Hierarchical Formation in Action: Characterizing Accelerated Galaxy Evolution in Compact Groups Using Whole-Sky Wise Data

Zucker, Catherine Faron; Walker, Lisa May; Johnson, K. E.; Gallagher, S. C.; Alatalo, Katherine; Tzanavaris, P.

doi:10.3847/0004-637x/821/2/113

Cited by 15 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…This high density combined with low velocity dispersions (Hickson et al 1992) in many cases leads them to exhibit multiple physical processes associated with galaxy-galaxy interactions: tidal tails and bridges visible optically, in atomic gas (H i), or both (e.g. Verdes-Montenegro et al 1997;Sulentic et al 2001;Verdes-Montenegro et al 2005a;Serra et al 2013;Konstantopoulos et al 2013); intragroup diffuse X-ray emission (Belsole et al 2003;Desjardins et al 2013;O'Sullivan et al 2014a); shock excitation from starburst winds or galaxy-tidal debris collisions (Rich et al 2010;Vogt et al 2013;Cluver et al 2013); anomalous star formation (SF) activity, molecular gas content and morphological transformations (Tzanavaris et al 2010;Plauchu-Frayn et al 2012;Alatalo et al 2015;Eigenthaler et al 2015;Zucker et al 2016;Lisenfeld et al 2017), among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of compact groups from intermediate to final stages

Jones

Verdes–Montenegro

Damas-Segovia

et al. 2019

A&A

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Context. Hickson Compact Group (HCG) 16 is a prototypical compact group of galaxies in an intermediate stage of the evolutionary sequence proposed by Verdes-Montenegro et al. (2001), where its galaxies are losing gas to the intra-group medium (IGrM). The group hosts galaxies that are H i-normal, H i-poor, centrally active with both AGN and starbursts, as well as a likely new member and a ∼160 kpc long H i tidal feature. Despite being a well-studied group at all wavelengths, no previous study of HCG 16 has focused on its extraordinary H i component. Aims. The characteristics of HCG 16 make it an ideal case study for exploring which processes are likely to dominate the late stages of evolution in compact groups, and ultimately determine their end states. In order to build a coherent picture of the evolution of this group we make use of the multi-wavelength data available, but focus particularly on H i as a tracer of interactions and evolutionary phase. Methods. We reprocess archival VLA L-band observations of HCG 16 using the multi-scale CLEAN algorithm to accurately recover diffuse features. Tidal features and galaxies are separated in 3 dimensions using the SlicerAstro package. The H i deficiency of the separated galaxies is assessed against the benchmark of recent scaling relations of isolated galaxies. This work has been performed with particular attention to reproducibility and is accompanied by a complete workflow to reproduce all the final data products, figures, and results. Results. Despite the clear disruption of the H i component of HCG 16 we find that it is not globally H i deficient, even though HCG 16a and b have lost the majority of their H i and almost 50% of the group's H i is in the IGrM. The H i content of HCG 16d shows highly disturbed kinematics, with only a marginal velocity gradient that is almost perpendicular to its optical major axis. The ∼160 kpc long tail extending towards the South-East appears to be part of an even larger structure which spatially and kinematically connects NGC 848 to the North-West corner of the group.Conclusions. This study indicates that in the recent past (∼1 Gyr) galaxies HCG 16a and b likely underwent major interactions that unbound gas without triggering significant star formation. This gas was then swept away by a high speed, close encounter with NGC 848. The starburst events HCG 16c and d, likely initiated by their mutual interaction, have triggered galactic winds which, in the case of HCG 16d, appears to have disrupted its H i reservoir. The tidal features still connected to all these galaxies indicate that more H i will soon be lost to the IGrM, while that which remains in the discs will likely be consumed by star formation episodes triggered by their on-going interaction. This is expected to result in a collection of gas-poor galaxies embedded in a diffuse H i structure, which will gradually (over several Gyr) be evaporated by the UV background, resembling the final stage of the evolutionary model of compact groups.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of compact groups from intermediate to final stages

