Interaction-induced star formation in a complete sample of 10^5 nearby star-forming galaxies

Abstract

We investigate the clustering properties of a complete sample of 10^5 star-forming galaxies drawn from the SDSS DR4. On scales less than 100 kpc, the amplitude of the correlation function exhibits a strong dependence on the specific star formation rate of the galaxy. We interpret this as the signature of enhanced star formation induced by tidal interactions. We then explore how the average star formation rate in a galaxy is enhanced as the projected separation r_p between the galaxy and its companions decreases. We find that the enhancement depends strongly on r_p, but very weakly on the relative luminosity of the companions. The enhancement is also stronger in low mass galaxies than in high mass galaxies. In order to explore whether a tidal interaction is not only sufficient, but also necessary to trigger enhanced star formation in a galaxy, we compute background subtracted neighbour counts for the galaxies in our sample. The average number of close neighbours around galaxies with low to average values of SFR/M* is close to zero. At the highest specific star formation rates, however, more than 40% of the galaxies in our sample have a companion within a projected radius of 100 kpc. Visual inspection of the highest SFR/M* galaxies without companions reveals that more than 50% of these are clear interacting or merging systems. We conclude that tidal interactions are the dominant trigger of enhanced star formation in the most strongly star-forming systems. Finally, we find clear evidence that tidal interactions not only lead to enhanced star formation in galaxies, but also cause structural changes such as an increase in concentration.

arXiv commentv1: 13 pages, 12 figures, submitted for publication in Monthly Notices; v2: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication, a new analysis (sec. 6 and figs 13 and 14) is done in order to address the effect of rich environments

References in corpus (34)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Main Galaxy Sample
• Gasdynamics and Starbursts in Major Mergers
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric Camera
• The u'g'r'i'z' Standard Star Network
• The Environmental Dependence of the Relations between Stellar Mass, Structure, Star Formation and Nuclear Activity in Galaxies
• NYU-VAGC: a galaxy catalog based on new public surveys
• The Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Astrometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• A photometricity and extinction monitor at the Apache Point Observatory
• An Efficient Algorithm for Positioning Tiles in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Galaxy ecology: groups and low-density environments in the SDSS and 2dFGRS
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• SDSS Data Management and Photometric Quality Assessment
• Tidally-Triggered Star Formation in Close Pairs of Galaxies
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Monitor Telescope Pipeline
• Feedback in simulations of disc-galaxy major mergers
• The dependence of clustering on galaxy properties
• Galaxy Pairs in the 2dF Survey I. Effects of Interactions in the Field
• Minor Galaxy Interactions: Star Formation Rates and Galaxy Properties
• Star Formation in Close Pairs Selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The SDSS Imaging Pipelines
• Galaxy Collisions
• The Spitzer Spirals, Bridges, and Tails Interacting Galaxy Survey: Interaction-Induced Star Formation in the Mid-Infrared
• The clustering of narrow-line AGN in the local Universe
• Tidally Triggered Star Formation in Close Pairs of Galaxies: Major and Minor Interactions
• Simulations of Galaxy Formation in a Lambda CDM Universe III: The Dissipative Formation of an Elliptical Galaxy
• Isolating Triggered Star Formation
• Star formation rates and mass distributions in interacting galaxies
• Double Starbursts Triggered by Mergers in Hierarchical Clustering Scenarios
• Are interactions the primary triggers of star formation in dwarf galaxies?

Cited by in corpus (136)

• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
• A Semi-Analytic Model for the Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)
• Galaxy Merger Morphologies and Time-Scales from Simulations of Equal-Mass Gas-Rich Disc Mergers
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - VIII: The observational properties of post-merger galaxies
• Momentum Driving: which physical processes dominate AGN feedback?
• The Greater Impact of Mergers on the Growth of Massive Galaxies: Implications for Mass Assembly and Evolution Since z~1
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - V. Tracing changes in star formation rate and metallicity out to separations of 80 kpc
• Feedback from central black holes in elliptical galaxies. III: models with both radiative and mechanical feedback
• A calibration of the relation between the abundance of close galaxy pairs and the rate of galaxy mergers
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - II: The Effect of Environment on Interactions
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - III: Evidence of Induced Star Formation from Optical Colours
• Dwarfs Gobbling Dwarfs: A Stellar Tidal Stream Around NGC 4449 and Hierarchical Galaxy Formation on Small Scales
• The importance of minor-merger-driven star formation and black-hole growth in disk galaxies
• The Luminosity Dependence of the Galaxy Merger Rate
• Stellar and Molecular Gas Kinematics of NGC1097: Inflow Driven by a Nuclear Spiral
• Toward First-Principle Simulations of Galaxy Formation: II. Shock-Induced Starburst at a Collision Interface During the First Encounter of Interacting Galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: comparing the demographics of spiral arm number and a new method for correcting redshift bias
• Less than 10 percent of star formation in z=0.6 massive galaxies is triggered by major interactions
• Interactions, star formation and AGN activity
• Local Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs: The Impact of Massive Star-forming Clumps on the Interstellar Medium and the Global Structure of Young, Forming Galaxies
• Halo masses for optically-selected and for radio-loud AGN from clustering and galaxy-galaxy lensing
• The Environments of Active Galactic Nuclei within the zCOSMOS Density Field
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan digital sky survey - VII: The merger -- luminous infra-red galaxy connection
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the effect of close interactions on star formation in galaxies
• Galaxy Evolution in Hickson Compact Groups: The Role of Ram Pressure Stripping and Strangulation
• Quantifying the role of bars in the build-up of central mass concentrations in disk galaxies
• Correlation Analysis of a Large Sample of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Linking Central Engine and Host Properties
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - XI. A new method for measuring the influence of the closest companion out to wide separations
• The H alpha Galaxy Survey. VIII. Close companions and interactions, and the definition of starbursts
• Triggered Star Formation in Galaxy Pairs at z=0.08-0.38
• Satellite abundances around bright isolated galaxies II: radial distribution and environmental effects
• Clustering of Radio Galaxies and Quasars
• On the lifetime of merger features of equal-mass disk mergers
• Fully compressive tides in galaxy mergers
• The GalMer database: Galaxy Mergers in the Virtual Observatory
• The Lopsidedness of Present-Day Galaxies: Connections to the Formation of Stars, the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies, and the Growth of Black Holes
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Clustering Dependence on Galaxy Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate at z~1
• Environmental Dependence of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• The Dynamics of Galaxy Pairs in a Cosmological Setting
• Galaxy Zoo: Quantifying Morphological Indicators of Galaxy Interaction
• Active Galactic Nucleus Pairs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. Evidence for Tidally Enhanced Star Formation and Black Hole Accretion
• Linking bar- and interaction-driven molecular gas concentration with centrally-enhanced star formation in EDGE-CALIFA galaxies
• Triggering optical AGN: the need for cold gas, and the indirect roles of galaxy environment and interactions
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Spatial Evolution of Star Formation Triggered by Galaxy Interactions
• Bar-induced central star formation as revealed by integral field spectroscopy from CALIFA
• The Accretion of Gas onto Galaxies as Traced by their Satellites
• PRIMUS+DEEP2: The Dependence of Galaxy Clustering on Stellar Mass and Specific Star Formation Rate at 0.2 < z < 1.2
• GOODS-Herschel: the impact of galaxy-galaxy interactions on the far-infrared properties of galaxies
• The neutral gas content of post-merger galaxies
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: II. What drives central starbursts at z~0?
• Local Benchmarks for the Evolution of Major-Merger Galaxies -- Spitzer Observations of a K-Band Selected Sample
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: the indispensable role of bars in enhancing the central star formation of low-$z$ galaxies
• PRIMUS: Enhanced Specific Star Formation Rates In Close Galaxy Pairs
• Star formation and nuclear activity in close pairs of early-type galaxies
• Environmental effects in the interaction and merging of galaxies in zCOSMOS
• Local starburst galaxies and their descendants
• The clustering of barred galaxies in the local Universe
• Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- III: (the rarity of) quenching in post-merger galaxies
• Herschel Observations of Major Merger Pairs at z=0: Dust Mass and Star Formation
• Nature or nurture? Clues from the distribution of specific star formation rates in SDSS galaxies
• Close companions to Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Support for minor mergers and downsizing
• The minor role of gas-rich major mergers in the rise of intermediate-mass early types at z <~ 1
• Evolution of the Halpha luminosity function
• The environment of barred galaxies in the low-redshift Universe
• Galaxy mergers up to z<2.5 I : The star formation properties of merging galaxies at separations 3-15 kpc
