88 research outputs found
Rapid Environmental Quenching of Satellite Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Group
In the Local Group, nearly all of the dwarf galaxies (M_star < 10^9 M_sun)
that are satellites within 300 kpc (the virial radius) of the Milky Way (MW)
and Andromeda (M31) have quiescent star formation and little-to-no cold gas.
This contrasts strongly with comparatively isolated dwarf galaxies, which are
almost all actively star-forming and gas-rich. This near dichotomy implies a
rapid transformation of satellite dwarf galaxies after falling into the halos
of the MW or M31. We combine the observed quiescent fractions for satellites of
the MW and M31 with the infall times of satellites from the Exploring the Local
Volume in Simulations (ELVIS) suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations to
determine the typical timescales over which environmental processes within the
MW/M31 halos remove gas and quench star formation in low-mass satellite
galaxies. The quenching timescales for satellites with M_star < 10^8 M_sun are
short, < 2 Gyr, and quenching is more rapid at lower M_star. These satellite
quenching timescales can be 1 - 2 Gyr longer if one includes the time that
satellites were environmentally preprocessed by low-mass groups prior to MW/M31
infall. We compare with quenching timescales for more massive satellites from
previous works to synthesize the nature of satellite galaxy quenching across
the observable range of M_star = 10^{3-11} M_sun. The satellite quenching
timescale increases rapidly with satellite M_star, peaking at ~9.5 Gyr for
M_star ~ 10^9 M_sun, and the timescale rapidly decreases at higher M_star to <
5 Gyr at M_star > 5 x 10^9 M_sun. Overall, galaxies with M_star ~ 10^9 M_sun,
similar to the Magellanic Clouds, exhibit the longest quenching timescales,
regardless of environmental or internal mechanisms.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in ApJ Letters. Matches published
versio
The WHIQII Survey: Metallicities and Spectroscopic Properties of Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies
As part of the WIYN High Image Quality Indiana Irvine (WHIQII) survey, we
present 123 spectra of emission-line galaxies, selected on intermediate
redshift (.4<z<.8) galaxies with blue colors that appear physically compact.
The sample includes 15 true Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies (LCBGs) and an
additional 27 slightly less extreme emission-line systems. These galaxies
represent a highly evolving class that may play an important role in the
decline of star formation since z~1, but their exact nature and evolutionary
pathways remain a mystery. Here, we use emission lines to determine
metallicities and ionization parameters, constraining their intrinsic
properties and state of star formation. Some LCBG metallicities are consistent
with a "bursting dwarf" scenario, while a substantial fraction of others are
not, further confirming that LCBGs are a highly heterogeneous population but
are broadly consistent with the intermediate redshift field. In agreement with
previous studies, we observe overall evolution in the luminosity-metallicity
relation at intermediate redshift. Our sample, and particularly the LCBGs,
occupy a region in the empirical R23-O32 plane that differs from luminous local
galaxies and is more consistent with dwarf Irregulars at the present epoch,
suggesting that cosmic "downsizing" is observable in even the most fundamental
parameters that describe star formation. These properties for our sample are
also generally consistent with lying between local galaxies and those at high
redshift, as expected by this scenario. Surprisingly, our sample exhibits no
detectable correlation between compactness and metallicity, strongly suggesting
that at these epochs of rapid star formation, the morphology of compact
star-forming galaxies is largely transient.Comment: ApJ accepted, 17 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables (complete tables in
published version
Dynamical evidence for a strong tidal interaction between the Milky Way and its satellite, Leo V
We present a chemodynamical analysis of the Leo~V dwarf galaxy, based on Keck
II DEIMOS spectra of 8 member stars. We find a systemic velocity for the system
of kms, and barely resolve a
velocity dispersion for the system, with kms, consistent with previous studies of Leo~V. The
poorly resolved dispersion means we are unable to adequately constrain the dark
matter content of Leo~V. We find an average metallicity for the dwarf of
[Fe/H], and measure a significant spread in the iron abundance
of its member stars, with [Fe/H] dex, which cleanly
identifies Leo~V as a dwarf galaxy that has been able to self-enrich its
stellar population through extended star formation. Owing to the tentative
photometric evidence for tidal substructure around Leo~V, we also investigate
whether there is any evidence for tidal stripping or shocking of the system
within its dynamics. We measure a significant velocity gradient across the
system, of kms per
arcmin (or kms~kpc), which points almost directly
toward the Galactic centre. We argue that Leo~V is likely a dwarf on the brink
of dissolution, having just barely survived a past encounter with the centre of
the Milky Way.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Updated to
include minor revisions from referee proces
A Dichotomy in Satellite Quenching Around L* Galaxies
We examine the star formation properties of bright (~0.1 L*) satellites
around isolated ~L* hosts in the local Universe using spectroscopically
confirmed systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. Our selection method is
carefully designed with the aid of N-body simulations to avoid groups and
clusters. We find that satellites are significantly more likely to be quenched
than a stellar mass-matched sample of isolated galaxies. Remarkably, this
quenching occurs only for satellites of hosts that are themselves quenched:
while star formation is unaffected in the satellites of star-forming hosts,
satellites around quiescent hosts are more than twice as likely to be quenched
than stellar-mass matched field samples. One implication of this is that
whatever shuts down star formation in isolated, passive L* galaxies also plays
at least an indirect role in quenching star formation in their bright
satellites. The previously-reported tendency for "galactic conformity" in
color/morphology may be a by-product of this host-specific quenching dichotomy.
The S\'ersic indices of quenched satellites are statistically identical to
those of field galaxies with the same specific star formation rates, suggesting
that environmental and secular quenching give rise to the same morphological
structure. By studying the distribution of pairwise velocities between the
hosts and satellites, we find dynamical evidence that passive host galaxies
reside in dark matter halos that are ~45% more massive than those of
star-forming host galaxies of the same stellar mass. We emphasize that even
around passive hosts, the mere fact that galaxies become satellites does not
typically result in star formation quenching: we find that only ~30% of ~0.1 L*
galaxies that fall in from the field are quenched around passive hosts,
compared with ~0% around star forming hosts.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Hundreds of Milky Way satellites? Luminosity bias in the satellite luminosity function
We correct the observed Milky Way satellite luminosity function for
luminosity bias using published completeness limits for the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey DR5. Assuming that the spatial distribution of Milky Way satellites
tracks the subhalos found in the Via Lactea LCDM N-body simulation, we show
that there should be between ~300 and ~600 satellites within 400 kpc of the Sun
that are brighter than the faintest known dwarf galaxies, and that there may be
as many as ~ 1000, depending on assumptions. By taking into account
completeness limits, we show that the radial distribution of known Milky Way
dwarfs is consistent with our assumption that the full satellite population
tracks that of subhalos. These results alleviate the primary worries associated
with the so-called missing satellites problem in CDM. We show that future, deep
wide-field surveys such as SkyMapper, the Dark Energy Survey (DES), PanSTARRS,
and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will deliver a complete census
of ultra-faint dwarf satellites out to the Milky Way virial radius, offer new
limits on the free-streaming scale of dark matter, and provide unprecedented
constraints on the low-luminosity threshold of galaxy formation.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, ApJ In Pres
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