scholarly journals Spatially resolved signature of quenching in star-forming galaxies

2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (2) ◽  
pp. 2347-2366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Quai ◽  
Lucia Pozzetti ◽  
Michele Moresco ◽  
Annalisa Citro ◽  
Andrea Cimatti ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Understanding when, how, and where star formation ceased (quenching) within galaxies is still a critical subject in galaxy evolution studies. Taking advantage of the new methodology developed by Quai et al. to select recently quenched galaxies, we explored the spatial information provided by the IFU data to get critical insights on this process. In particular, we analyse 10 SDSS-IV MaNGA galaxies that show regions with low [O iii]/H α compatible with a recent quenching of the star formation. We compare the properties of these 10 galaxies with those of a control sample of 8 MaNGA galaxies with ongoing star formation in the same stellar mass, redshift, and gas-phase metallicity range. The quenching regions found are located between 0.5 and 1.1 effective radii from the centre. This result is supported by the analysis of the average radial profile of the ionization parameter, which reaches a minimum at the same radii, while the one of the star-forming sample shows an almost flat trend. These quenching regions occupy a total area between ∼ 15 and 45 per cent of our galaxies. Moreover, the average radial profile of the star formation rate surface density of our sample is lower and flatter than that of the control sample, at any radii, suggesting a systematic suppression of the star formation in the inner part of our galaxies. Finally, the radial profiles of gas-phase metallicity of the two samples have a similar slope and normalization. Our results cannot be ascribed to a difference in the intrinsic properties of the analysed galaxies, suggesting a quenching scenario more complicated than a simple inside-out quenching.

Author(s):  
S Gillman ◽  
A L Tiley ◽  
A M Swinbank ◽  
U Dudzevičiūtė ◽  
R M Sharples ◽  
...  

Abstract We present an analysis of the chemical abundance properties of ≈650 star-forming galaxies at z ≈ 0.6 – 1.8. Using integral-field observations from the K - band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS), we quantify the [N ii]/Hα emission-line ratio, a proxy for the gas-phase Oxygen abundance within the interstellar medium. We define the stellar mass – metallicity relation at z ≈ 0.6 – 1.0 and z ≈ 1.2 – 1.8 and analyse the correlation between the scatter in the relation and fundamental galaxy properties (e.g. Hα star-formation rate, Hα specific star-formation rate, rotation dominance, stellar continuum half-light radius and Hubble-type morphology). We find that for a given stellar mass, more highly star-forming, larger and irregular galaxies have lower gas-phase metallicities, which may be attributable to their lower surface mass densities and the higher gas fractions of irregular systems. We measure the radial dependence of gas-phase metallicity in the galaxies, establishing a median, beam smearing-corrected, metallicity gradient of ΔZ/ΔR= 0.002 ± 0.004 dex kpc−1, indicating on average there is no significant dependence on radius. The metallicity gradient of a galaxy is independent of its rest-frame optical morphology, whilst correlating with its stellar mass and specific star-formation rate, in agreement with an inside-out model of galaxy evolution, as well as its rotation dominance. We quantify the evolution of metallicity gradients, comparing the distribution of ΔZ/ΔR in our sample with numerical simulations and observations at z ≈ 0 – 3. Galaxies in our sample exhibit flatter metallicity gradients than local star-forming galaxies, in agreement with numerical models in which stellar feedback plays a crucial role redistributing metals.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S304) ◽  
pp. 302-306
Author(s):  
Chien-Ting J. Chen ◽  
Ryan C. Hickox

AbstractWe present the results of recent studies on the co-evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) using Herschel far-infrared and Chandra X-ray observations in the Boötes survey region. For a sample of star-forming (SF) galaxies, we find a strong correlation between galactic star formation rate and the average SMBH accretion rate in SF galaxies. Recent studies have shown that star formation and AGN accretion are only weakly correlated for individual AGN, but this may be due to the short variability timescale of AGN relative to star formation. Averaging over the full AGN population yields a strong linear correlation between accretion and star formation, consistent with a simple picture in which the growth of SMBHs and their host galaxies are closely linked over galaxy evolution time scales.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 279-279
Author(s):  
Mustafa K. Yıldız ◽  
Paolo Serra ◽  
Reynier F. Peletier ◽  
Tom A. Oosterloo ◽  
Pierre-Alain Duc

