- Title
- Near-UV signatures of environment-driven galaxy quenching in Sloan Digital Sky Survey groups
- Creator
- Crossett, Jacob P.; Pimbblet, Kevin A.; Jones, D. Heath; Brown, Michael J. I.; Stott, John P.
- Relation
- Funding BodyARCGrant Numberhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT100100280 FT100100280
- Relation
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 464, Issue 1, p. 480-490
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw2228
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- 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 1010.5 and 1010.7,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.
- Subject
- galaxies; evolution; groups; photometry; star formation; stellar content – ultraviolet
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384499
- Identifier
- uon:32088
- Identifier
- ISSN:0035-8711
- Language
- eng
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