Bibcode
Aparicio, A.; Hidalgo, S. L.; Skillman, Evan; Cassisi, Santi; Mayer, Lucio; Navarro, Julio; Cole, Andrew; Gallart, C.; Monelli, M.; Weisz, Daniel; Bernard, Edouard; Dolphin, Andrew; Stetson, Peter
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 823, Issue 1, article id. 9, pp. (2016).
Fecha de publicación:
5
2016
Revista
Número de citas
10
Número de citas referidas
10
Descripción
The analysis of the early star formation history (SFH) of nearby
galaxies, obtained from their resolved stellar populations, is relevant
as a test for cosmological models. However, the early time resolution of
observationally derived SFHs is limited by several factors. Thus, direct
comparison of observationally derived SFHs with those derived from
theoretical models of galaxy formation is potentially biased. Here we
investigate and quantify this effect. For this purpose, we analyze the
duration of the early star formation activity in a sample of four Local
Group dwarf galaxies and test whether they are consistent with being
true fossils of the pre-reionization era; i.e., if the quenching of
their star formation occurred before cosmic reionization by UV photons
was completed. Two classical dSph (Cetus and Tucana) and two dTrans
(LGS-3 and Phoenix) isolated galaxies with total stellar masses between
1.3× {10}6 and 7.2× {10}6
{M}ȯ have been studied. Accounting for time resolution
effects, the SFHs peak as much as 1.25 Gyr earlier than the optimal
solutions. Thus, this effect is important for a proper comparison of
model and observed SFHs. It is also shown that none of the analyzed
galaxies can be considered a true fossil of the pre-reionization era,
although it is possible that the outer regions of Cetus and Tucana are
consistent with quenching by reionization.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,
obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under
NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with
program #10505.