Properties of galaxy groups in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – II. Active galactic nucleus feedback and star formation truncation

By Simone M. Weinmann, F. V. D. Bosch, Xiaohu Yang, H. Mo, Darren Croton, B. Moore. 2006

152 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Successfully reproducing the galaxy luminosity function (LF) and the bimodality in the galaxy distribution requires a mechanism that can truncate star formation in massive haloes. Current models of galaxy formation consider two such truncation mechanisms: strangulation, which acts on satellite galaxies, and active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback, which predominantly affects central galaxies. The efficiencies of these processes set the blue fraction of galaxies, f(blue)(L, M), as a function of galaxy luminosity, L, and halo mass, M. In this paper, we use a galaxy group catalogue extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to determine f(blue)(L, M). To demonstrate the potential power of these data as a benchmark for galaxy formation models, we compare the results to the semi-analytical model for galaxy formation of Croton et al. Although this model accurately fits the global statistics of the galaxy population, as well as the shape of the conditional LF, there are significant discrepancies when the blue fraction of galaxies as a function of mass and luminosity is compared between the observations and the model. In particular, the model predicts (i) too many faint satellites in massive haloes, (ii) a blue fraction of satellites that is much too low, and (iii) a blue fraction of centrals that is too high and with an inverted luminosity dependence. In the same order, we argue that these discrepancies owe to (i) the neglect of tidal stripping in the semi-analytical model, (ii) the oversimplified treatment of strangulation, and (iii) improper modelling of dust extinction and/or AGN feedback. The data presented here will prove useful to test and calibrate future models of galaxy formation and, in particular, to discriminate between various models for AGN feedback and other star formation truncation mechanisms.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Ecology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/13ff0e90c2c038894d45a3ade8eda177250c0ac1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. R. Somerville
4. Volker Springel
5. R. Dav'e
6. Simon D. M. White
7. C. Conroy
8. A. Dekel

In Ecology

1. F. V. D. Bosch
2. Xiaohu Yang
3. H. Mo
4. Simon D. M. White
5. Andrew Wetzel
6. S. More
7. C. Conroy
8. L. Hernquist

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. F. V. D. Bosch
2. P. Hopkins
3. H. Mo
4. Xiaohu Yang
5. Risa Wechsler
6. M. Martig
7. R. Dav'e
8. A. Dekel

