Galaxy evolution in the mid-infrared green valley: a case of the A2199 supercluster

Abstract

We study the mid-infrared (MIR) properties of the galaxies in the A2199 supercluster at z = 0.03 to understand the star formation activity of galaxy groups and clusters in the supercluster environment. Using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer data, we find no dependence of mass-normalized integrated SFRs of galaxy groups/clusters on their virial masses. We classify the supercluster galaxies into three classes in the MIR color-luminosity diagram: MIR blue cloud (massive, quiescent and mostly early-type), MIR star-forming sequence (mostly late-type), and MIR green valley galaxies. These MIR green valley galaxies are distinguishable from the optical green valley galaxies, in the sense that they belong to the optical red sequence. We find that the fraction of each MIR class does not depend on virial mass of each group/cluster. We compare the cumulative distributions of surface galaxy number density and cluster/group-centric distance for the three MIR classes. MIR green valley galaxies show the distribution between MIR blue cloud and MIR SF sequence galaxies. However, if we fix galaxy morphology, early- and late-type MIR green valley galaxies show different distributions. Our results suggest a possible evolutionary scenario of these galaxies: 1) Late-type MIR SF sequence galaxies -> 2) Late-type MIR green valley galaxies -> 3) Early-type MIR green valley galaxies -> 4) Early-type MIR blue cloud galaxies. In this sequence, star formation of galaxies is quenched before the galaxies enter the MIR green valley, and then morphological transformation occurs in the MIR green valley.

15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (14)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment
• Strangulation in Galaxy Groups
• CIRS: Cluster Infall Regions in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I. Infall Patterns and Mass Profiles
• The relation between star formation, morphology and local density in high redshift clusters and groups
• A Panoramic Mid-infrared Survey of Two Distant Clusters
• The Infrared Properties of Hickson Compact Groups
• Spectroscopic Determination of the Faint End of the Luminosity Function in the Nearby Galaxy Clusters A2199 and Virgo
• IR observations of MS 1054-03: Star Formation and its Evolution in Rich Galaxy Clusters
• The IR Luminosity Functions of Rich Clusters
• Galaxy Activity in Merging Binary Galaxy Clusters
• Catching Quenching Galaxies: The Nature of the WISE Infrared Transition Zone
• Radio observations of the Horologium-Reticulum Supercluster -I. A3158: Excess star-forming galaxies in a merging cluster?

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Gas and galaxies in filament between clusters of galaxies: The study of A399-A401
• Star formation of far-IR AGN and non-AGN galaxies in the green valley: possible implication of AGN positive feedback
• Star formation activity of barred spiral galaxies
• Physical properties of the X-ray gas as a dynamical diagnosis for galaxy clusters
• The unrelaxed dynamical structure of the galaxy cluster Abell 85
• Star formation in far-IR AGN and non-AGN galaxies in the green valley. II. Morphological analysis
• A Redshift Survey of the Nearby Galaxy Cluster Abell 2199: Comparison of the Spatial and Kinematic Distributions of Galaxies with the Intracluster Medium
• The Fastest Galaxy Evolution in an Unbiased Compact Group Sample with WISE
• A high coverage view of the thermodynamics and metal abundance in the outskirts of the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 2199
• Color dependence of clustering of massive galaxies at 0.5$\le z\le$2.5: similar spatial distributions between green valley galaxies and AGNs
• Simulating nearly edge-on sloshing in the galaxy cluster Abell 2199
• AGN lifetimes in UV-selected galaxies: a clue to supermassive black hole-host galaxy coevolution
• Stellar populations of a sample of far-IR AGN and non-AGN green valley galaxies
• Estimating lifetimes of uv-selected massive galaxies at $0.5\le z\le 2.5$ in the cosmos/ultravista field through clustering analyses
• The impact of selection criteria on the properties of green valley galaxies