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Star Formation Efficiency at Intermediate Redshift

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2013

F. Combes
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA (CNRS:UMR8112), 61 Av. de l'Observatoire, F-75014, Paris, France email: francoise.combes@obspm.fr
S. García-Burillo
Affiliation:
Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (OAN)-Observatorio de Madrid, Alfonso XII, 3, 28014-Madrid, Spain
J. Braine
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, UMR 5804, Université Bordeaux I, BP 89, 33270 Floirac, France
E. Schinnerer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
F. Walter
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
L. Colina
Affiliation:
Departamento de Astrofisica, Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC/INTA), Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
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Abstract

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Star formation is evolving very fast in the second half of the Universe, and it is as yet unclear whether this is due to evolving gas content, or evolving star formation efficiency (SFE). We have carried out a survey of ultra-luminous galaxies (ULIRG) between z = 0.2 and 1, to check the gas fraction in this domain of redshift which is still poorly known. Our survey with the IRAM-30m detected 33 galaxies out of 69, and we derive a significant evolution of both the gas fraction and SFE of ULIRGs over the whole period, and in particular a turning point around z = 0.35. The result is sensitive to the CO-to-H2 conversion factor adopted, and both gas fraction and SFE have comparable evolution, when we adopt the low starburst conversion factor of α = 0.8 M (K km s−1 pc2)−1. Adopting a higher α will increase the role of the gas fraction. Using α = 0.8, the SFE and the gas fraction for z∼0.2-1.0 ULIRGs are found to be significantly higher, by a factor 3, than for local ULIRGs, and are comparable to high redshift ones. We compare this evolution to the expected cosmic H2 abundance and the cosmic star formation history.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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