12 research outputs found
Environments and Morphologies of Red Sequence Galaxies with Residual Star Formation in Massive Clusters
We present a photometric investigation into recent star formation in galaxy
clusters at z ~ 0.1. We use spectral energy distribution templates to quantify
recent star formation in large X-ray selected clusters from the LARCS survey
using matched GALEX NUV photometry. These clusters all have signs of red
sequence galaxy recent star formation (as indicated by blue NUV-R colour),
regardless of cluster morphology and size. A trend in environment is found for
these galaxies, such that they prefer to occupy low density, high cluster
radius environments. The morphology of these UV bright galaxies suggests that
they are in fact red spirals, which we confirm with light curves and Galaxy Zoo
voting percentages as morphological proxies. These UV bright galaxies are
therefore seen to be either truncated spiral galaxies, caught by ram pressure
in falling into the cluster, or high mass spirals, with the photometry
dominated by the older stellar population.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 11 pages, 11 figure
A photometrically and spectroscopically confirmed population of passive spiral galaxies
We have identified a population of passive spiral galaxies from photometry and integral field spectroscopy. We selected z < 0.035 spiral galaxies that have WISE colours consistent with little mid-infrared emission from warm dust. Matched aperture photometry of 51 spiral galaxies in ultraviolet, optical and mid-infrared show these galaxies have colours consistent with passive galaxies. Six galaxies form a spectroscopic pilot study and were observed using the Wide-Field Spectrograph to check for signs of nebular emission from star formation. We see no evidence of substantial nebular emission found in previous red spiral samples. These six galaxies possess absorption-line spectra with 4000 Å breaks consistent with an average luminosity-weighted age of 2.3 Gyr. Our photometric and integral field spectroscopic observations confirm the existence of a population of local passive spiral galaxies, implying that transformation into early-type morphologies is not required for the quenching of star formation
Near-ultraviolet signatures of environment-driven galaxy quenching in Sloan Digital Sky Survey groups
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. We have investigated the effect of group environment on residual star formation in galaxies, using Galaxy Evolution Explorer near-ultraviolet (NUV) galaxy photometry with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey group catalogue of Yang et al. We compared the (NUV - r) colours of grouped and non-grouped galaxies, and find a significant increase in the fraction of red sequence galaxies with blue (NUV - r) colours outside of groups. When comparing galaxies in mass-matched samples of satellite (non-central), and non-grouped galaxies, we found a > 4σ difference in the distribution of (NUV - r) colours, and an (NUV - r) blue fraction > 3σ higher outside groups. A comparison of satellite and non-grouped samples has found the NUV fraction is a factor of ~2 lower for satellite galaxies between 10 10.5 and 10 10.7 M ⊙ , showing that higher mass galaxies are more likely to have residual star formation when not influenced by a group potential. There was a higher (NUV - r) blue fraction of galaxies with lower Sérsic indices (n < 3) outside of groups, not seen in the satellite sample. We have used stellar population models of Bruzual & Charlot with multiple burst, or exponentially declining star formation histories to find that many of the (NUV - r) blue non-grouped galaxies can be explained by a slow (~2 Gyr) decay of star formation, compared to the satellite galaxies. We suggest that taken together, the difference in (NUV - r) colours between samples can be explained by a population of secularly evolving, non-grouped galaxies, where star formation declines slowly. This slow channel is less prevalent in group environments where more rapid quenching can occur
An Enigmatic 380 kpc Long Linear Collimated Galactic Tail
We present an intriguing, serendipitously-detected system consisting of an
S0/a galaxy, which we refer to as the "Kite", and a highly-collimated tail of
gas and stars that extends over 380 kpc and contains pockets of star formation.
