We investigate the relationship between the black hole accretion rate (BHAR) and star formation rate (SFR) for Milky Way (MW) and Andromeda (M31)-mass progenitors from z = 0.2 to 2.5. We source galaxies from the K-s-band-selected ZFOURGE survey, which includes multiwavelength data spanning 0.3-160 mu m. We use decomposition software to split the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of our galaxies into their active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star-forming components, which allows us to estimate BHARs and SFRs from the infrared (IR). We perform tests to check the robustness of these estimates, including a comparison with BHARs and SFRs derived from X-ray stacking and far-IR analysis, respectively. We find that, as the progenitors evolve their relative black hole-galaxy growth (i.e. their BHAR/SFR ratio) increases from low to high redshift. The MW-mass progenitors exhibit a log-log slope of 0.64 +/- 0.11, while the M31-mass progenitors are 0.39 +/- 0.08. This result contrasts with previous studies that find an almost flat slope when adopting X-ray-/AGN-selected or mass-limited samples and is likely due to their use of a broad mixture of galaxies with different evolutionary histories. Our use of progenitor-matched samples highlights the potential importance of carefully selecting progenitors when searching for evolutionary relationships between BHAR/SFRs. Additionally, our finding that BHAR/SFR ratios do not track the rate at which progenitors quench casts doubts over the idea that the suppression of star formation is predominantly driven by luminous AGN feedback (i.e. high BHARs).

We investigate the optical and Wide-field Survey Explorer (WISE) colors of "E+A" identified post-starburst galaxies, including a deep analysis of 190 post-starbursts detected in the 2 mu m All Sky Survey Extended Source Catalog. The post-starburst galaxies appear in both the optical green valley and the WISE Infrared Transition Zone. Furthermore, we find that post-starbursts occupy a distinct region of [3.4]-[4.6] versus [4.6]-[12] WISE colors, enabling the identification of this class of transitioning galaxies through the use of broadband photometric criteria alone. We have investigated possible causes for the WISE colors of post-starbursts by constructing a composite spectral energy distribution (SED), finding that the mid-infrared (4-12 mu m) properties of post-starbursts are consistent with either 11.3 mu m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission, or thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) and post-AGB stars. The composite SED of extended post-starburst galaxies with 22 mu m emission detected with signal-to-noise ratio >= 3 requires a hot dust component to produce their observed rising mid-infrared SED between 12 and 22 mu m. The composite SED of WISE. 22 mu m non-detections (S/N < 3), created by stacking 22 mu m images, is also flat, requiring a hot dust component. The most likely source of the mid-infrared emission of these E+A galaxies is a buried active galactic nucleus (AGN). The inferred upper limits to the Eddington ratios of post-starbursts are 10(-2)-10(-4), with an average of 10(-3). This suggests that AGNs are not radiatively dominant in these systems. This could mean that including selections capable of identifying AGNs as part of a search for transitioning and post-starburst galaxies would create a more complete census of the transition pathways taken as a galaxy quenches its star formation.

We present Spitzer mid-infrared imaging of a sample of 35 tidally distorted premerger interacting galaxy pairs selected from the Arp Atlas. We compare their global mid-infrared properties with those of normal galaxies from the SINGS Spitzer Legacy survey, and separate the disk emission from that of the tidal features. The [8.0 μm] - [24 μm], [3.6 μm] - [24 μm], and [5.8 μm] - [8.0 μm] colors of these optically selected interacting galaxies are redder on average than those of spirals, implying enhancements to the mass-normalized star formation rates (SFRs) of a factor of ∼2. Furthermore, the 24 μm emission in the Arp galaxies is more centrally concentrated than that in the spirals, suggesting that gas is being concentrated into the inner regions and fueling central star formation. No significant differences can be discerned in the shorter wavelength Spitzer colors of the Arp galaxies compared to the spirals, and thus these quantities are less sensitive to star formation enhancements. No strong trend of Spitzer color with pair separation is visible in our sample; this may be because our sample was selected to be tidally disturbed. The tidal features contribute ≤ 10% of the total Spitzer fluxes on average. The SFRs implied for the Arp galaxies by the Spitzer 24 μm luminosities are relatively modest, ∼1 M⊙ yr-1 on average.

