Star Formation History of galaxies as probed by their Spectral Energy Distributions

Laure Ciesla

CEA

Galaxies follow a bimodality in both color and morphology. They are seperated in star-forming and passive galaxies. Although observational evidences suggest that the mass and the environnement of a galaxy play a key role in its star formation history, the key mechanisms at the origin of the quenching of the star formation activity are still debated. In this talk, I will show how the panchromatic emission of galaxies can be used to retrieve information on the recent star formation history of galaxies. I will detail a method to select galaxies that just experienced a fast and drastic downfall of their star formation activity. These galaxies constitute a promising sample that need more investigation in order to understand the different mechanisms at the origin of the star formation decrease of the Universe since z~2.