AbstractContextAccording to the ATLAS3D project, about 20 percent of all nearby early-type galaxies (D < 42 Mpc; MK < -21.5 mag; stellar mass Mstars ≳ 6 × 109 M⊙) outside clusters are surrounded by a disc or ring of low-column-density neutral hydrogen (Hi) gas with typical radii of tens of kpc, much larger than the stellar body.AimsOur aim is to understand the impact of these gas systems on the host galaxies, in particular, whether there is any recent star formation related to the Hi and effect of recent star formation on the host early-type galaxies.Methods and sampleWe analyse the distribution of star formation out to large radii by using resolved Hi images together with UV and optical images. We calculate the UV-UV and UV-optical colours in two apertures, 1-3 and 3-10 Reff. Using FUV emission as a proxy for star formation, we also estimate the integrated star formation rate in the outer regions. Our sample consists of 18 Hi-rich galaxies as well as 55 control galaxies where no Hi has been detected. We select the control sample galaxies to match the Hi-rich galaxies in stellar mass, environment, distance and stellar kinematics.ResultsIn half of the Hi-rich galaxies the radial UV profile changes slope at the position of the Hi radial profile peak. We find that the FUV-NUV and UV-optical colours in the first and second apertures of the Hi-rich galaxies are on average 0.5 and 0.8 mag bluer than the Hi-poor ones, respectively. We also find that the Hi-rich early-type galaxies have colour gradients that are almost 2 times stronger than the Hi-poor ones. we estimate the integrated star formation rate in the outer regions (R > 1 Reff) to be on average ~ 6.1×10−3 M⊙ yr−1 for the Hi-rich galaxies. We find that the gas depletion time in the outermost region (3-10 Reff) is ~ 80 Gyrs, which is similar to that estimated for the outskirts of spirals.ConclusionsStudying the stellar populations in early type galaxies with and without Hi, we find that galaxies with Hi generally show UV and UV-Optical colours in the outer parts that are bluer than those of early-type galaxies without Hi. This shows that the Hi is actively involved in recent star formation. The star formation rate in the outer regions is too low to build a stellar disc, and therefore change the morphology of the host even when integrated over several Gyrs. Star formation in outermost regions does not depend on the type of the galaxies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 644 ◽  
pp. A97
Author(s):  
D. Colombo ◽  
S. F. Sanchez ◽  
A. D. Bolatto ◽  
V. Kalinova ◽  
A. Weiß ◽  
...  

Understanding how galaxies cease to form stars represents an outstanding challenge for galaxy evolution theories. This process of “star formation quenching” has been related to various causes, including active galactic nuclei activity, the influence of large-scale dynamics, and the environment in which galaxies live. In this paper, we present the first results from a follow-up of CALIFA survey galaxies with observations of molecular gas obtained with the APEX telescope. Together with the EDGE-CARMA observations, we collected 12CO observations that cover approximately one effective radius in 472 CALIFA galaxies. We observe that the deficit of galaxy star formation with respect to the star formation main sequence (SFMS) increases with the absence of molecular gas and with a reduced efficiency of conversion of molecular gas into stars, which is in line with the results of other integrated studies. However, by dividing the sample into galaxies dominated by star formation and galaxies quenched in their centres (as indicated by the average value of the Hα equivalent width), we find that this deficit increases sharply once a certain level of gas consumption is reached, indicating that different mechanisms drive separation from the SFMS in star-forming and quenched galaxies. Our results indicate that differences in the amount of molecular gas at a fixed stellar mass are the primary drivers for the dispersion in the SFMS, and the most likely explanation for the start of star formation quenching. However, once a galaxy is quenched, changes in star formation efficiency drive how much a retired galaxy differs in its star formation rate from star-forming ones of similar masses. In other words, once a paucity of molecular gas has significantly reduced star formation, changes in the star formation efficiency are what drives a galaxy deeper into the red cloud, hence retiring it.


2020 ◽  
Vol 495 (2) ◽  
pp. 2305-2320
Author(s):  
Michael J Greener ◽  
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca ◽  
Michael R Merrifield ◽  
Thomas G Peterken ◽  
Amelia Fraser-McKelvie ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Dust attenuation in star-forming spiral galaxies affects stars and gas in different ways due to local variations in dust geometry. We present spatially resolved measurements of dust attenuation for a sample of 232 such star-forming spiral galaxies, derived from spectra acquired by the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. The dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations of these galaxies (obtained using full spectrum stellar population fitting methods) is compared with the dust attenuation in the gas (derived from the Balmer decrement). Both of these attenuation measures increase for local regions of galaxies with higher star formation rates; the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations increases more so than the dust attenuation in the gas, causing the ratio of the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations to the dust attenuation in the gas to decrease for local regions of galaxies with higher star formation rate densities. No systematic difference is discernible in any of these dust attenuation quantities between the spiral arm and interarm regions of the galaxies. While both the dust attenuation in the gas and the dust attenuation affecting the stellar populations decrease with galactocentric radius, the ratio of the two quantities does not vary with radius. This ratio does, however, decrease systematically as the stellar mass of the galaxy increases. Analysis of the radial profiles of the two dust attenuation measures suggests that there is a disproportionately high concentration of birth clouds (incorporating gas, young stars, and clumpy dust) nearer to the centres of star-forming spiral galaxies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. A65 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Renaud ◽  
F. Bournaud ◽  
O. Agertz ◽  
K. Kraljic ◽  
E. Schinnerer ◽  
...  

