Journal article
Galaxy Zoo: the interplay of quenching mechanisms in the group environment
- Abstract:
- Does the environment of a galaxy directly influence the quenching history of a galaxy? Here we investigate the detailed morphological structures and star formation histories of a sample of SDSS group galaxies with both classifications from Galaxy Zoo 2 and NUV detections in GALEX. We use the optical and NUV colours to infer the quenching time and rate describing a simple exponentially declining SFH for each galaxy, along with a control sample of field galaxies. We find that the time since quenching and the rate of quenching do not correlate with the relative velocity of a satellite but are correlated with the group potential. This quenching occurs within an average quenching timescale of ∼2.5 Gyr from star forming to complete quiescence, during an average infall time (from ∼10R200 to 0.01R200) of ∼2.6 Gyr. Our results suggest that the environment does play a direct role in galaxy quenching through quenching mechanisms which are correlated with the group potential, such as harassment, interactions or starvation. Environmental quenching mechanisms which are correlated with satellite velocity, such as ram pressure stripping, are not the main cause of quenching in the group environment. We find that no single mechanism dominates over another, except in the most extreme environments or masses. Instead an interplay of mergers, mass & morphological quenching and environment driven quenching mechanisms dependent on the group potential drive galaxy evolution in groups.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 1.7MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/mnras/stx973
Authors
+ Science and Technology Facilities Council
More from this funder
- Funding agency for:
- Smethurst, R
- Kruk, S
- Grant:
- ST/K502236/1
- ST/MJ0371X/1
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society More from this journal
- Volume:
- 469
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 3670-3687
- Publication date:
- 2017-04-24
- Acceptance date:
- 2017-04-20
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1365-2966
- ISSN:
-
0035-8711
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:692251
- UUID:
-
uuid:fe639e2e-555d-40c3-98cd-f9d119b9d559
- Local pid:
-
pubs:692251
- Source identifiers:
-
692251
- Deposit date:
-
2017-05-03
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- © 2017 Smethurst et al Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- This is the publisher's version of the article. The final version is available online from Oxford University Press at: 10.1093/mnras/stx973
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record