Identifying Emission Line Galaxies in the FENIKS Pilot Survey Via Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting with BAGPIPES
Open Access
Author:
Boehm, Victoria
Millennium Scholars Program:
Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO)
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisor:
Danilo Marchesini, Thesis Supervisor Joel Leja, Advisor
Keywords:
Photometry SEDs SED fitting Galaxies: high redshift Galaxies: evolution Galaxies: star formation
Abstract:
Detailed spectroscopic studies of today’s massive galaxies indicate that they formed most of their stars very rapidly when the universe was very young, but then abruptly stopped their star-formation activity. Several important questions on the star-forming phase and quenching mechanisms of today’s massive galaxies remain unanswered. Studying intensely star-forming galaxies in the distant universe provides a path to furthering our understanding. In this work, we present the preliminary analysis of data obtained by the FLAMINGOS-2 Extragalactic Near-Infrared K-band Split (FENIKS) pilot survey, which aims to identify star-forming emission line galaxies (ELGs) in the distant universe by improving spectral resolution in the K-band wavelengths. We utilize the BAGPIPES Python package to perform spectral energy distribution fitting of a selection of galaxies observed in the FENIKS pilot survey. The fitted models allow us to estimate emission line equivalent widths and identify distant ELGs. The stellar population properties (e.g., stellar mass, star-formation rate, dust attenuation) of the identified ELGs are characterized, with the end goal of illuminating the star-forming and quenching mechanisms of distant galaxies.