This thesis focuses on how a galaxy's environment affects its star formation, from the galactic environment of the most luminous IR galaxies in the universe to groups and massive clusters of galaxies. Initially, we studied a class of high-redshift galaxies with extremely red optical-to-mid-IR colors. We used Spitzer spectra and photometry to identify whether the IR outputs of these objects are dominated by AGNs or star formation. In accordance with the expectation that the AGN contribution should increase with IR luminosity, we find most of our very red IR-luminous galaxies to be dominated by an AGN, though a few appear to be star-formation dominated. We then observed how the density of the extraglactic environment plays a role in galaxy evolution. We begin with Spitzer and HST observations of intermediate-redshift groups. Although the environment has clearly changed some properties of its members, group galaxies at a given mass and morphology have comparable amounts of star formation as field galaxies. We conclude the main difference between the two environments is the higher fraction of massive early-type galaxies in groups. Clusters show even more distinct trends. Using three different star-formation indicators, we found the mass--SFR relation for cluster galaxies can look similar to the field (A2029) or have a population of low-star-forming galaxies in addition to the field-like galaxies (Coma). We contribute this to differing merger histories: recently-accreted galaxies would not have time for their star formation to be quenched by the cluster environment (A2029), while an accretion event in the past few Gyr would give galaxies enough time to have their star formation suppressed by the cluster environment. Since these two main quenching mechanisms depend on the density of the intracluster gas, we turn to a group of X-ray under luminous clusters to study how star-forming galaxies have been affected in clusters with lower than expected X-ray emission. We find the distribution of star-forming galaxies with respect to stellar mass varies from cluster to cluster, echoing what we found for Coma and A2029. In other words, while some preprocessing occurs in groups, the cluster environment still contributes to the quenching of star formation.

We directly detect dust emission in an optically detected, multiply imaged galaxy lensed by the Frontier Fields cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745. We detect two images of the same galaxy at 1.1 mm with the AzTEC camera on the Large Millimeter Telescope leaving no ambiguity in the counterpart identification. This galaxy, MACS0717_Az9, is at z > 4 and the strong lensing model (mu = 7.5) allows us to calculate an intrinsic IR luminosity of 9.7 x 10(10) L-circle dot and an obscured star formation rate of 14.6 +/- 4.5 M-circle dot yr(-1). The unobscured star formation rate from the UV is only 4.1 +/- 0.3 M-circle dot yr(-1), which means the total star formation rate (18.7 +/- 4.5 M-circle dot yr(-1)) is dominated (75%-80%) by the obscured component. With an intrinsic stellar mass of only 6.9 x 10(9) M circle dot, MACS0717_Az9 is one of only a handful of z. >. 4 galaxies at these lower masses that is detected in dust emission. This galaxy lies close to the estimated star formation sequence at this epoch. However, it does not lie on the dust obscuration relation (IRX-beta) for local starburst galaxies and is instead consistent with the Small Magellanic Cloud attenuation law. This remarkable lower mass galaxy, showing signs of both low metallicity and high dust content, may challenge our picture of dust production in the early universe.

We present a detailed, multi-wavelength study of star formation (SF) and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity in 11 near-infrared (IR) selected, spectroscopically confirmed massive (greater than or similar to 10(14)M(circle dot)) galaxy clusters at 1 < z < 1.75. Using new deep Herschel/PACS imaging, we characterize the optical to far-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for IR-luminous cluster galaxies, finding that they can, on average, be well described by field galaxy templates. Identification and decomposition of AGNs through SED fittings allows us to include the contribution to cluster SF from AGN host galaxies. We quantify the star-forming fraction, dust-obscured SF rates (SFRs) and specific SFRs for cluster galaxies as a function of cluster-centric radius and redshift. In good agreement with previous studies, we find that SF in cluster galaxies at z greater than or similar to 1.4 is largely consistent with field galaxies at similar epochs, indicating an era before significant quenching in the cluster cores (r < 0.5 Mpc). This is followed by a transition to lower SF activity as environmental quenching dominates by z similar to 1. Enhanced SFRs are found in lower mass (10.1< logM(kappa)/M-circle dot < 10.8) cluster galaxies. We find significant variation in SF from cluster to cluster within our uniformly selected sample, indicating that caution should be taken when evaluating individual clusters. We examine AGNs in clusters from z = 0.5-2, finding an excess AGN fraction at z greater than or similar to 1, suggesting environmental triggering of AGNs during this epoch. We argue that our results-a transition from field-like to quenched SF, enhanced SF in lower mass galaxies in the cluster cores, and excess AGNs-are consistent with a co-evolution between SF and AGNs in clusters and an increased merger rate in massive halos at high redshift.

We study the properties of the foreground galaxy of the Ruby, the brightest gravitationally lensed high-redshift galaxy on the sub-millimeter sky as probed by the Planck satellite, and part of our sample of Planck's dusty GEMS. The Ruby consists of an Einstein ring of 1.4" diameter at z = 3.005 observed with ALMA at 0.1" resolution, centered on a faint, red, massive lensing galaxy seen with HST/WFC3, which itself has an exceptionally high redshift, z = 1.525 +/- 0.001, as confirmed with VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy. Here we focus on the properties of the lens and the lensing model obtained with LENSTOOL. The rest-frame optical morphology of this system is strongly dominated by the lens, while the Ruby itself is highly obscured, and contributes less than 10% to the photometry out to the K band. The foreground galaxy has a lensing mass of (3.70 +/- 0.35) x 10(11) M-Theta Magnification factors are between 7 and 38 for individual clumps forming two image families along the Einstein ring. We present a decomposition of the foreground and background sources in the WFC3 images, and stellar population synthesis modeling with a range of star-formation histories for Chabrier and Salpeter initial mass functions (IMFs). Only the stellar mass range obtained with the latter agrees well with the lensing mass. This is consistent with the bottom-heavy IMFs of massive high-redshift galaxies expected from detailed studies of the stellar masses and mass profiles of their low-redshift descendants, and from models of turbulent gas fragmentation. This may be the first direct constraint on the IMF in a lens at z = 1.5, which is not a cluster central galaxy.

