Properties of Emission Line Galaxies at 1.2 < z < 1.9

While dust is a major player in galaxy evolution, its relationship with gas and stellar radiation in the early universe is still not well understood. Using the near-IR grism data from the 3D-HST Treasury program, we constructed a vetted sample of 4,351 emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at 1.16 < z < 1.9. We combined the emission line fluxes with FUV through FIR photometry and ran all of the sources through the spectral energy distribution fitting code MCSED, constraining physical parameters such as star formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses, and dust content of galaxies. We find a tight correlation among stellar mass, SFR, E(B-V), apparent JH magnitude, and redshift (R2 = 0.95). In addition, we find that stellar mass is strongly correlated with absolute JH magnitude (R² = 0.92) and can thus be easily estimated via observations. On the subject of dust, our results suggest that IR-bright emission line galaxies tend to have low UV optical depths or complex dust geometries.