Masao Hayashi

We present new Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) results obtained from spatially resolved CO J = 2–1 line (0.″4 resolution) and 870 μm continuum (0.″2 resolution) observations of cluster galaxies in XMMXCS J2215.9-1738 at z = 1.46. Our sample comprises 17 galaxies within ∼0.5 Mpc (0.6R ₂₀₀) of the cluster center, all of which have previously been detected in the CO J = 2–1 line at a lower resolution. The effective radii of both the CO J = 2–1 line and 870 μm dust continuum emissions are robustly measured for nine galaxies by modeling the visibilities. We find that the CO J = 2–1 line emission in all of the nine galaxies is more extended than the dust continuum emission by a factor of 2.8 ± 1.4. We investigate the spatially resolved Kennicutt–Schmidt (KS) relation in two regions within the interstellar medium of the galaxies. The relation for our sample reveals that the central region (0 < r < R _e,870μm) of galaxies tends to have a shorter gas depletion timescale, i.e., a higher star formation efficiency, compared to the extended region (R _e,870μm < r < R _e,CO). Overall, our result suggests that star formation activities are concentrated inside the extended gas reservoir, possibly resulting in the formation of a bulge structure. We find consistency between the ALMA 870 μm radii of star-forming members and the Hubble Space Telescope/1.6 μm radii of passive members in a mass–size distribution, which suggests a transition from star-forming to passive members within ∼0.5 Gyr. In addition, no clear differences in the KS relation nor in the sizes are found between galaxies with and without a close companion.

In a protocluster USS1558-003 at z = 2.53, galaxies in the dense cores show systematically elevated star-forming activity compared to those in less dense regions. To understand its origin, we look into the gas properties of the galaxies in the dense cores by conducting deep 1.1 mm observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We detect interstellar dust continuum emission from 12 member galaxies and estimate their molecular gas masses. Comparing these gas masses with our previous measurements from the CO(3–2) line, we infer that the latter might be overestimated. We find that the gas to stellar mass ratios of the galaxies in the dense cores tend to be higher (at M _* ∼ 10¹⁰ M _⊙ where we see the enhanced star-forming activity), suggesting that such large gas masses can sustain their high star-forming activity. However, if we compare the gas properties of these protocluster galaxies with the gas scaling relations constructed for field galaxies at a similar cosmic epoch, we find no significant environmental difference at the same stellar mass and star formation rate. Although both gas mass ratios and star-forming activity are enhanced in the majority of member galaxies, they appear to follow the same scaling relation as field galaxies. Our results are consistent with the scenario in which the cold gas is efficiently supplied to protocluster cores and to galaxies therein along surrounding filamentary structures, which leads to the high gas mass fractions and thus the elevated star formation activity, but without changing the star formation law.

We perform a stacking analysis of the H i spectra from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey for optically selected local galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to study the average gas fraction of galaxies at fixed stellar mass (M _*) and star formation rate (SFR). We first confirm that the average gas fraction strongly depends on the stellar mass and SFR of host galaxies; massive galaxies tend to have a lower gas fraction, and actively star-forming galaxies show a higher gas fraction, which is consistent with many previous studies. Then we investigate the morphological dependence of the H i gas mass fraction at fixed M _* and SFR to minimize the effects of these parameters. We use three morphological classifications based on parametric indicator (Sérsic index), nonparametric indicator (C-index), and visual inspection (smoothness from the Galaxy Zoo 2 project) on the optical image. We find that there is no significant morphological dependence of the H i gas mass fraction at fixed M _* and SFR when we use the C-index. In comparison, there exists a hint of diminishment in the H i gas mass fraction for “smooth” galaxies compared with “nonsmooth” galaxies. We find that the visual smoothness is sensitive to the existence of small-scale structures in a galaxy. Our result suggests that even at fixed M _* and SFR, the presence of such small-scale structures (seen in the optical image) is linked to their total H i gas content.

In the original article (2019, PASJ, 71, 69; doi: 10.1093/pasj/psz047), one grant number was omitted from the acknowledgments. The following is the corrected and complete version of the acknowledgments.

We present element abundance ratios and ionizing radiation of local young low-mass (∼10⁶ M _⊙) extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with a 2% solar oxygen abundance (O/H)_⊙ and a high specific star formation rate (sSFR ∼ 300 Gyr⁻¹) and other (extremely) metal-poor galaxies, which are compiled from Extremely Metal-Poor Representatives Explored by the Subaru Survey (EMPRESS) and the literature. Weak emission lines such as [Fe iii] λ4658 and He ii λ4686 are detected in very deep optical spectra of the EMPGs taken with 8 m class telescopes, including Keck and Subaru, enabling us to derive element abundance ratios with photoionization models. We find that neon-to-oxygen and argon-to-oxygen ratios are comparable to those of known local dwarf galaxies and that the nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance ratios (N/O) are lower than 20% (N/O)_⊙, consistent with the low oxygen abundance. However, the iron-to-oxygen abundance ratios (Fe/O) of the EMPGs are generally high; the EMPGs with the 2%-solar oxygen abundance show high Fe/O ratios of ∼90%–140% (Fe/O)_⊙, which are unlikely to be explained by suggested scenarios of Type Ia supernova iron productions, iron’s dust depletion, and metal-poor gas inflow onto previously metal-riched galaxies with solar abundances. Moreover, the EMPGs with the 2%-solar oxygen abundance have very high He ii λ4686/Hβ ratios of ∼1/40, which are not reproduced by existing models of high-mass X-ray binaries with progenitor stellar masses M _⊙. Comparing stellar-nucleosynthesis and photoionization models with a comprehensive sample of EMPGs identified by this and previous EMPG studies, we propose that both the high Fe/O ratios and the high He ii λ4686/Hβ ratios are explained by the past existence of supermassive (>300 M _⊙) stars, which may evolve into intermediate-mass black holes (≳100 M _⊙).

We report the time variability of the late-time radio emission in a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN), PTF10hgi, at z = 0.0987. The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array 3 GHz observations at 8.6 and 10 yr after the explosion both detected radio emission with a ∼40% decrease in flux density in the second epoch. This is the first report of a significant variability of the late-time radio light curve in an SLSN. Through combination with previous measurements in two other epochs, we constrained both the rise and decay phases of the radio light curve over three years, peaking at approximately 8–9 yr after the explosion with a peak luminosity of L _{3 GHz} = 2 × 10²¹ W Hz⁻¹. Possible scenarios for the origin of the variability are an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the host galaxy, an afterglow caused by the interaction between an off-axis jet and circumstellar medium, and a wind nebula powered by a newly born magnetar. Comparisons with models show that the radio light curve can be reproduced by both the afterglow model and magnetar wind nebula model. Considering the flat radio spectrum at 1–15 GHz and an upper limit at 0.6 GHz obtained in previous studies, plausible scenarios are a low-luminosity flat-spectrum AGN or a magnetar wind nebula with a shallow injection spectral index.

Subaru Strategic Program with the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC-SSP) has proven to be successful with its extremely wide area coverage in past years. Taking advantages of this feature, we report initial results from exploration and research of expansive over- and underdense structures at z = 0.3–1 based on the second Public Data Release where optical 5-band photometric data for ∼ eight million sources with i < 23 mag are available over ∼360 deg². We not only confirm known superclusters but also find candidates of titanic over- and underdense regions out to z = 1. The mock data analysis suggests that the density peaks would involve one or more massive dark matter haloes (>10¹⁴ M_⊙) of the redshift, and the density troughs tend to be empty of massive haloes over >10 comoving Mpc. Besides, the density peaks and troughs at z ≲ 0.6 are in part identified as positive and negative weak lensing signals respectively, in mean tangential shear profiles, showing a good agreement with those inferred from the full-sky weak lensing simulation. The coming extensive spectroscopic surveys will be able to resolve these colossal structures in 3D space. The number density information over the entire survey field is available as grid-point data on the website of the HSC-SSP data release (https://hsc.mtk.nao.ac.jp/ssp/data-release/).

We conducted submillimeter observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 3.3, whose gas-phase metallicities have been measured previously. We investigated the dust and gas contents of the galaxies at z ∼ 3.3 and studied the interaction of galaxies with their circumgalactic or intergalactic medium at this epoch by probing their gas mass fractions and gas-phase metallicities. Single-band dust continuum emission tracing dust mass and the relation between the gas-phase metallicity and gas-to-dust mass ratio were used to estimate the gas masses. The estimated gas mass fractions and depletion timescales are f _gas= 0.20–0.75 and t _dep= 0.09–1.55 Gyr. Although the galaxies appear to be tightly distributed around the star-forming main sequence at z ∼ 3.3, both quantities show a wider spread at a fixed stellar mass than expected from the scaling relation, suggesting a large diversity of fundamental gas properties in star-forming galaxies that apparently lie on the main sequence. When we compared gas mass fraction and gas-phase metallicity in star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 3.3 and at lower redshifts, star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 3.3 appear to be more metal poor than local galaxies with similar gas mass fractions. Using the gas regulator model to interpret this offset, we find that this can be explained by a higher mass-loading factor, suggesting that the mass-loading factor in outflows increases at earlier cosmic times.

We present the selection, spectroscopic identification, and physical properties of extreme emission-line galaxies (EELGs) at 3 < z < 3.7, aiming at studying physical properties of an analog population of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at the epoch of reionization. The sample is selected based on the excess in the observed Ks broadband flux relative to the best-fit stellar continuum model flux. By applying a 0.3 mag excess as a primary criterion, we select 240 EELG candidates with intense emission lines and estimated an observed-frame equivalent width (EW) of ≳1000 Å over the UltraVISTA-DR2 ultra-deep stripe in the COSMOS field. We then carried out HK-band follow-up spectroscopy for 23 of the candidates with Subaru/MOIRCS, and we find that 19 and 2 of them are at z > 3 with intense [O iii] emission and Hα emitters at z ≃ 2, respectively. These spectroscopically identified EELGs at z ≃ 3.3 show, on average, higher specific star formation rates (sSFRs) than the star-forming main sequence, low dust attenuation of E(B − V) ≲ 0.1 mag, and high [O iii]/[O ii]ratios of ≳3. We also find that our EELGs at z ≃ 3.3 have higher hydrogen-ionizing photon production efficiencies (ξ _ion) than the canonical value (≃10^25.2 erg⁻¹ Hz), indicating that they are efficient in ionizing their surrounding interstellar medium. These physical properties suggest that they are low-metallicity galaxies with higher ionizing parameters and harder UV spectra than normal SFGs, which is similar to galaxies with Lyman continuum (LyC) leakage. Among our EELGs, those with the largest [O iii]/[O ii] and EW([O iii]) values would be the most promising candidates to search for LyC leakage.