The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS). IV: The role of the cluster environment on galaxy evolution

Abstract

We study the role of the environment on galaxy evolution using a sample of 868 galaxies in the Virgo cluster and in its surrounding regions selected from the GUViCS Survey with the purpose of understanding the origin of the red sequence in dense environments. We collected multifrequency data covering the whole electromagnetic spectrum for most of the galaxies. We identify the different dynamical substructures composing the Virgo cluster and we calculate the local density of galaxies using different methods. We then study the distribution of galaxies belonging to the red sequence, the green valley, and the blue cloud within the different cluster substructures. Our analysis indicates that all the most massive galaxies are slow rotators and are the dominant galaxies of the different cluster substructures generally associated with a diffuse X-ray emission. They are probably the result of major merging events that occurred at early epochs. Slow rotators of lower stellar mass are also preferentially located within the different high-density substructures of the cluster. They are virialised within the cluster, thus Virgo members since its formation. They have been shaped by gravitational perturbations occurring within the infalling groups that later formed the cluster. On the contrary, low-mass star-forming systems are extremely rare in the inner regions of the Virgo cluster A, where the density of the intergalactic medium is at its maximum. Our ram pressure stripping models consistently indicate that these star-forming systems can be rapidly deprived of their interstellar medium during their interaction with the intergalactic medium. The lack of gas quenches their star formation activity transforming them into quiescent dwarf ellipticals. This mild transformation does not perturb the kinematic properties of these galaxies which still have rotation curves typical of star-forming systems.

Submitted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• On the origin of the faint-end of the red sequence in high density environments
• Galaxy environment in the 3D-HST fields. Witnessing the onset of satellite quenching at z ~ 1-2
• The quenching of the star formation activity in cluster galaxies
• Stellar Kinematics and Structural Properties of Virgo Cluster Dwarf Early-Type Galaxies from the SMAKCED Project III. Rotation versus Pressure Support
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXIV. The Red Sequence to $\sim$10${}^6$ L${}_{\odot }$ and Comparisons with Galaxy Formation Models
• A Comprehensive Archival Search for Counterparts to Ultra-Compact High Velocity Clouds: Five Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies
• THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY. XIV. Shell feature early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster
• Young, metal-enriched cores in early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster based on colour gradients
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS). V. Ultraviolet diffuse emission and cirrus properties in the Virgo cluster direction
• A very dark stellar system lost in Virgo: kinematics and metallicity of SECCO1 with MUSE
• Relative distribution of dark matter and stellar mass in three massive galaxy clusters
• Study of galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void. VI. HI-observations with the Nancay Radio Telescope
• Two spectroscopically confirmed galaxy structures at z=0.61 and 0.74 in the CFHTLS Deep~3 field