Quantifying the suppression of the (un)-obscured star formation in galaxy cluster cores at 0.2 ≲ z ≲ 0.9

Abstract

We quantify the star formation (SF) in the inner cores (⁠R/R_(200) ≤0.3) of 24 massive galaxy clusters at 0.2≲ z ≲0.9 observed by the Herschel Lensing Survey and the Cluster Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble. These programmes, covering the rest-frame ultraviolet to far-infrared regimes, allow us to accurately characterize stellar mass-limited (⁠M∗ > 10^(10) M⊙) samples of star-forming cluster members (not)-detected in the mid- and/or far-infrared. We release the catalogues with the photometry, photometric redshifts, and physical properties of these samples. We also quantify the SF displayed by comparable field samples from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. We find that in intermediate-z cluster cores, the SF activity is suppressed with respect the field in terms of both the fraction (⁠FF⁠) of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and the rate at which they form stars (⁠sSFR = SFR/M∗⁠). On average, the F of SFGs is a factor ∼2 smaller in cluster cores than in the field. Furthermore, SFGs present average SFR and sSFR typically ∼0.3 dex smaller in the clusters than in the field along the whole redshift range probed. Our results favour long time-scale quenching physical processes as the main driver of SF suppression in the inner cores of clusters since z ∼0.9, with shorter time-scale processes being very likely responsible for a fraction of the missing SFG population.

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