Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: satellite star formation histories and quenching time-scales in a hierarchical Universe

By Andrew Wetzel, J. Tinker, C. Conroy, F. V. D. Bosch. 2012

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Satellite galaxies in groups and clusters are more likely to have low star formation rates (SFR) and lie on the red-sequence than central (field) galaxies. Using galaxy group/cluster catalogs from SDSS DR7, together with a cosmological N-body simulation to track satellite orbits, we examine the star formation histories and quenching timescales of satellites of M_star > 5 x 10^9 M_sun at z=0. We first explore satellite infall histories: group preprocessing and ejected orbits are critical aspects of satellite evolution, and properly accounting for these, satellite infall typically occurred at z~0.5, or ~5 Gyr ago. To obtain accurate initial conditions for the SFRs of satellites at their time of first infall, we construct an empirical parametrization for the evolution of central galaxy SFRs and quiescent fractions. With this, we constrain the importance and efficiency of satellite quenching as a function of satellite and host halo mass, finding that satellite quenching is the dominant process for building up all quiescent galaxies at M_star < 10^10 M_sun. We then constrain satellite star formation histories, finding a 'delayed-then-rapid' quenching scenario: satellite SFRs evolve unaffected for 2-4 Gyr after infall, after which star formation quenches rapidly, with an e-folding time of < 0.8 Gyr. These quenching timescales are shorter for more massive satellites but do not depend on host halo mass: the observed increase in satellite quiescent fraction with halo mass arises simply because of satellites quenching in a lower mass group prior to infall (group preprocessing), which is responsible for up to half of quenched satellites in massive clusters. Because of the long time delay before quenching starts, satellites experience significant stellar mass growth after infall, nearly identical to central galaxies. This fact provides key physical insight into the subhalo abundance matching method.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/161d558f98254a49ec2e9259422b0e4e5c0691f2

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Citations in the corpus

A HIGHLY CONSISTENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVOLUTION OF THE STAR-FORMING “MAIN SEQUENCE” FROM z ∼ 0–6 (2014, background): “It is difficult both empirically and theoretically – from fully empirical tracks (Leitner 2012) or semi-empirical parametrizations (Wetzel et al. 2013; Behroozi et al. 2013) to semi-analytic models (Somerville & Primack 1999; Somerville et al. 2008; Mitchell et al. 2014) and numerical simulations…”
Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters (2016, background): “Along with H I, these two properties in particular correlate strongly with halo mass (see Wetzel et al. 2012, 2013), thus when taking this analysis further one must check if decreases in H I content as a function of halo mass are due to the sensitivity of gas to the external environment, or a…”
The green valley is a red herring: Galaxy Zoo reveals two evolutionary pathways towards quenching of star formation in early-and late-type galaxies (2014, background): “Other recent observational studies have argued that environment or satellite quenching should act fast, at least once it begins (e.g. Muzzin et al. 2012; Wetzel et al. 2013).”
THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF LOCAL GROUP DWARF GALAXIES. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/WIDE FIELD PLANETARY CAMERA 2 OBSERVATIONS (2014, neutral): “This type of effect has also been observed in comparisons of satellite and field galaxy properties outside the LG (e.g., Wetzel et al. 2013).”
UniverseMachine: The correlation between galaxy growth and dark matter halo assembly from z = 0−10 (2018, background): “MNRAS 000, 000–000 (2018) MNRAS 000, 000–000 (2018) MNRAS 000, 000–000 (2018) Past investigations of satellite quenching (e.g., Wetzel et al. 2013, 2015; Wheeler et al. 2014; Oman & Hudson 2016) assumed that all satellites quench after the same delay time following infall.”
EMERGE – an empirical model for the formation of galaxies since z ∼ 10 (2017, methodology): “Using a galaxy group catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, together with cosmological simulation, Wetzel et al. (2013) study the SFHs and quenching timescales of satellite galaxies.”
Bulge mass is king: the dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2014, background): “…shutting down of star formation in galaxies (Balogh et al. 2004, Boselli et al. 2006, Cooper et al. 2006, Cortese et al. 2006, Moran et al. 2007, Font et al. 2008, van den Bosch et al. 2008, Berrier et al. 2009, Tasca et al. 2009, Peng et al. 2010, 2012, Hirschmann et al. 2013, Wetzel et al. 2013).”
The star formation activity of IllustrisTNG galaxies: main sequence, UVJ diagram, quenched fractions, and systematics (2018, background): “Yet, such threshold-based separation is often used in observations (McGee et al. 2011; Wetzel et al. 2013; Lin et al. 2014; Jian et al. 2018), albeit with somewhat different choices for the threshold value, since it roughly corresponds to the minimum of the bimodal distribution of galaxies’ sSFRs…”
Not so lumpy after all: modelling the depletion of dark matter subhaloes by Milky Way-like galaxies (2017, methodology): “If this effect is important in groups and clusters, then it may also influence the use of similar approaches to understand trends between galaxy color and age with subhalo accretion times (e.g. Wetzel et al. 2013).”
LoCuSS: THE SLOW QUENCHING OF STAR FORMATION IN CLUSTER GALAXIES AND THE NEED FOR PRE-PROCESSING (2015, background): “A number of other studies have also argued for relatively long timescales (∼1–4 Gyr) for the quenching of star formation in recently accreted cluster galaxies (Balogh et al. 2000; Moran et al. 2007; Finn et al. 2008; von der Linden et al. 2010; De Lucia et al. 2012; Wetzel et al. 2013).”
Halo and subhalo demographics with Planck cosmological parameters: Bolshoi–Planck and MultiDark–Planck simulations (2016, background): “…have found that in order to reconcile the observed abundance of satellite galaxies in clusters of different masses, the galaxy stellar-to-halo mass relation of central and satellite galaxies should be different, especially at lower masses (see also, Neistein et al. 2011; Wetzel et al. 2013).”
Flux- and volume-limited groups/clusters for the SDSS galaxies: catalogues and mass estimation (2014, background): “Besides, group and cluster catalogues can be used to distinguish central galaxies from their satellites (Lacerna et al., 2013; Wetzel et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2013; Li et al., 2014).”
Sweating the small stuff: simulating dwarf galaxies, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, and their own tiny satellites (2015, background): “/M < 10 9.5) have been shown to have extremely long quenching timescales, probably due to the cutting off of the fresh gas supply after infall (De Lucia et al. 2012; Wetzel et al. 2013; Wheeler et al. 2014).”