Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published February 2022 | Published + Accepted Version + Supplemental Material
Journal Article Open

H α-based star formation rates in and around z ∼ 0.5 EDisCS clusters

Abstract

We investigate the role of environment on star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies at various cosmic densities in well-studied clusters. We present the star-forming main sequence for 163 galaxies in four EDisCS clusters in the range 0.4 < z < 0.7. We use Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 observations of the H α emission line to span three distinct local environments: the cluster core, infall region, and external field galaxies. The main sequence defined from our observations is consistent with other published H α distributions at similar redshifts but differs from those derived from star formation tracers such as 24 μm. We find that the Hα-derived SFRs for the 67 galaxies with stellar masses greater than the mass-completeness limit of M* > 10^(9.75) M⊙ show little dependence on environment. At face value, the similarities in the SFR distributions in the three environments may indicate that the process of finally shutting down star formation is rapid, however, the depth of our data and size of our sample make it difficult to conclusively test this scenario. Despite having significant H α emission, 21 galaxies are classified as UVJ-quiescent and may represent a demonstration of the quenching of star formation caught in the act.

Additional Information

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model). Accepted 2021 October 26. Received 2021 October 21; in original form 2021 March 1. Published: 03 November 2021. GR acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation grants AST-1517815, AST-1716690 and NASA Hubble Space Telescope grant HST-GO-12945.001. GR also acknowledges the support of an European Southern Observatory visiting science fellowship. The work in this paper benefited significantly from interaction conducted as part of a team at the International Space Sciences Institute in Bern, Switzerland. JC thanks the Madison & Lila Self Graduate Fellowship at the University of Kansas for financial and professional support. YJ acknowledges financial support from CONICYT PAI (Concurso Nacional de Inserción en la Academia 2017) No. 79170132 and FONDECYT Iniciación 2018 No. 11180558. BV acknowledges financial contribution from the contract ASI-INAF n.2017-14-H.0, from the grant PRIN MIUR 2017 n.20173ML3WW_001 (PI Cimatti) and from the INAF main-stream funding programme (PI Vulcani). We thank Matthew Kirby for his assistance with producing the LDP redshifts that were used in this work. Data Availability: The raw HST data are available through MAST (Program ID 12945). The ground-based redshift catalogue is available in Just et al. 2019 for clusters Cl11138, Cl1227, and Cl1301, while Cl1059 is available in White et al. (2005); DOI - 10.3847/1538-4357/ab44a0. Additional data on derived physical parameters are available in this paper.

Attached Files

Published - stab3184.pdf

Accepted Version - 2111.00263.pdf

Supplemental Material - stab3184_supplemental_file.pdf

Files

stab3184_supplemental_file.pdf
Files (9.8 MB)
Name Size Download all
md5:dbd7d9b666e34260a98d846a2e63bbc6
251.3 kB Preview Download
md5:85546414a1ea514907ecf89c52f949bb
6.8 MB Preview Download
md5:1ae8ccec3b27053a57cef807838af85c
2.8 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 24, 2023