An exquisitely deep view of quenching galaxies through the gravitational lens: Stellar population, morphology, and ionized gas

TL;DR

This study uses gravitational lensing to analyze four high-redshift quenching galaxies, revealing rapid star formation cessation, outflows, and morphological features, providing insights into galaxy evolution at early cosmic times.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed spectral and morphological analysis of a representative sample of lensed quenching galaxies at z > 1, highlighting rapid quenching processes and outflows.

Findings

Galaxies are young, disk-like, with rapid star formation histories.

Presence of galactic-scale outflows indicated by Mg II absorption features.

Quenching occurs in less than 1 Gyr, not synchronized with bulge growth.

Abstract

This work presents an in-depth analysis of four gravitationally lensed red galaxies at z = 1.6-3.2. The sources are magnified by factors of 2.7-30 by foreground clusters, enabling spectral and morphological measurements that are otherwise challenging. Our sample extends below the characteristic mass of the stellar mass function and is thus more representative of the quiescent galaxy population at z > 1 than previous spectroscopic studies. We analyze deep VLT/X-SHOOTER spectra and multi-band Hubble Space Telescope photometry that cover the rest-frame UV-to-optical regime. The entire sample resembles stellar disks as inferred from lensing-reconstructed images. Through stellar population synthesis analysis we infer that the targets are young (median age = 0.1-1.2 Gyr) and formed 80% of their stellar masses within 0.07-0.47 Gyr. Mg II $\lambda\lambda 2796,2803$ absorption is detected across the sample. Blue-shifted absorption and/or redshifted emission of Mg II is found in the two youngest sources, indicative of a galactic-scale outflow of warm ($T\sim10^{4}$ K) gas. The [O III] $\lambda5007$ luminosity is higher for the two young sources (median age less than 0.4 Gyr) than the two older ones, perhaps suggesting a decline in nuclear activity as quenching proceeds. Despite high-velocity ($v\approx1500$ km s$^{-1}$) galactic-scale outflows seen in the most recently quenched galaxies, warm gas is still present to some extent long after quenching. Altogether our results indicate that star formation quenching at high redshift must have been a rapid process (< 1 Gyr) that does not synchronize with bulge formation or complete gas removal. Substantial bulge growth is required if they are to evolve into the metal-rich cores of present-day slow-rotators.