In its length, narrowness, and linearity the Kite's tail is an extreme example
relative to known tails. The Kite (PGC 1000273) has a companion galaxy, Mrk
0926 (PGC 070409), which together comprise a binary galaxy system in which both
galaxies host active galactic nuclei. Despite this systems being previously
searched for signs of tidal interactions, the tail had not been discovered
prior to our identification as part of the validation process of the SMUDGes
survey for low surface brightness galaxies. We confirm the kinematic
association between various H knots along the tail, a small galaxy, and
the Kite galaxy using optical spectroscopy obtained with the Magellan telescope
and measure a velocity gradient along the tail. The Kite shares characteristics
common to those formed via ram pressure stripping ("jellyfish" galaxies) and
formed via tidal interactions. However, both scenarios face significant
challenges that we discuss, leaving open the question of how such an extreme
tail formed. We propose that the tail resulted from a three-body interaction
from which the lowest-mass galaxy was ejected at high velocity.Comment: Submitted to publication in MNRAS (comments welcome
Pre- and post-processing of cluster galaxies out to : The extreme case of A2670
We study galaxy interactions in the large scale environment around A2670, a
massive ( = ) and
interacting galaxy cluster at z = 0.0763. We first characterize the environment
of the cluster out to 5 and find a wealth of substructures,
including the main cluster core, a large infalling group, and several other
substructures. To study the impact of these substructures (pre-processing) and
their accretion into the main cluster (post-processing) on the member galaxies,
we visually examined optical images to look for signatures indicative of
gravitational or hydrodynamical interactions. We find that % of the
cluster galaxies have clear signs of disturbances, with most of those (
%) likely being disturbed by ram pressure. The number of ram-pressure stripping
candidates found (101) in A2670 is the largest to date for a single system, and
while they are more common in the cluster core, they can be found even at , confirming cluster influence out to large radii. In support of
a pre-processing scenario, most of the disturbed galaxies follow the
substructures found, with the richest structures having more disturbed
galaxies. Post-processing also seems plausible, as many galaxy-galaxy mergers
are seen near the cluster core, which is not expected in relaxed clusters. In
addition, there is a comparable fraction of disturbed galaxies in and outside
substructures. Overall, our results highlight the complex interplay of gas
stripping and gravitational interactions in actively assembling clusters up to
, motivating wide-area studies in larger cluster samples.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
The effect of minor and major mergers on the evolution of low excitation radio galaxies
We use deep, μ r lesssim 28 mag arcsec−2, r-band imaging from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey to search for past, or ongoing, merger activity in a sample of 282 low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) at z 4σ excess of major mergers in the LERGs with M * lesssim 1011 M⊙, with 10 ± 1.5% of these active galactic nuclei involved in such large-scale interactions compared to 3.2 ± 0.4% of control galaxies. This excess of major mergers in LERGs decreases with increasing stellar mass, vanishing by M * > 1011.3 M⊙. These observations show that minor mergers do not fuel LERGs, and are consistent with typical LERGs being powered by accretion of matter from their halo. Where LERGs are associated with major mergers, these objects may evolve into more efficiently accreting active galactic nuclei as the merger progresses and more gas falls on to the central engine
Constraining the duration of ram pressure stripping features in the optical from the direction of jellyfish galaxy tails
Ram pressure stripping is perhaps the most efficient mechanism for removing gas and quenching galaxies in dense environments, as they move through the intergalactic medium. Extreme examples of on-going ram pressure stripping are known as jellyfish galaxies, characterized by a tail of stripped material that can be directly observed in multiple wavelengths. Using the largest homogeneous broad-band optical jellyfish candidate sample in local clusters known to date, we measure the angle between the direction of the tails visible in the galaxies, and the direction towards the host cluster centre. We find that 33 per cent of the galaxy tails point away from the cluster centre, 18 per cent point towards the cluster centre, and 49 per cent point elsewhere. Moreover, we find stronger signatures of ram pressure stripping happening on galaxies with a tail pointing away and towards the cluster centre, and larger velocity dispersion profiles for galaxies with tails pointing away. These results are consistent with a scenario where ram pressure stripping has a stronger effect for galaxies following radial orbits on first infall. The results also suggest that in many cases, radially infalling galaxies are able to retain their tails after pericenter and continue to experience significant on-going ram pressure stripping. We further constrain the lifespan of the optical tails from the moment they first appear to the moment they disappear, by comparing the observed tail directions with matched N-body simulations through Bayesian parameter estimation. We obtain that galaxy tails appear for the first time at ∼ 1.16R200 and disappear ∼ 660 Myr after pericenter