto-)cluster PKS1138-26 field and in the GOODS field. We then fit spectral energy distributions of the galaxies with model templates generated with the latest stellar population synthesis code and derive physical properties of galaxies from the fits. To quantify the environmental dependence of galaxy properties, a special care is taken of systematic errors -- we use data sets that have almost the same wavelength samplings, use the same code to fit SEDs with the same set of templates, and compare relative differences between the two samples. We find that the PKS1138 galaxies have similar ages, shorter star formation time scales, lower star formation rates, and weaker dust extinction compared to the GOODS galaxies at z~2. This trend is similar to that observed locally, suggesting that the environmental dependence of galaxy properties is already partly in place as early as z=2.15. We show that the PKS1138 galaxies assemble the bulk of their masses ~1 Gyr earlier than field galaxies, i.e., the galaxy formation depends on environment. Galaxy mergers should frequently occur during the first collapse of clusters and they might play an important role in driving the observed environmental dependence of galaxy properties at z=2.15.