SDSS-IV MaNGA: environmental dependence of gas metallicity gradients in local star-forming galaxies

Lian, Jianhui; Thomas, Daniel; Li, Cheng; Zhang, Zheng; Maraston, Claudia; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Yan, Renbin

doi:10.1093/mnras/stz2218

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…While we lack representative samples for which both resolved HI and SFR maps are available, the advent of large optical IFS surveys is gradually providing us with important insights on how group environment affects the SFR surface density profiles of satellites. Intriguingly, while pretty much all studies so far (e.g., Schaefer et al 2017Schaefer et al , 2019aMedling et al 2018;Lian et al 2019;Spindler et al 2018;Coenda et al 2019;Bluck et al 2020 but see also Eigenthaler et al 2015 for a narrowband-based approach) suggest that the SFR density distribution in group satellites is significantly less affected by environment than observed in nearby clusters, the agreement between these works stops here. Schaefer et al (2017) take advantage of the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral-Field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey (Bryant et al 2015) to show that the Hα SFR profiles of galaxies (with no distinction between centrals and satellites) become steeper with increasing environmental density at fixed stellar mass, consistently with what is expected if star formation is quenched outside-in.…”

Section: Sfr Surface Density Profilesmentioning

confidence: 51%

The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies

Cortese

Catinella

Smith

2021

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

133

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One of the key open questions in extragalactic astronomy is what stops star formation in galaxies. While it is clear that the cold gas reservoir, which fuels the formation of new stars, must be affected first, how this happens and what are the dominant physical mechanisms involved is still a matter of debate. At least for satellite galaxies, it is generally accepted that internal processes alone cannot be responsible for fully quenching their star formation, but that environment should play an important, if not dominant, role. In nearby clusters, we see examples of cold gas being removed from the star-forming discs of galaxies moving through the intracluster medium, but whether active stripping is widespread and/or necessary to halt star formation in satellites, or quenching is just a consequence of the inability of these galaxies to replenish their cold gas reservoirs, remains unclear. In this work, we review the current status of environmental studies of cold gas in star-forming satellites in the local Universe from an observational perspective, focusing on the evidence for a physical link between cold gas stripping and quenching of the star formation. We find that stripping of cold gas is ubiquitous in satellite galaxies in both group and cluster environments. While hydrodynamical mechanisms such as ram pressure are important, the emerging picture across the full range of dark matter halos and stellar masses is a complex one, where different physical mechanisms may act simultaneously and cannot always be easily separated. Most importantly, we show that stripping does not always lead to full quenching, as only a fraction of the cold gas reservoir might be affected at the first pericentre passage. We argue that this is a key point to reconcile apparent tensions between statistical and detailed analyses of satellite galaxies, as well as disagreements between various estimates of quenching timescales. We conclude by highlighting several outstanding questions where we expect to see substantial progress in the coming decades, thanks to the advent of the Square Kilometre Array and its precursors, as well as the next-generation optical and millimeter facilities.

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Section: Sfr Surface Density Profilesmentioning

confidence: 51%

The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies

Cortese

Catinella

Smith

2021

Publ. Astron. Soc. Aust.

133

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This point is made in Section 4.3, where we rule out starvation as the primary driver of the environmental effects discussed in this work. Additionally, we note that Lian et al (2019) placed no constraints on the inclination of galaxies in their sample to the line of sight. This may explain the differences in the metallicity gradients from those reported in our work.…”

Section: Other Studies Of the Environmental Dependence Of Metallicitymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In a recent study, Lian et al (2019) used MaNGA data to study the metallicity gradients of galaxies as a function of the local environmental overdensity. They found that the metallicity gradients in low-mass satellite galaxies are shallower in dense environments, with a higher metallicity in their outer parts than similar galaxies in the field.…”

Section: Other Studies Of the Environmental Dependence Of Metallicitymentioning

confidence: 99%

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Evidence for Enriched Accretion onto Satellite Galaxies in Dense Environments

Schaefer

Tremonti

Pace

et al. 2019

ApJ

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We investigate the environmental dependence of the local gas-phase metallicity in a sample of star-forming galaxies from the MaNGA survey. Satellite galaxies with stellar masses in the range ()  < < M M 9 log 10 * are found to be ∼0.05 dex higher in metallicity than centrals of similar stellar mass. Within the low-mass satellite population, we find that the interstellar medium (ISM) metallicity depends most strongly on the stellar mass of the galaxy that is central to the halo, though there is no obvious difference in the metallicity gradients. At fixed total stellar mass, the satellites of high-mass (M * > 10 10.5 M e) centrals are ∼0.1 dex more metal-rich than the satellites of low-mass (M * < 10 10 M e) centrals, controlling for local stellar mass surface density and gas fraction. Fitting a gas regulator model to the spaxel data, we are able to account for variations in the local gas fraction, stellar mass surface density, and local escape velocity-dependent outflows. We find that the best explanation for the metallicity differences is the variation in the average metallicity of accreted gas between different environments that depends on the stellar mass of the dominant galaxies in each halo. This is interpreted as evidence for the exchange of enriched gas between galaxies in dense environments that is predicted by recent simulations.

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“…Furthermore, both Peng & Maiolino (2014a) and Lian et al (2019) find that the environmental dependence (in terms of the local overdensity) of the gas-phase metallicities of star-forming satellites decreases with increasing stellar mass. Again, while we do not see this trend in the stellar metallicities of star-forming satellites, it is readily apparent for passive satellites.…”

Section: Appendix C: Comparison With Gas-phase Metallicity Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The weak imprint of environment on the stellar populations of galaxies

Trussler

Maiolino

Maraston

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate the environmental dependence of the stellar populations of galaxies in SDSS DR7. Echoing earlier works, we find that satellites are both more metal-rich (<0.1 dex) and older (<2 Gyr) than centrals of the same stellar mass. However, after separating star-forming, green valley and passive galaxies, we find that the true environmental dependence of both stellar metallicity (<0.03 dex) and age (<0.5 Gyr) is in fact much weaker. We show that the strong environmental effects found when galaxies are not differentiated result from a combination of selection effects brought about by the environmental dependence of the quenched fraction of galaxies, and thus we strongly advocate for the separation of star-forming, green valley and passive galaxies when the environmental dependence of galaxy properties are investigated. We also study further environmental trends separately for both central and satellite galaxies. We find that star-forming galaxies show no environmental effects, neither for centrals nor for satellites. In contrast, the stellar metallicities of passive and green valley satellites increase weakly (<0.05 dex and <0.08 dex, respectively) with increasing halo mass, increasing local overdensity and decreasing projected distance from their central; this effect is interpreted in terms of moderate environmental starvation (‘strangulation’) contributing to the quenching of satellite galaxies. Finally, we find a unique feature in the stellar mass–stellar metallicity relation for passive centrals, where galaxies in more massive haloes have larger stellar mass (∼0.1 dex) at constant stellar metallicity; this effect is interpreted in terms of dry merging of passive central galaxies and/or progenitor bias.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: environmental dependence of gas metallicity gradients in local star-forming galaxies

Cited by 23 publications

References 87 publications

The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies

The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Evidence for Enriched Accretion onto Satellite Galaxies in Dense Environments

The weak imprint of environment on the stellar populations of galaxies

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