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Kinematic Asymmetry as An Indicator of Galaxy Interaction in Paired Galaxies
• Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies
• The impact of environment and mergers on the HI content of galaxies in hydrodynamic simulations
• Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Early Release Science: Emission-Line Galaxies from Infrared Grism Observations
• The Impact of Merging on The Origin of Kinematically Misaligned and Counter-rotating Galaxies in MaNGA
• Using Galaxy Pairs to Probe Star Formation During Major Halo Mergers
• The Recent Stellar Archeology of M31 - The Nearest Red Disk Galaxy
• The dependence of AGN activity on stellar and halo mass in Semi-Analytic Models
• Evolution of the Major Merger Galaxy Pair Fraction at z < 1
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Radial Profile of Enhanced Star Formation in Close Galaxy Pairs
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Internal mass distributions and orbital structures of early-type galaxies and their dependence on environment
• Green galaxies in the COSMOS field
• Star Formation and Feedback in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic Simulations II: Resolution Effects
• HI Observations of Major-Merger Pairs at z = 0: atomic gas and star formation
• Living with Neighbors. I. Observational Clues to Hydrodynamic Impact of Neighboring Galaxies on Star Formation
• An IFU View of the Active Galactic Nuclei in MaNGA Galaxy Pairs
• Merging galaxies produce outliers from the Fundamental Metallicity Relation
• Double-peak emission line galaxies in the SDSS catalogue. A minor merger sequence
• What is Important? Morphological Asymmetries are Useful Predictors of Star Formation Rates of Star-forming Galaxies in SDSS Stripe 82
• Gas fractions and depletion times in galaxies with different degrees of interaction
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): merging galaxies and their properties
• The interconnection between galaxy mergers, AGN activity and rapid quenching of star formation in simulated post-merger galaxies
• Exploring the Impact of Galactic Interactions and Mergers on the Central Star Formation of APEX/EDGE-CALIFA Galaxies
• Wolf-Rayet galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA. I. Catalog construction and sample properties
• Stellar Population Synthesis of star forming clumps in galaxy pairs and non-interacting spiral galaxies
• A Comparative Study of Knots of Star Formation in Interacting vs. Spiral Galaxies
• The Effect of Environment on Galaxy Spiral Arms, Bars, Concentration, and Quenching
• Do galaxy mergers prefer under-dense environments?
• Satellites in the field and lens galaxies: SDSS/COSMOS vs. SLACS/CLASS
• The Complex Gaseous and Stellar environments of the nearby dual AGN Mrk 739
• NGC 1436: the making of a lenticular galaxy in the Fornax cluster
• Star Formation Properties in Barred Galaxies(SFB). I. Ultraviolet-to-Infrared Imaging and Spectroscopic Studies of NGC 7479
• Studying Large and Small Scale Environments of Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Antennae unveiled by MUSE
• Rings and bars: unmasking secular evolution of galaxies
• Linking galaxies to dark matter haloes at $z\sim 1$ : dependence of galaxy clustering on stellar mass and specific star formation rate
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Using concentrated star-formation and stellar population ages to understand environmental quenching
• Quenching in the Right Place at the Right Time: Tracing the Shared History of Starbursts, AGNs, and Post-starburst Galaxies Using Their Structures and Multiscale Environments
• Asymmetry Revisited: The Effect of Dust Attenuation and Galaxy Inclination
• The Larson-Tinsley Effect in the UV: Interacting vs. `Normal' Spiral Galaxies
• Stellar Tidal Streams in External Galaxies
• The growth of bulges and discs in relatively HI-rich galaxies: indication from HI scaling relations
• Cold Molecular Gas in Merger Remnants. II. The properties of dense molecular gas
• Star Formation in CALIFA survey perturbed galaxies. I. Effects of Tidal Interactions
• Local Volume Late-Type Galaxies with an Extreme Ratio of $H\alpha$-to-$FUV$ Star-Formation Rates
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the signatures of galaxy interactions as viewed from small scale galaxy clustering
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations: a study on the performance of observational pair-finding techniques
• The nature of obscuration in AGN: II. insights from clustering properties
• The clustering of galaxies with pseudo bulge and classical bulge in the local Universe
• SED-inferred properties and morphology of Lyman-break galaxies at $z\sim 1$ in the CDF-S
• CO Observations of Early-mid Stage Major Mergers in the MaNGA Survey
• Galaxy pairs in The Three Hundred simulations II: studying bound ones and identifying them via machine learning
• The H$\alpha$ luminosity and stellar mass dependent clustering of star-forming galaxies at $0.7<z<1.5$ with 3D-HST
• Properties of Molecular Gas in Galaxies in Early and Mid Stages of Interaction. III. Resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt Law
• Close neighbors of Markarian galaxies. II. Statistics and discussions
• A Measurement of The Faint Source Correlation Function in the GOODS and UDF Survey
• Central star formation in double-peak gas rich radio galaxies
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Mid-infrared properties as tracers of galaxy environment
• The collaborative effect of ram pressure and merging on star formation and stripping fraction
• Forming the local starburst galaxy Haro 11 through hydrodynamical merger simulations
• On the Origin of the Strong Optical Variability of Emission-line Galaxies
• Close pairs of galaxies with different activity levels
• Gas-rich dwarf galaxy multiples in the Apertif HI survey
• Cluster environment quenches the star formation of low-mass satellite galaxies from the inside-out
• Galaxy evolution on resolved scales: ageing and quenching in CALIFA
• Massive black holes and their galaxies
• Radial Distributions of Star Formation and Gas-phase Metallicity in Spiral-Elliptical Galaxy Pairs
• Galaxy Evolution in the Local Universe: Group Richness Effects on Mergers and Non-Mergers
• A group of merging galaxies falling onto Abell 2142
• The peculiar filamentary HI structure of NGC 6145