S2COSMOS: Evolution of gas mass with redshift using dust emission. Issue 1 (3rd March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Millard, Jenifer S; Eales, Stephen A; Smith, M W L; Gomez, H L; Małek, K; Simpson, J M; Peng, Y; Sawicki, M; Beeston, R A; Bunker, Andrew; Ao, Y; Babul, A; Ho, L C; Hwang, Ho Seong; Michałowski, M J; Scoville, N; Shim, H; Toba, Y
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 494:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 293
• Page End: 315
• Publication Date: 2020-03-03
• Subjects: galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: ISM -- galaxies: statistics -- submillimetre: ISM; submillimetre: galaxies; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa609
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We investigate the evolution of the gas mass fraction for galaxies in the COSMOS field using submillimetre emission from dust at 850 μ m. We use stacking methodologies on the 850 μ m S2COSMOS map to derive the gas mass fraction of galaxies out to high redshifts, 0 ≤ z ≤ 5, for galaxies with stellar masses of $10^{9.5} \lt M_* (\rm M_{\odot }) \lt 10^{11.75}$ . In comparison to previous literature studies we extend to higher redshifts, include more normal star-forming galaxies (on the main sequence), and also investigate the evolution of the gas mass fraction split by star-forming and passive galaxy populations. We find our stacking results broadly agree with scaling relations in the literature. We find tentative evidence for a peak in the gas mass fraction of galaxies at around z ∼ 2.5–3, just before the peak of the star formation history of the Universe. We find that passive galaxies are particularly devoid of gas, compared to the star-forming population. We find that even at high redshifts, high stellar mass galaxies still contain significant amounts of gas.