We have used a combination of hydrodynamical simulations, dust radiative transfer, and an empirically based analytical model for galaxy number densities and merger rates in order to physically model the bright high-redshift submillimeter-selected galaxy (SMG) population. We report the results of three projects: In the first we study the dependence of a galaxy’s observed-frame submillimeter (submm) flux on its physical properties. One of our principal conclusions is that the submm flux scales significantly more weakly with star formation rate for starbursts than for quiescently star-forming galaxies. Consequently, we argue that the SMG population is not exclusively merger-induced starbursts but rather a mix of merger-induced starbursts, early-stage mergers where two quiescently star-forming disk galaxies are blended into one submm source ("galaxy-pair SMGs"), and isolated disk galaxies. In the second work we present testable predictions of this model by demonstrating how quiescently star-forming and starburst SMGs can be distinguished from integrated data alone. Starbursts tend to have higher luminosity, effective dust temperature, global star formation efficiency \((L_{IR}/M_{gas})\), and infrared excess \((L_{IR}/L_{FUV})\) and tend to lie significantly above the star formation rate-stellar mass relation defined by quiescently star-forming galaxies. These diagnostics can be used to observationally determine the relative contribution of quiescently star-forming and starburst galaxies to the SMG population. In the final work we present the SMG number density, cumulative number counts, and redshift distribution predicted by our model. We show that, contrary to previous claims, the observed SMG number counts do not provide evidence for a top-heavy initial mass function. We also show that starbursts and galaxy-pair SMGs both contribute significantly to the bright SMG counts, whereas isolated disks contribute significantly only at the faint end. / Astronomy

The ubiquity of Lyman alpha (Ly alpha) emission in a sample of four bright [O III]- strong star-forming galaxies with redshifts above seven has led to the suggestion that such luminous sources represent a distinct population compared with their fainter, more numerous counterparts. The presence of Lya emission within the reionization era could indicate that these sources created early ionized bubbles due to their unusually strong radiation, possibly because of the presence of active galactic nuclei. To test this hypothesis, we secured long integration spectra with XSHOOTER on the VLT for three z similar or equal to 7 sources selected to have similar luminosities and prominent excess fluxes in the IRAC 3.6 or 4.5 mu m band, usually attributed to strong [O III] emission. We secured additional spectroscopy for one of these galaxies at z = 7.15 using MOSFIRE at the Keck telescope. For the most well-studied source in our sample with the strongest IRAC excess, we detect significant nebular emission from He II and N V indicative of a non-thermal source. For the other two sources at z = 6.81 and z = 6.85, for which no previous optical/near-infrared spectroscopy was available, Ly alpha is seen in one and C III] emission in the other. Although based on a modest sample, our results further support the hypothesis that the phenomenon of intense [O III] emission is associated preferentially with sources lying in early ionized bubbles. However, even though one of our sources at z = 7.15 suggests the presence of non-thermal radiation, such ionized bubbles may not uniquely arise in this manner. We discuss the unique advantages of extending such challenging diagnostic studies with JWST.

We present new spatially resolved surface photometry in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-ultraviolet (NUV) from images obtained by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and IRAC1 (3.6 mu m) photometry from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S(4)G). We analyze the radial surface brightness profiles mu(FUV), mu(NUV), and mu[3.6], as well as the radial profiles of (FUV - NUV), (NUV -[3.6]), and (FUV -[3.6]) colors in 1931 nearby galaxies (z < 0.01). The analysis of the 3.6 mu m surface brightness profiles also allows us to separate the bulge and disk components in a quasi-automatic way and to compare their light and color distribution with those predicted by the chemo-spectrophotometric models for the evolution of galaxy disks of Boissier & Prantzos. The exponential disk component is best isolated by setting an inner radial cutoff and an upper surface brightness limit in stellar mass surface density. The best-fitting models to the measured scale length and central surface brightness values yield distributions of spin and circular velocity within a factor of two of those obtained via direct kinematic measurements. We find that at a surface brightness fainter than mu([3.6]) = 20.89 mag arcsec(-2), or below 3 x 10(8) M-circle dot kpc(-2) in stellar mass surface density, the average specific star formation rate (sSFR) for star-forming and quiescent galaxies remains relatively flat with radius. However, a large fraction of GALEX Green Valley galaxies show a radial decrease in sSFR. This behavior suggests that an outside-in damping mechanism, possibly related to environmental effects, could be testimony of an early evolution of galaxies from the blue sequence of star-forming galaxies toward the red sequence of quiescent galaxies.