The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency

Conor Omand; Michael Balogh; Bianca Poggianti

doi:10.1093/mnras/stu331

paper

The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency

arXiv:1402.3394 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stu331

Abstract

Using data from the SDSS-DR7, including structural measurements from 2D surface brightness fits with GIM2D, we show how the fraction of quiescent galaxies depends on galaxy stellar mass $M_{*}$ , effective radius $R_{e}$ , fraction of $r -$ band light in the bulge, $B / T$ , and their status as a central or satellite galaxy at $0.01 < z < 0.2$ . For central galaxies we confirm that the quiescent fraction depends not only on stellar mass, but also on $R_{e}$ . The dependence is particularly strong as a function of $M_{*} / R_{e}^{α}$ , with $α \sim 1.5$ . This appears to be driven by a simple dependence on $B / T$ over the mass range $9 < lo g (M_{*} / M_{⊙}) < 11.5$ , and is qualitatively similar even if galaxies with $B / T > 0.3$ are excluded. For satellite galaxies, the quiescent fraction is always larger than that of central galaxies, for any combination of $M_{*}$ , $R_{e}$ and $B / T$ . The quenching efficiency is not constant, but reaches a maximum of $\sim 0.7$ for galaxies with $9 < lo g (M_{*} / M_{⊙}) < 9.5$ and $R_{e} < 1$ kpc. This is the same region of parameter space in which the satellite fraction itself reaches its maximum value, suggesting that the transformation from an active central galaxy to a quiescent satellite is associated with a reduction in $R_{e}$ due to an increase in dominance of a bulge component.

17 pages, 28 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Catalog available at http://quixote.uwaterloo.ca/~mbalogh/downloads/Omand_published.fits

The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency

Abstract

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