The physical origin of enhanced star formation activity in interacting galaxies remains an open question. Knowing whether starbursts are triggered by an increase in the quantity of dense gas or an increase in the star formation efficiency therein would improve our understanding of galaxy evolution and make it possible to transfer the results obtained in the local Universe to high-redshift galaxies. In this paper, we analyze a parsec-resolution simulation of a model of interacting galaxies similar to the Antennae Galaxies. We find that the interplay of physical processes such as tides, shear, and turbulence shows complex and important variations in time and space, but that different combinations of these processes can produce similar signatures in observable quantities such as the depletion time and CO emission. Some clouds within the interacting galaxies exhibit an excess of dense gas (> 104 cm−3), while others only attain similarly high densities in the tail of their density distribution. The clouds with an excess of dense gas are found across all regions of the galaxies, but their number density varies between regions due to different cloud assembly mechanisms. This translates into variations in the scale dependence of quantities related to cloud properties and star formation. The super-linearity of the relationship between the star formation rate and gas density implies that the dense gas excess corresponds to a decrease in the depletion time, and thus leads to a deviation from the classical star formation regime that is visible up to galactic scales. We find that the αCO conversion factor between the CO luminosity and molecular gas mass exhibits stronger spatial than temporal variations in a system like the Antennae. Our results raise several caveats for the interpretation of observations of unresolved star-forming regions, but also predict that the diversity of environments for star formation will be better captured by the future generations of instruments.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 273-273
Author(s):  
C. Catalán-Torrecilla ◽  
A. Gil de Paz ◽  
A. Castillo-Morales ◽  
J. Méndez-Abreu ◽  
S. Pascual ◽  
...  

AbstractExploring the spatial distribution of the star formation rate (SFR) in nearby galaxies is essential to understand their evolution through cosmic time. With this aim in mind, we use a representative sample that contains a variety of morphological types, the CALIFA Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) sample. Previous to this work, we have verified that our extinction-corrected Hα measurements successfully reproduce the values derived from other SFR tracers such as Hαobs + IR or UVobs + IR (Catalán-Torrecilla et al. 2015).Now, we go one step further applying 2-dimensional photometric decompositions (Méndez-Abreu et al. (2008), Méndez-Abreu et al. (2014)) over these datacubes. This method allows us to obtain the amount of SFR in the central part (bulge or nuclear source), the bar and the disk, separately. First, we determine the light coming from each component as the ratio between the luminosity in every component (bulge, bar or disk) and the total luminosity of the galaxy. Then, for each galaxy we multiply the IFS datacubes by these previous factors to recover the luminosity in each component. Finally, we derive the spectrum associated to each galaxy component integrating the spatial information in the weighted datacube using an elliptical aperture covering the whole galaxy.2D photometric decomposition applied over 3D datacubes will give us a more detailed understanding of the role that disks play in more massive galaxies. Knowing if the disks in more massive SF galaxies have on average a lower or higher level of star formation activity and how these results are affected by the presence of nuclear bars are still open questions that we can now solve. We describe the behavior of these components in the SFR vs. stellar mass diagram. In particular, we highlight the role of the disks and their contribution to both the integrated SFR for the whole galaxy and the SFR in the disk at different stellar masses in the SFR vs. stellar mass diagram together with their relative position to the star forming Main Sequence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 634 ◽  
pp. A97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Khusanova ◽  
O. Le Fèvre ◽  
P. Cassata ◽  
O. Cucciati ◽  
B. C. Lemaux ◽  
...  

