The galaxy starburst/main-sequence bimodality over five decades in stellar mass at z ~ 3-6.5

TL;DR

This study reveals that the bimodal distribution of star-forming galaxies into main sequence and starburst modes persists from redshift 3 to 6.5, with starbursts dominating the star formation budget at high redshifts.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence and prevalence of starburst activity across a broad redshift range, highlighting a discrepancy with current galaxy formation models.

Findings

Starbursts constitute at least 20% of star-forming galaxies at z~3-6.5.

Starbursts account for 60-90% of the total star formation rate at these redshifts.

Galaxy formation models do not predict the observed starburst-main sequence bimodality.

Abstract

We study the relation between stellar mass (M*) and star formation rate (SFR) for star-forming galaxies over approximately five decades in stellar mass (5.5 <~ log10(M*/Msun) <~ 10.5) at z ~ 3-6.5. This unprecedented coverage has been possible thanks to the joint analysis of blank non-lensed fields (COSMOS/SMUVS) and cluster lensing fields (Hubble Frontier Fields) which allow us to reach very low stellar masses. Previous works have revealed the existence of a clear bimodality in the SFR-M* plane with a star-formation Main Sequence and a starburst cloud at z ~ 4-5. Here we show that this bimodality extends to all star-forming galaxies and is valid in the whole redshift range z ~ 3-6.5. We find that starbursts constitute at least 20% of all star-forming galaxies with M* >~ 10^9 Msun at these redshifts and reach a peak of 40% at z=4-5. More importantly, 60% to 90% of the total SFR budget at these redshifts is contained in starburst galaxies, indicating that the starburst mode of star-formation is dominant at high redshifts. Almost all the low stellar-mass starbursts with log10(M*/Msun) <~ 8.5 have ages comparable to the typical timescales of a starburst event, suggesting that these galaxies are being caught in the process of formation. Interestingly, galaxy formation models fail to predict the starburst/main-sequence bimodality and starbursts overall, suggesting that the starburst phenomenon may be driven by physical processes occurring at smaller scales than those probed by these models.