Jones

Verdes–Montenegro

Damas-Segovia

et al. 2019

A&A

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“…Lisenfeld et al (2016) in preparation and H 2 masses calculated from CO observations (Leon et al 1998;Verdes-Montenegro et al 1998;Martinez-Badenes et al 2012;Lisenfeld et al 2014), using X CO =2× 10 20 cm −2 (K km s −1 ) −1 . HCG galaxiesspan the range of f mol values, suggestive of their large range of properties and environments (Bitsakis et al 2010(Bitsakis et al , 2011Zucker et al 2016). Many HCGs contain warm H 2 -luminous galaxies, known to host shocks (Cluver et al 2013), which may be a better comparison sample with CO-SPOGs than interactions.…”

Section: The Molecular Gas Fraction Of Co-spogsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SHOCKED POSTSTARBURST GALAXY SURVEY. II. THE MOLECULAR GAS CONTENT AND PROPERTIES OF A SUBSET OF SPOGs

Alatalo

Lisenfeld

Lanz

et al. 2016

ApJ

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115

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“…Specifically, galaxies that reside in CGs exhibit a "canyon" in infrared color space that implies a rapid transition between relatively actively star-forming and quiescent systems. Curiously, it should be noted that this transition region in infrared color space corresponds to the optical "red sequence" rather than the "green valley" (Walker et al 2013;Zucker et al 2016), indicating that a distinct evolutionary process is taking place in CGs. In other words, the infrared transition region seen in CGs, is not seen in comparison samples and should not be confused with the optical green valley.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent work has demonstrated that the CG environment has an impact on galaxy evolution that is not seen in several other environments, including field galaxies, isolated pairwise mergers, and galaxy clusters (Johnson et al 2007;Tzanavaris et al 2010;Walker et al 2010Walker et al , 2012Lenkić et al 2016;Zucker et al 2016). Specifically, galaxies that reside in CGs exhibit a "canyon" in infrared color space that implies a rapid transition between relatively actively star-forming and quiescent systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Occurrence of Compact Groups of Galaxies through Cosmic Time

Wiens

Wenger

Tzanavaris

et al. 2019

ApJ

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We use the outputs of a semianalytical model of galaxy formation run on the Millennium Simulation to investigate the prevalence of 3D compact groups (CGs) of galaxies from z = 11 to 0. Our publicly available code identifies CGs using the 3D galaxy number density, the mass ratio of secondary+tertiary to the primary member, mass density in a surrounding shell, the relative velocities of candidate CG members, and a minimum CG membership of three. We adopt "default" values for the first three criteria, representing the observed population of Hickson CGs at z = 0. The percentage of nondwarf galaxies (M > 5 × 10 8 h −1 M ) in CGs peaks near z ∼ 2 for the default set and in the range of z ∼ 1-3 for other parameter sets. This percentage declines rapidly at higher redshifts (z 4), consistent with the galaxy population as a whole being dominated by low-mass galaxies excluded from this analysis. According to the most liberal criteria, 3% of nondwarf galaxies are members of CGs at the redshift where the CG population peaks. Our default criteria result in a population of CGs at z < 0.03 with number densities and sizes consistent with Hickson CGs. Tracking identified CG galaxies and merger products to z = 0, we find that 16% of nondwarf galaxies have been CG members at some point in their history. Intriguingly, the great majority (96%) of z = 2 CGs have merged to a single galaxy by z = 0. There is a discrepancy in the velocity dispersions of Millennium Simulation CGs compared to those in observed CGs, which remains unresolved.

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Hierarchical Formation in Action: Characterizing Accelerated Galaxy Evolution in Compact Groups Using Whole-Sky Wise Data

Cited by 15 publications

References 33 publications

Evolution of compact groups from intermediate to final stages

Evolution of compact groups from intermediate to final stages

SHOCKED POSTSTARBURST GALAXY SURVEY. II. THE MOLECULAR GAS CONTENT AND PROPERTIES OF A SUBSET OF SPOGs

The Occurrence of Compact Groups of Galaxies through Cosmic Time

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