The OTELO survey: New evidence of downsizing from the specific star formation rates, stellar mass functions, and star formation histories of a sample of low-mass galaxies at 0.38<z <1.43

Abstract

Aims. We present an analysis of the emitters (Hα, Hβ, and [O II]) from the OTELO survey, in order to characterize the star formation properties of low-mass galaxies (< 109 M⊙ stellar masses). Methods. We calculated the specific star formation rate function, the stellar mass function, and, by integrating them, the associated densities for both quantities: the specific star formation rate density and the stellar mass density. We obtained the star formation history of our low-mass sample galaxies by fitting the spectral energy distribution of the galaxies. We also compared our results with those from the literature at different mass regimes and redshifts. Results. The specific star formation rate density and the stellar mass density for low-mass galaxies do not depend on the redshift, contrary to the behaviour presented by the high-mass galaxies. We found that the star formation histories of low-mass galaxies are characterized by a constant star formation rate, in contrast to high-mass galaxies. We interpret these results, in the context of the downsizing effect, as representative of the faster evolution of massive galaxies compared with low-mass ones.