The DOI matches its Crossref record; 135 of the 135 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The main sequence of star-forming galaxies across cosmic times
Open accessAbstract
By compiling a comprehensive census of literature studies, we investigate the evolution of the main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in the widest range of redshift (0 < z < 6) and stellar mass (108.5–1011.5 M⊙) ever probed. We convert all observations to a common calibration and find a remarkable consensus on the variation of the MS shape and normalization across cosmic time. The relation exhibits a curvature towards the high stellar masses at all redshifts. The best functional form is governed by two parameters: the evolution of the normalization and the turnover mass (M0(t)), which both evolve as a power law of the Universe age. The turn-over mass determines the MS shape. It marginally evolves with time, making the MS slightly steeper towards z ∼ 4–6. At stellar masses below M0(t), SFGs have a constant specific SFR (sSFR), while above M0(t) the sSFR is suppressed. We find that the MS is dominated by central galaxies. This allows to turn M0(t) into the corresponding host halo mass. This evolves as the halo mass threshold between cold and hot accretion regimes, as predicted by the theory of accretion, where the central galaxy is fed or starved of cold gas supply, respectively. We, thus, argue that the progressive MS bending as a function of the Universe age is caused by the lower availability of cold gas in haloes entering the hot accretion phase, in addition to black hole feedback. We also find qualitatively the same trend in the largest sample of star-forming galaxies provided by the IllustrisTNG simulation. Nevertheless, we still note large quantitative discrepancies with respect to observations, in particular at the high-mass end. These can not be easily ascribed to biases or systematics in the observed SFRs and the derived MS.
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Spergel, D. N., Verde, L., Peiris, H. V., Komatsu, E., Nolta, M. R., Bennett, C. L., Halpern, M., Hinshaw, G., Jarosik, N., Kogut, A., et al. (2003) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1086/377226 · Cited by 10,976
Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
Bruzual, G., & Charlot, S. (2003) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06897.x · Cited by 10,500
The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star‐forming Galaxies
Calzetti, D., Armus, L., Bohlin, R. C., Kinney, A. L., Koornneef, J., & Storchi‐Bergmann, T. (2000) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/308692 · Cited by 5,717
The Global Schmidt Law in Star‐forming Galaxies
Kennicutt, Jr. (1998) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/305588 · Cited by 5,202
The physical properties of star-forming galaxies in the low-redshift Universe
Brinchmann, J., Charlot, S., White, S. D. M., Tremonti, C., Kauffmann, G., Heckman, T., & Brinkmann, J. (2004) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07881.x · Cited by 3,290
Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
Kennicutt, R. C., & Evans, N. J. (2012) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081811-125610 · Cited by 2,902
THE AVERAGE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF GALAXIES IN DARK MATTER HALOS FROM z = 0-8
Behroozi, P. S., Wechsler, R. H., & Conroy, C. (2013) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/770/1/57 · Cited by 2,167
High-redshift galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field: colour selection and star formation history to z 4
Madau, P., Ferguson, H. C., Dickinson, M. E., Giavalisco, M., Steidel, C. C., & Fruchter, A. (1996) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/283.4.1388 · Cited by 2,055
Self-citationSimulating galaxy formation with the IllustrisTNG model
Pillepich, A., Springel, V., Nelson, D., Genel, S., Naiman, J., Pakmor, R., Hernquist, L., Torrey, P., Vogelsberger, M., Weinberger, R., et al. (2018) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2656 · Cited by 2,007
Peng, Y.-J., Lilly, S. J., Kovač, K., Bolzonella, M., Pozzetti, L., Renzini, A., Zamorani, G., Ilbert, O., Knobel, C., Iovino, A., et al. (2010) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/721/1/193 · Cited by 1,994
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Cited by
Euclid: I. Overview of the Euclid mission
Euclid Collaboration, Mellier, Y., Abdurro’uf, Acevedo Barroso, J. A., Achúcarro, A., Adamek, J., Adam, R., Addison, G. E., Aghanim, N., Aguena, M., et al. (2025) · Astronomy & Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450810 · Cited by 616
Self-citationWhat drives the growth of black holes: A decade of progress
Alexander, D. M., Hickox, R. C., Aird, J., Combes, F., Costa, T., Habouzit, M., Harrison, C. M., Leng, R. I., Morabito, L. K., Uckelman, S. L., et al. (2025) · New Astronomy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.newar.2025.101733 · Cited by 18
Metadata
- Authors
- Popesso, P., Concas, A., Cresci, G., Belli, S., Rodighiero, G., Inami, H., Dickinson, M., Ilbert, O., Pannella, M., & Elbaz, D.
- Venue
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-11-09
- Volume
- 519
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1526-1544
- ISSN
- 0035-8711 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2966
- OpenAlex
- W4221164894
- Cited by
- 334
- References
- 135
- FWCI
- 25.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Popesso, P., Concas, A., Cresci, G., Belli, S., Rodighiero, G., Inami, H., Dickinson, M., Ilbert, O., Pannella, M., & Elbaz, D. (2022). The main sequence of star-forming galaxies across cosmic times. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3214
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