Citations in the corpus

• Erratum: From dwarf spheroidals to cD galaxies: simulating the galaxy population in a ΛCDM cosmology (2010, background): “In most semi-analytic models, hot gas associated with a halo is assumed to be stripped immediately after accretion onto a larger system, leading to a rapid decline in star formation and a reddening in colour (e.g. Wang et al. 2007; Weinmann et al. 2006; Baldry et al. 2006; Font et al. 2008).”
• Tracking the impact of environment on the galaxy stellar mass function up to z ~ 1 in the 10 k zCOSMOS sample (2009, background): “…many small red galaxies: a too efficient strangulation produces an instantaneous shut down of the star formation when a galaxy enters in a halo (see Weinmann et al. 2006; Font et al. 2008; Kang & van den Bosch 2008; Kimm et al. 2009; Fontanot et al. 2009, for a description of the issue and some…”
• Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: satellite star formation histories and quenching time-scales in a hierarchical Universe (2012, background): “More physically, this environmental dependence has been shown to result from satellite galaxies and the properties of their host dark matter halo (Weinmann et al. 2006; Blanton & Berlind 2007; Wilman et al. 2010; Tinker et al. 2011), where ‘satellite’ galaxies are all those that are not the massive…”
• Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, background): “This is known to produce far too high a fraction of quiescent satellites (Font et al. 2008, Kimm et al. 2009, Weinmann et al. 2006b).”
• THE GALAXY CONTENT OF SDSS CLUSTERS AND GROUPS (2007, methodology): “Several studies (Margoniner et al. 2001; Goto et al. 2003; Weinmann et al. 2006a; Poggianti et al. 2006; Mart́ınez et al. 2006; Weinmann et al. 2006b; Gerke et al. 2007; Desai et al. 2007; Blanton & Berlind 2007) have reported that the galaxy type fraction is a function of cluster mass.”
• A fundamental problem in our understanding of low-mass galaxy evolution (2012, background): “…low mass galaxies at z = 0 are too passive (e.g. Fontanot et al. 2009; Firmani & Avila-Reese et al. 2010; Guo et al. 2011), but this can partially be explained by the contribution of satellite galaxies, which are notoriously too passive in semi-analytic models (e.g. Weinmann et al. 2006; 2011b).”
• Galaxy formation in the Planck cosmology – I. Matching the observed evolution of star formation rates, colours and stellar masses (2014, background): “…the fraction of dwarfs that are no longer star-forming is substantially overestimated at low redshift, as is their high-redshift abundance (Weinmann et al. 2006; Henriques et al. 2008; Fontanot et al. 2009; Guo et al. 2011, 2013; Henriques et al. 2012; Weinmann et al. 2012; Hirschmann et…”
• Halo assembly bias and its effects on galaxy clustering (2006, background): “For example, Weinmann et al. (2006) show that it incorrectly predicts some aspects of the colour distribution of satellite galaxies in group-sized haloes, and this may impact measurements that are dependent on colour selection.”
• MASS AND ENVIRONMENT AS DRIVERS OF GALAXY EVOLUTION. II. THE QUENCHING OF SATELLITE GALAXIES AS THE ORIGIN OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS (2011, background): “Many recent observational analyses have therefore distinguished between satellites and centrals (e.g. Weinmann et al. 2006 & 2009; von der Linden et al. 2007; van den Bosch et al. 2008a & 2008b; Yang et al. 2009a & 2009b; Pasquali et al. 2009 & 2010; Skibba 2009; Hansen et al. 2009; Kimm et al.…”
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Color and Luminosity Dependence of Galaxy Clustering at z ∼ 1 (2007, background): “Weinmann et al. (2006a) find that the blue fraction of galaxies in groups is much higher in the SDSS data than 14 in the model, which predicts at z = 0.1 that almost all satellite galaxies (∼85”
• The many manifestations of downsizing: hierarchical galaxy formation models confront observations (2009, background): “Part of this discrepancy could be due to the overquenching problem for satellite galaxies (Weinmann et al. 2006; Gilbank & Balogh 2008; Kimm et al. 2008; van den Bosch et al. 2008), which is caused by the assumption in all three SAMs that the hot halo is instantly stripped from satellites as they…”
• A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGN JET POWER AND RADIO POWER (2010, background): “Though we measure similar scatters and slopes for the gEs as the clusters, the scatter inPjet-Pradio may be particularly important for gEs, which have steeper pressure profiles and are more susceptible to disruption by AGN outbursts (Weinmann et al. 2006; Puchwein et al. 2008).”
• MERGERS AND BULGE FORMATION IN ΛCDM: WHICH MERGERS MATTER? (2009, background): “…satellite/central galaxy status, or morphology have minor impact (see e.g. Yan et al. 2003; Zentner et al. 2005; Tinker et al. 2005; Cooray 2005; Weinmann et al. 2006a; van den Bosch et al. 2007; Conroy et al. 2007; Zheng et al. 2007), the dependence of these properties on mass and one another…”
• GALAXY GROUPS IN THE SDSS DR4. III. THE LUMINOSITY AND STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS (2008, methodology): “…mock galaxy redshift surveys have demonstrated that the group masses thus estimated can recover the true halo masses with a 1-σ deviation of ∼ 0.3 dex, and are more reliable than those based on the velocity dispersion of group members (Y05c; Weinmann et al. 2006; Berlind et al. 2006; Paper I).”
• Dependence of galaxy quenching on halo mass and distance from its centre (2012, background): “Among the first to explore the importance of external vs. internal quenching was a study by Weinmann et al. (2006a) who found that halo mass was a better predictor of quenching for centrals and satellites than galaxy luminosity, pointing to external mechanisms of quenching.”
• The colours of satellite galaxies in groups and clusters (2008, methodology): “However, the lack of faint central galaxies is a selection effect of the group sample in the SDSS: the source catalogue excludes groups for which no member is brighter than 0.1Mr = −19.5 + 5 log h, where h = 0.73 (Weinmann et al. 2006a).”
• MORPHOLOGICAL QUENCHING OF STAR FORMATION: MAKING EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES RED (2009, background): “The mechanisms listed above therefore struggle to explain the reddening of field ETGs in halos below this critical virial mass (e.g., Weinmann et al. 2006a,b; Hopkins et al. 2008).”
• The effects of gas on morphological transformation in mergers: implications for bulge and disc demographics (2009, background): “Despite its simplicity, this effectively guarantees a match to various halo occupation statistics including stellar mass functions and the fraction of active/passive galaxies as a function of mass (Yang et al. 2005; Weinmann et al. 2006a,b; Gerke et al. 2007).”
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “Moreover, almost all of these galaxies are observed to be central halo galaxies (e.g., Weinmann et al. 2006a) and the pseudobulge fraction is small, so we can have some confidence that satellite and secular processes are not a large effect (see also x 3.2).”
• SEMI-ANALYTIC GALAXY EVOLUTION (SAGE): MODEL CALIBRATION AND BASIC RESULTS (2016, background): “In particular, it was realised that the colours of satellite galaxies were too red, as noted by many authors (C06; Weinmann et al. 2006; Guo et al. 2011).”