Resolving the Stellar Populations of Clumpy Star-Forming Galaxies Using Finite Resolution Deconvolution

Understanding the physical details of when and where stars form within galaxies remains as one of the key goals in extragalactic astronomy. Kiloparsec-scale, star-forming structures found in distant, irregular galaxies are often suggested to have a crucial role in the stellar mass build-up of galaxies. These structures are generally dubbed as star-forming clumps and the host galaxies as clumpy galaxies. The origin and evolution of clumpy galaxies have not been well-constrained, as the study of clumpy galaxies requires high resolution and multi-wavelength observations to resolve these compact structures and to infer their physical properties. Current efforts are directed toward space-based slitless spectroscopy and ground-based adaptive optics, but such studies are generally limited to smaller samples owing to the need for long integration times. We present an affordable alternative, in which we apply an image deconvolution algorithm (finite resolution deconvolution) on ground-based images of the Cosmic Evolution Survey field to provide resolved colour and stellar population maps for ~20000 distant galaxies. We track the evolution of the fraction of galaxies that exhibit clumpy morphologies as a function of redshift. Such measurements are essential in order to provide further constraints on the origin of star-forming clumps and their role in galaxy evolution.