Estimating lifetimes of uv-selected massive galaxies at $0.5 \le z \le 2.5$ in the cosmos/ultravista field through clustering analyses

TL;DR

This study estimates the lifetimes of massive galaxies with different UV colors at redshifts 0.5 to 2.5 using clustering analyses, revealing dependencies on stellar mass, redshift, and physical processes like AGN feedback.

Contribution

It introduces a clustering-based method to estimate galaxy lifetimes across different UV color classes and explores factors influencing these estimates, including dark matter halo properties.

Findings

Higher stellar mass galaxies have shorter lifetimes.

Lifetimes of red sequence and blue cloud galaxies align with gas depletion timescales.

Distinct lifetime behaviors of green valley galaxies suggest additional quenching processes.

Abstract

We present an estimation of lifetimes of massive galaxies with distinct UV colors at $0.5 \le z \le 2.5$ in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field. After dividing the galaxy sample into subsamples of red sequence (RS), blue cloud (BC), and green valley (GV) galaxies in different redshift bins, according to their rest-frame extinction-corrected UV colors, we derive their lifetimes using clustering analyses. Several essentials that may influence the lifetime estimation have been explored, including the dark matter (DM) halo mass function (HMF), the width of redshift bin, the growth of DM halos within each redshift bin, and the stellar mass. We find that the HMF difference results in scatters of $\sim0.2$ dex on lifetime estimation; adopting a redshift bin width of $\Delta z = 0.5$ is good enough to estimate the lifetime; and no significant effect on lifetime estimation is found due to the growth of DM halos within each redshift bin. The galaxy subsamples with higher stellar masses generally have shorter lifetimes; however, the lifetimes among different subsamples at z > 1:5 tend to be independent of stellar mass. Consistently, the clustering-based lifetime for each galaxy subsample agrees well with that inferred using the spectral energy distribution modeling. Moreover, the lifetimes of the RS and BC galaxies also coincide well with their typical gas depletion timescales attributed to the consumption of star formation. Interestingly, the distinct lifetime behaviors of the GV galaxies at $z \le 1.5$ and $z>1.5$ can not be fully accounted for by their gas depletion timescales. Instead, this discrepancy between the lifetimes and gas depletion timescales of the GV galaxies suggests that there are additional physical processes, such as feedback of active galactic nuclei, accelerating the quenching of GV galaxies at high redshifts.