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Published July 13, 2016 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

The impact of galactic properties and environment on the quenching of central and satellite galaxies: a comparison between SDSS, Illustris and L-Galaxies

Abstract

We quantify the impact that a variety of galactic and environmental properties have on the quenching of star formation. We collate a sample of ∼400 000 central and ∼100 000 satellite galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7). Specifically, we consider central velocity dispersion (σc), stellar, halo, bulge and disc mass, local density, bulge-to-total ratio, groupcentric distance and galaxy–halo mass ratio. We develop and apply a new statistical technique to quantify the impact on the quenched fraction (ƒ_(Quench)) of varying one parameter, while keeping the remaining parameters fixed. For centrals, we find that the ƒ_(Quench)^(–σ)c relationship is tighter and steeper than for any other variable considered. We compare to the Illustris hydrodynamical simulation and the Munich semi-analytic model (L-Galaxies), finding that our results for centrals are qualitatively consistent with their predictions for quenching via radio-mode AGN feedback, hinting at the viability of this process in explaining our observational trends. However, we also find evidence that quenching in L-Galaxies is too efficient and quenching in Illustris is not efficient enough, compared to observations. For satellites, we find strong evidence that environment affects their quenched fraction at fixed central velocity dispersion, particularly at lower masses. At higher masses, satellites behave identically to centrals in their quenching. Of the environmental parameters considered, local density affects the quenched fraction of satellites the most at fixed central velocity dispersion.

Additional Information

© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2016 July 8. Received 2016 July 7. In original form 2015 August 5. First published online July 13, 2016. We thank Steven Bamford, Richard Bower, Marcella Carollo, Chris Conselice, Rob Crain, Will Hartley, Lars Hernquist, Simon Lilly, Avi Loeb, Laura Sales and Peter Thomas for helpful discussions on this work. We thank Kevin Schawinski for giving us the green valley test idea. We also thank the referee for many helpful and insightful comments on this work, which have contributed greatly to this version. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Swiss National Foundation for Sciences and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, particularly for Discovery Grants awarded to SLE and DRP. JM is supported by NSF grant AST-1516364. ES gratefully acknowledges funding by the Emmy Noether programme from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as well as funding through a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) global scholarship and AIP Schwarzschild fellowship. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS website is http://www.sdss.org/ The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.

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Published - MNRAS-2016-Bluck-2559-86.pdf

Submitted - 1607.03318v1.pdf

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August 20, 2023
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