2003A&A...403..501F

We present a spectroscopic analysis of a sample of 21 galaxies with z=0.2-1.5 drawn from a 25 square arcmin ultra-deep ISOCAM survey at λ_eff=15µm centered in the WFPC-2 Hubble Deep Field South. Near-infrared spectra are reported for 18 ISO sources, carried out with ISAAC on the VLT, aimed at detecting the redshifted H_α+[NII]. Additional optical data come from the ESO VLT/FORS2 and NTT/EMMI, primarily targeting [OII], [OIII] and H_β for further physical insight. Although not numerous in terms of areal density in the sky, this population of very luminous IR sources has been recently found to be responsible for a substantial fraction of the extragalactic background light energy density. H_α line emission is detected in virtually all the observed objects down to a flux limit of 7x10^–17erg/cm²/s (corresponding to L_Hα>10⁴¹erg/s at z=0.6 for H₀=65, Ω_Λ=0.7 and Ω_m=0.3). Our analysis (including emission line, morphology, and SED properties) shows clear evidence for AGN activity in only two of these sources: one type-I (with broadened H_α at z=1.57) and one type-II quasars (with inverted [NII]/H_α ratio at z=1.39), while we suspect the presence of an AGN in two further sources (an Ultra-Luminous IR Galaxy, ULIRG, at z=1.27 and a luminous galaxy at z=0.69). The H_α luminosities indicate star formation rates (SFR) in the remaining sources between 0.5 and 20M_☉/yr, assuming a Salpeter IMF between 0.1 and 100M_☉ and without extinction corrections. We find good correlations between the mid-IR, the radio and H_α luminosities, confirming the mid-IR light as a good tracer of star formation (while the SFR based on H_α flux show some large scatter and offset, which are still to be understood). We have estimated the baryonic masses in stars with a newly-developed tool fitting the overall optical-IR continuum, and found that the host galaxies of ISO sources are massive members of groups with typically high rates of SF (SFR∼10 to 300M_☉/yr). We have finally compared this ongoing SF activity with the already formed stellar masses to estimate the timescales t_SF for the stellar build-up, which turn-out to be widely spread in these objects between 0.1Gyrs to more than 10Gyr. The faint ISOCAM galaxies appear to form a composite population, including moderately active but very massive spiral-like galaxies, and very luminous ongoing starbursts, in a continuous sequence. From the observed t_SF and assuming typical starburst timescales, we infer that, with few exceptions, only a fraction of the galactic stars can be formed in any single starburst event, while several of such episodes during a protracted SF history are required for the whole galactic build-up.