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ABSTRACT We define a new morphology metric called ‘patchiness’ (P) that is sensitive to deviations from the average of a resolved distribution, does not require the galaxy centre to be defined, and can be used on the spatially resolved distribution of any galaxy property. While the patchiness metric has a broad range of applications, we demonstrate its utility by investigating the distribution of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) of 310 star-forming galaxies at spectroscopic redshifts 1.36 < z < 2.66 observed by the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field survey. The stellar continuum reddening distribution, derived from high-resolution multiwaveband CANDELS/3D-HST imaging, is quantified using the patchiness, Gini, and M20 coefficients. We find that the reddening maps of high-mass galaxies, which are dustier and more metal-rich on average, tend to exhibit patchier distributions (high P) with the reddest components concentrated within a single region (low M20). Our results support a picture where dust is uniformly distributed in low-mass galaxies (≲1010 M⊙), implying efficient mixing of dust throughout the ISM. On the other hand, the dust distribution is patchier in high-mass galaxies (≳1010 M⊙). Dust is concentrated near regions of active star formation and dust mixing time-scales are expected to be longer in high-mass galaxies, such that the outskirt regions of these physically larger galaxies remain relatively unenriched. This study presents direct evidence for patchy dust distributions on scales of a few kpc in high-redshift galaxies, which previously has only been suggested as a possible explanation for the observed differences between nebular and stellar continuum reddening, star formation rate indicators, and dust attenuation curves. 

ABSTRACT We perform an aperture-matched analysis of dust-corrected H α and UV star formation rates (SFRs) using 303 star-forming galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts 1.36 < zspec < 2.66 from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field survey. By combining H α and H β emission line measurements with multiwaveband resolved Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey/3D-HST imaging, we directly compare dust-corrected H α and UV SFRs, inferred assuming a fixed attenuation curve shape and constant SFHs, within the spectroscopic aperture. Previous studies have found that H α and UV SFRs inferred with these assumptions generally agree for typical star-forming galaxies, but become increasingly discrepant for galaxies with higher SFRs (≳100 M⊙ yr−1), with H α-to-UV SFR ratios being larger for these galaxies. Our analysis shows that this trend persists even after carefully accounting for the apertures over which H α and UV-based SFRs (and the nebular and stellar continuum reddening) are derived. Furthermore, our results imply that H α SFRs may be higher in the centres of large galaxies (i.e. where there is coverage by the spectroscopic aperture) compared to their outskirts, which could be indicative of inside-out galaxy growth. Overall, we suggest that the persistent difference between nebular and stellar continuum reddening and high H α-to-UV SFR ratios at the centres of large galaxies may be indicative of a patchier distribution of dust in galaxies with high SFRs. 

ABSTRACT We use a sample of 350 star-forming galaxies at 1.25 < z < 2.66 from the Multi-Object Spectrograph For Infra-Red Exploration (MOSFIRE) Deep Evolution Field survey to demonstrate an improved Voronoi binning technique that we use to study the properties of resolved stellar populations in z ∼ 2 galaxies. Stellar population and dust maps are constructed from the high-resolution CANDELS/3D-HST multiband imaging. Rather than constructing the layout of resolved elements (i.e. Voronoi bins) from the signal-to-noise (S/N) distribution of the H160-band alone, we introduce a modified Voronoi binning method that additionally incorporates the S/N distribution of several resolved filters. The spectral energy distribution (SED)-derived resolved E(B − V)stars, stellar population ages, star-formation rates (SFRs), and stellar masses that are inferred from the Voronoi bins constructed from multiple filters are generally consistent with the properties inferred from the integrated photometry within the uncertainties, with the exception of the inferred E(B − V)stars from our z ∼ 1.5 sample due to their UV slopes being unconstrained by the resolved photometry. The results from our multifilter Voronoi binning technique are compared to those derived from a ‘traditional’ single-filter Voronoi binning approach. We find that single-filter binning produces inferred E(B − V)stars that are systematically redder by 0.02 mag, on average, but could differ by up to 0.20 mag and could be attributed to poorly constrained resolved photometry covering the UV slope. Overall, we advocate that our methodology produces more reliable SED-derived parameters due to the best-fitting resolved SEDs being better constrained at all resolved wavelengths – particularly those covering the UV slope.