TY - JOUR A1 - Davidzon, Iary A1 - Ilbert, Olivier A1 - Faisst, Andreas L. A1 - Sparre, Martin A1 - Capak, Peter L. T1 - An Alternate Approach to Measure Specific Star Formation Rates at 2 < z < 7 JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - We trace the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of massive star-forming galaxies (greater than or similar to 10(10)M(circle dot)) from z similar to 2 to 7. Our method is substantially different from previous analyses, as it does not rely on direct estimates of star formation rate, but on the differential evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF). We show the reliability of this approach by means of semianalytical and hydrodynamical cosmological simulations. We then apply it to real data, using the SMFs derived in the COSMOS and CANDELS fields. We find that the sSFR is proportional to (1 + z)(1.1) (+/-) (0.2) at z > 2, in agreement with other observations but in tension with the steeper evolution predicted by simulations from z similar to 4 to 2. We investigate the impact of several sources of observational bias, which, however, cannot account for this discrepancy. Although the SMF of high-redshift galaxies is still affected by significant errors, we show that future large-area surveys will substantially reduce them, making our method an effective tool to probe the massive end of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies. KW - galaxies: evolution KW - galaxies: high-redshift KW - galaxies: star formation Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aaa19e SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 852 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Selsing, Jonatan A1 - Malesani, D. A1 - Goldoni, P. A1 - Fynbo, Johan A1 - Krühler, T. A1 - Antonelli, L. A. A1 - Arabsalmani, M. A1 - Bolmer, J. A1 - Cano, Z. A1 - Christensen, L. A1 - Covino, S. A1 - De Cia, A. A1 - de Ugarte Postigo, A. A1 - Flores, H. A1 - Fliis, M. A1 - Gomboc, A. A1 - Greiner, J. A1 - Groot, P. A1 - Hammer, F. A1 - Hartoog, O. E. A1 - Heintz, K. E. A1 - Hjorth, J. A1 - Jakobsson, P. A1 - Japelj, J. A1 - Kann, D. A. A1 - Kaper, L. A1 - Ledoux, C. A1 - Leloudas, G. A1 - Levan, A. J. A1 - Maiorano, E. A1 - Melandri, A. A1 - Milvang-Jensen, B. A1 - Palazzi, E. A1 - Palmerio, J. T. A1 - Perley, D. A. A1 - Pian, E. A1 - Piranomonte, S. A1 - Pugliese, G. A1 - Sanchez-Ramirez, R. A1 - Savaglio, S. A1 - Schady, P. A1 - Schulze, S. A1 - Sollerman, J. A1 - Sparre, Martin A1 - Tagliaferri, G. A1 - Tanvir, N. R. A1 - Thone, C. C. A1 - Vergani, S. D. A1 - Vreeswijk, P. A1 - Watson, D. A1 - Wiersema, K. A1 - Wijers, R. A1 - Xu, D. A1 - Zafar, T. T1 - The X-shooter GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB) JF - Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal N2 - In this work we present spectra of all gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows that have been promptly observed with the X-shooter spectrograph until 31/03/2017. In total, we have obtained spectroscopic observations of 103 individual GRBs observed within 48 hours of the GRB trigger. Redshifts have been measured for 97 per cent of these, covering a redshift range from 0.059 to 7.84. Based on a set of observational selection criteria that minimise biases with regards to intrinsic properties of the GRBs, the follow-up effort has been focused on producing a homogeneously selected sample of 93 afterglow spectra for GRBs discovered by the Swift satellite. We here provide a public release of all the reduced spectra, including continuum estimates and telluric absorption corrections. For completeness, we also provide reductions for the 18 late-time observations of the underlying host galaxies. We provide an assessment of the degree of completeness with respect to the parent GRB population, in terms of the X-ray properties of the bursts in the sample and find that the sample presented here is representative of the full Swift sample. We have constrained the fraction of dark bursts to be <28 per cent and confirm previous results that higher optical darkness is correlated with increased X-ray absorption. For the 42 bursts for which it is possible, we have provided a measurement of the neutral hydrogen column density, increasing the total number of published HI column density measurements by similar to 33 per cent. This dataset provides a unique resource to study the ISM across cosmic time, from the local progenitor surroundings to the intervening Universe. KW - gamma-ray burst: general KW - galaxies: high-redshift KW - ISM: general KW - techniques: spectroscopic KW - catalogs KW - galaxies: star formation Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201832835 SN - 1432-0746 SN - 0004-6361 VL - 623 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER -