266 E+A galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2: the origin of E+A galaxies

By T. Goto. 2005

150 citations recorded by the source corpus.

E+A galaxies are characterized as galaxies with strong Balmer absorption lines but without any [O ii] or Hα emission lines. The existence of strong Balmer absorption lines indicates that E+A galaxies have experienced starburst within the past one gigayear. However, the lack of [O ii] and Hα emission lines indicates that E+A galaxies do not have any on-going star formation. Therefore, E+A galaxies are interpreted as post-starburst galaxies. For many years, however, it has been a mystery why E+A galaxies started starburst and why they quenched star formation abruptly. Using one of the largest samples of 266 E+A galaxies carefully selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2, we have investigated the environment of E+A galaxies from 50 kpc to 8 Mpc scale, i.e. from a typical distance to satellite galaxies to the scale of large-scale structures. We found that E+A galaxies have an excess of local galaxy density only at a scale of <100 kpc (with a 2σ significance), but not at the cluster scale (∼1.5 Mpc) nor at the scale of large-scale structure (∼8 Mpc). These results indicate that E+A galaxies are not created by the physical mechanisms associated with galaxy clusters or the large-scale structure, but are likely to be created by dynamical interaction with closely accompanying galaxies at a <100 kpc scale. The claim is also supported by the morphology of E+A galaxies. We have found that almost all E+A galaxies have a bright compact core, and that ∼30 per cent of E+A galaxies have dynamically disturbed signatures or tidal tails, which quite strongly suggest the morphological appearance of merger/interaction remnants.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5e878adca13289eeb00bbcd8aa50a2a71d96654e

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. D. Keres̆
5. E. Quataert
6. R. Somerville
7. R. Dav'e
8. Volker Springel

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. Thomas J. Cox
4. D. Keres̆
5. R. Somerville
6. R. Dav'e
7. A. Dekel
8. J. Kormendy

Citations in the corpus

• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, background): “Observationally, the link between K+A galaxies and mergers is well established (e.g., Yang et al. 2004; Goto 2005; Hogg et al. CO-EVOLUTION.”
• A CONTINUUM OF H- TO He-RICH TIDAL DISRUPTION CANDIDATES WITH A PREFERENCE FOR E+A GALAXIES (2014, background): “Some E+A galaxies may be the result of interaction rather than mergers (Goto 2005, Yamauchi et al. 2008).”
• DISSIPATION AND EXTRA LIGHT IN GALACTIC NUCLEI. II. “CUSP” ELLIPTICALS (2008, background): “…remnants (e.g., Lake 135 & Dressler 1986; Doyon et al. 1994; Shier & Fischer 1998; James et al. 1999), as well as post-starburst (E+A/K+A) galaxies (Goto 2005), have shown that their kinematic and photometric properties are consistent with them eventually evolving into typical ∼ L∗ elliptical…”
• A LINK BETWEEN STAR FORMATION QUENCHING AND INNER STELLAR MASS DENSITY IN SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY CENTRAL GALAXIES (2013, background): “Post-starburst (or E+A) galaxies (Dressler & Gunn 1983; Quintero et al. 2004; Goto 2005) are rapidly quenched objects that likely underwent a recent merger-induced starburst (e.g., Hopkins et al. 2006; Snyder et al. 2011).”
• Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei. I. Gas-Rich Merger Remnants (2008, background): “…1999; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002; Dasyra et al. 2006, 2007; Rothberg & Joseph 2004, 2006a), aswell as poststarburst (E+A/K+A) galaxies (Goto 2005), have shown that the kinematic and photometric properties of these objects, including velocity dispersions, concentrations, stellar…”
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “…fact that mergers occur in halos of all masses and in all environments (including field and even void environments; Sol Alonso et al. 2006; Goto 2005; Hogg et al. 2006), although the characteristic masses and star formation histories of galaxies merging will change in different…”
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