The Suppression of Star Formation and the Effect of the Galaxy Environment in Low-Redshift Galaxy Groups

Rasmussen, Jesper; Mulchaey, John S.; Bai, Lei; Ponman, T. J.; Raychaudhury, Somak; Dariush, A.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/757/2/122

Cited by 86 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…A clear trend is observed inward of two to three cluster virial radii: the fraction of gas-rich galaxies decreases monotonically with decreasing cluster-centric distance. This trend is in good agreement with observations that the HI gas depletion increases with decreasing cluster-centric distance inward of about two virial radii (15,18,20,24,(48)(49)(50)(51)(52). Intriguingly, observations indicate that the distribution of star formation rates of cluster galaxies begins to change, compared with the field population, at a cluster-centric radius of about three virial radii.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Gas loss in simulated galaxies as they fall into clusters

Cen

Pop

Bahcall

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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We use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations to gain insights into how galaxies lose their cold gas at low redshift as they migrate from the field to the highdensity regions of clusters of galaxies. We find that beyond three cluster virial radii, the fraction of gas-rich galaxies is constant, representing the field. Within three cluster-centric radii, the fraction of gas-rich galaxies declines steadily with decreasing radius, reaching <10% near the cluster center. Our results suggest galaxies start to feel the effect of the cluster environment on their gas content well beyond the cluster virial radius. We show that almost all gas-rich galaxies at the cluster virial radius are falling in for the first time at nearly radial orbits. Furthermore, we find that almost no galaxy moving outward at the cluster virial radius is gas-rich (with a gas-to-baryon ratio greater than 1%). These results suggest that galaxies that fall into clusters lose their cold gas within a single radial round-trip.cosmology | observations | large-scale structure of universe | intergalactic medium I t has long been known that the local environment affects galaxy properties. Earlier work (1)(2)(3)(4) showed that the fraction of early-type galaxies increases dramatically toward the central regions of clusters of galaxies, whereas the less-dense regions of the field are dominated by spiral galaxies. Similarly, the "color-density relation" (5-8) indicates that red, old galaxies are found preferentially in overdense environments, and galaxies with bluer, younger stellar populations are more common in the field. This color bimodality is linked to a transition in star formation rates between the low-density field and the high-density regions inside clusters (4, 9). However, we still do not have a complete picture of the process through which blue, late-type, star-forming galaxies in the field transform into red, early-type galaxies when entering a cluster. We know that cold gas in galaxies is spatially extended and often distributed far beyond the optical disks (10). Cosmologically, some of the cold gas that feeds galaxy formation may come from the intergalactic medium (11,12). Observations suggest that neutral hydrogen feeds galaxies and turns into molecular hydrogen at a high column density of ∼10 22 cm −2 (13), within which star formation is observed to occur. Together, these facts suggest that the amount of neutral hydrogen supply may ultimately set the rate of star formation. The environmental dependence of galaxy properties may thus be related to the availability of cold gas in or around galaxies. This expectation is supported by observations of galaxies in different environments, showing the well-known depletion of both cold gas and star formation toward the high-density central regions of clusters; this is likely caused by ram pressure stripping of the cold gas by the hot intracluster medium (plus additional gravitational interactions) in the dense environments (refs. 14-24 and references therein). Recent deta...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Gas loss in simulated galaxies as they fall into clusters

Cen

Pop

Bahcall

2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The correlation within the star-forming galaxies in the low-mass subsample is consistent with the results of some studies, such as Rasmussen et al (2012) who find that starforming galaxies in groups have their star formation suppressed on average by 40% relative to the field and that the trends are more prominent in lower stellar mass galaxies. A direct comparison between the current work and these previous results is difficult given that the environment density metrics differ between the two samples, as does the definition of a star-forming system.…”

Section: Integrated Star Formation Ratessupporting

confidence: 90%

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: spatially resolving the environmental quenching of star formation in GAMA galaxies

Schaefer

Croom

Allen

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We use data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to investigate the spatially-resolved signatures of the environmental quenching of star formation in galaxies. Using dust-corrected measurements of the distribution of Hα emission we measure the radial profiles of star formation in a sample of 201 star-forming galaxies covering three orders of magnitude in stellar mass (M * ; 10 8.1 -10 10.95 M ) and in 5 th nearest neighbour local environment density (Σ 5 ; 10 −1.3 -10 2.1 Mpc −2 ). We show that star formation rate gradients in galaxies are steeper in dense (log 10 (Σ 5 /Mpc 2 ) > 0.5) environments by 0.58 ± 0.29 dex r e −1 in galaxies with stellar masses in the range 10 10 < M * /M < 10 11 and that this steepening is accompanied by a reduction in the integrated star formation rate. However, for any given stellar mass or environment density the star-formation morphology of galaxies shows large scatter. We also measure the degree to which the star formation is centrally concentrated using the unitless scaleradius ratio (r 50,Hα /r 50,cont ), which compares the extent of ongoing star formation to previous star formation. With this metric we find that the fraction of galaxies with centrally concentrated star formation increases with environment density, from ∼ 5 ± 4% in low-density environments (log 10 (Σ 5 /Mpc 2 ) < 0.0) to 30 ± 15% in the highest density environments (log 10 (Σ 5 /Mpc 2 ) > 1.0). These lines of evidence strongly suggest that with increasing local environment density the star formation in galaxies is suppressed, and that this starts in their outskirts such that quenching occurs in an outside-in fashion in dense environments and is not instantaneous.

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“…At fixed galaxy density and stellar mass, this suppression is stronger in more massive groups. Rasmussen et al (2012a) concluded that the average time scale for quenching the star-formation activity is 2 Gyr and identified a combination of tidal encounters and starvation as the responsible process. 2006) have shown that, for a given velocity dispersion-thus total mass-galaxies in the periphery of clusters have stronger Balmer absorption lines, indicative of younger ages than those located in the cluster core (see Fig.…”

Section: Star Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the origin of the faint-end of the red sequence in high-density environments

Boselli

Gavazzi

2014

Astron Astrophys Rev

152

125

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With the advent of the next generation wide-field cameras it became possible to survey in an unbiased mode galaxies spanning a variety of local densities, from the core of rich clusters, to compact and loose groups, down to filaments and voids. The sensitivity reached by these instruments allowed to extend the observation to dwarf galaxies, the most "fragile" objects in the universe. At the same time models and simulations have been tailored to quantify the different effects of the environment on the evolution of galaxies. Simulations, models, and observations consistently indicate that star-forming dwarf galaxies entering high-density environments for the first time can be rapidly stripped from their interstellar medium. The lack of gas quenches the activity of star formation, producing on timescales of ∼1 Gyr quiescent galaxies with spectro-photometric, chemical, structural, and kinematical properties similar to those observed in dwarf early-type galaxies inhabiting rich clusters and loose groups. Simulations and observations consistently identify ram pressure stripping as the major effect responsible for the quenching of the star-formation activity in rich clusters. Gravitational interactions (galaxy harassment) can also be important in groups or in clusters whenever galaxies have been members since early epochs. The observation of clusters at different redshifts combined with the present high infalling rate of galaxies onto clusters indicate that the quenching of the star-formation activity in dwarf systems and the formation of the faint end of the red sequence is a very recent phenomenon.

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The Suppression of Star Formation and the Effect of the Galaxy Environment in Low-Redshift Galaxy Groups

Cited by 86 publications

References 62 publications

Gas loss in simulated galaxies as they fall into clusters

Gas loss in simulated galaxies as they fall into clusters

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: spatially resolving the environmental quenching of star formation in GAMA galaxies

On the origin of the faint-end of the red sequence in high-density environments

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