Context. The star formation rate density (SFRD) evolution presents an area of great interest in the studies of galaxy evolution and reionization. The current constraints of SFRD at z >  5 are based on the rest-frame UV luminosity functions with the data from photometric surveys. The VIMOS UltraDeep Survey (VUDS) was designed to observe galaxies at redshifts up to ∼6 and opened a window for measuring SFRD at z >  5 from a spectroscopic sample with a well-controlled selection function. Aims. We establish a robust statistical description of the star-forming galaxy population at the end of cosmic HI reionization (5.0 ≤ z ≤ 6.6) from a large sample of 49 galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts. We determine the rest-frame UV and Lyα luminosity functions and use them to calculate SFRD at the median redshift of our sample z = 5.6. Methods. We selected a sample of galaxies at 5.0 ≤ zspec ≤ 6.6 from the VUDS. We cleaned our sample from low redshift interlopers using ancillary photometric data. We identified galaxies with Lyα either in absorption or in emission, at variance with most spectroscopic samples in the literature where Lyα emitters (LAE) dominate. We determined luminosity functions using the 1/Vmax method. Results. The galaxies in this redshift range exhibit a large range in their properties. A fraction of our sample shows strong Lyα emission, while another fraction shows Lyα in absorption. UV-continuum slopes vary with luminosity, with a large dispersion. We find that star-forming galaxies at these redshifts are distributed along the main sequence in the stellar mass vs. SFR plane, described with a slope α = 0.85 ± 0.05. We report a flat evolution of the specific SFR compared to lower redshift measurements. We find that the UV luminosity function is best reproduced by a double power law, while a fit with a Schechter function is only marginally inferior. The Lyα luminosity function is best fitted with a Schechter function. We derive a logSFRDUV(M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3) = −1.45+0.06−0.08 and logSFRDLyα(M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3) = −1.40+0.07−0.08. The SFRD derived from the Lyα luminosity function is in excellent agreement with the UV-derived SFRD after correcting for IGM absorption. Conclusions. Our new SFRD measurements at a mean redshift of z = 5.6 are ∼0.2 dex above the mean SFRD reported in Madau & Dickinson (2014, ARA&A, 52, 415), but in excellent agreement with results from Bouwens et al. (2015a, ApJ, 803, 34). These measurements confirm the steep decline of the SFRD at z >  2. The bright end of the Lyα luminosity function has a high number density, indicating a significant star formation activity concentrated in the brightest LAE at these redshifts. LAE with equivalent width EW > 25 Å contribute to about 75% of the total UV-derived SFRD. While our analysis favors low dust content in 5.0 <  z <  6.6, uncertainties on the dust extinction correction and associated degeneracy in spectral fitting will remain an issue, when estimating the total SFRD until future surveys extending spectroscopy to the NIR rest-frame spectral domain, such as with JWST.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuki Yamaguchi ◽  
Kotaro Kohno ◽  
Bunyo Hatsukade ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Yuki Yoshimura ◽  
...  

Abstract We make use of the ALMA twenty-Six Arcmin2 survey of GOODS-S At One-millimeter (ASAGAO), deep 1.2 mm continuum observations of a 26-arcmin2 region in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) obtained with Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), to probe dust-enshrouded star formation in K-band selected (i.e., stellar mass selected) galaxies, which are drawn from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) catalog. Based on the ASAGAO combined map, which was created by combining ASAGAO and ALMA archival data in the GOODS-South field, we find that 24 ZFOURGE sources have 1.2 mm counterparts with a signal-to-noise ratio &gt;4.5 (1σ ≃ 30–70 μJy beam−1 at 1.2 mm). Their median redshift is estimated to be $z$median = 2.38 ± 0.14. They generally follow the tight relationship of the stellar mass versus star formation rate (i.e., the main sequence of star-forming galaxies). ALMA-detected ZFOURGE sources exhibit systematically larger infrared (IR) excess (IRX ≡ LIR/LUV) compared to ZFOURGE galaxies without ALMA detections even though they have similar redshifts, stellar masses, and star formation rates. This implies the consensus stellar-mass versus IRX relation, which is known to be tight among rest-frame-ultraviolet-selected galaxies, cannot fully predict the ALMA detectability of stellar-mass-selected galaxies. We find that ALMA-detected ZFOURGE sources are the main contributors to the cosmic IR star formation rate density at $z$ = 2–3.


2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 230-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asa F L Bluck ◽  
Roberto Maiolino ◽  
Joanna M Piotrowska ◽  
James Trussler ◽  
Sara L Ellison ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We investigate how star formation quenching proceeds within central and satellite galaxies using spatially resolved spectroscopy from the SDSS-IV MaNGA DR15. We adopt a complete sample of star formation rate surface densities (ΣSFR), derived in Bluck et al. (2020), to compute the distance at which each spaxel resides from the resolved star forming main sequence (ΣSFR − Σ* relation): ΔΣSFR. We study galaxy radial profiles in ΔΣSFR, and luminosity weighted stellar age (AgeL), split by a variety of intrinsic and environmental parameters. Via several statistical analyses, we establish that the quenching of central galaxies is governed by intrinsic parameters, with central velocity dispersion (σc) being the most important single parameter. High mass satellites quench in a very similar manner to centrals. Conversely, low mass satellite quenching is governed primarily by environmental parameters, with local galaxy overdensity (δ5) being the most important single parameter. Utilizing the empirical MBH − σc relation, we estimate that quenching via AGN feedback must occur at $M_{\rm BH} \ge 10^{6.5-7.5} \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, and is marked by steeply rising ΔΣSFR radial profiles in the green valley, indicating ‘inside-out’ quenching. On the other hand, environmental quenching occurs at overdensities of 10–30 times the average galaxy density at z∼ 0.1, and is marked by steeply declining ΔΣSFR profiles, indicating ‘outside-in’ quenching. Finally, through an analysis of stellar metallicities, we conclude that both intrinsic and environmental quenching must incorporate significant starvation of gas supply.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document