Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at $z<1$

Abstract

One key problem in astrophysics is understanding how and why galaxies switch off their star formation, building the quiescent population that we observe in the local Universe. From the GAMA and VIPERS surveys, we use spectroscopic indices to select quiescent and candidate transition galaxies. We identify potentially rapidly transitioning post-starburst galaxies, and slower transitioning green-valley galaxies. Over the last 8 Gyrs the quiescent population has grown more slowly in number density at high masses (M${}_{\ast }>10^{11}$M${}_{\odot }$) than at intermediate masses (M${}_{\ast }>10^{10.6}$M${}_{\odot }$). There is evolution in both the post-starburst and green valley stellar mass functions, consistent with higher mass galaxies quenching at earlier cosmic times. At intermediate masses (M${}_{\ast }>10^{10.6}$M${}_{\odot }$) we find a green valley transition timescale of 2.6 Gyr. Alternatively, at $z\sim 0.7$ the entire growth rate could be explained by fast-quenching post-starburst galaxies, with a visibility timescale of 0.5 Gyr. At lower redshift, the number density of post-starbursts is so low that an unphysically short visibility window would be required for them to contribute significantly to the quiescent population growth. The importance of the fast-quenching route may rapidly diminish at $z<1$. However, at high masses (M${}_{\ast }>10^{11}$M${}_{\odot }$), there is tension between the large number of candidate transition galaxies compared to the slow growth of the quiescent population. This could be resolved if not all high mass post-starburst and green-valley galaxies are transitioning from star-forming to quiescent, for example if they rejuvenate out of the quiescent population following the accretion of gas and triggering of star formation, or if they fail to completely quench their star formation.

19 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Updated to match published version

References in corpus (27)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies
• PRIMUS: Constraints on Star Formation Quenching and Galaxy Merging, and the Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function From z=0-1
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: instrument specification and target selection
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog IV. Fifth Data Release
• Ram pressure stripping the hot gaseous halos of galaxies in groups and clusters
• The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA): Design, Technical Overview and Performance
• Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity
• The evolution of post-starburst galaxies from z=2 to z= 0.5
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Deconstructing Bimodality - I. Red ones and blue ones
• Is AGN feedback necessary to form red elliptical galaxies?
• The UV properties of E+A galaxies: constraints on feedback-driven quenching of star formation
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The galaxy stellar mass function to $z=0.1$ from the r-band selected equatorial regions
• Discovery of Large Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: Evidence for Diverse Star Formation Histories through the Green Valley
• A Catalog of Local E+A(post-starburst) Galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5
• From Starburst to Quiescence: Testing AGN feedback in Rapidly Quenching Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Overconsumption, outflows and the quenching of satellite galaxies
• The evolution of the cold interstellar medium in galaxies following a starburst
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Environments of Poststarburst Galaxies at z~0.1 and z~0.8
• The Slow Death (or Rebirth?) of Extended Star Formation in z~0.1 Green Valley Early-Type Galaxies
• Radio Continuum Observations of the Galactic Center: Photoevaporative Proplyd-like Objects near Sgr A*
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Active Galactic Nuclei in Pairs of Galaxies
• NUV signatures of environment driven galaxy quenching in SDSS groups
• Dissociative Excitation of Acetylene Induced by Electron Impact: Excitation-emission Cross-sections

Cited by in corpus (45)

• Recovering the star formation histories of recently-quenched galaxies: the impact of model and prior choices
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• Dissecting the size-mass and ${\Sigma }_1$-mass relations at 1.0 < z < 2.5: galaxy mass profiles and color gradients as a function of spectral shape
• The colors and sizes of recently quenched galaxies: a result of compact starburst before quenching
• Coincidence between morphology and star-formation activity through cosmic time: the impact of the bulge growth
• The diverse evolutionary pathways of post-starburst galaxies
• Inverse stellar population age gradients of post-starburst galaxies at z=0.8 with LEGA-C
• Revealing impacts of stellar mass and environment on galaxy quenching
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Timescales for galaxies crossing the green valley
• Post-Starburst Properties of Post-Merger Galaxies
• Rise and fall of post-starburst galaxies in Magneticum Pathfinder
• From starburst to quiescence: post-starburst galaxies and their large-scale clustering over cosmic time
• The role of mass and environment in the build up of the quenched galaxy population since cosmic noon
• The State of the Molecular Gas in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Across the Green Valley with HST grisms: colour evolution, crossing time-scales and the growth of the red sequence at $z=1.0-1.8$
• A Multiwavelength view of IC 860: What Is in Action inside Quenching Galaxies
• Redshift Evolution of Green Valley Galaxies in Different Environments from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey
• Clues on the history of early-type galaxies from SDSS spectra and GALEX photometry
• Some Die Filthy Rich: The Diverse Molecular Gas Contents of Post-starburst Galaxies Probed by Dust Absorption
• Chemical evolution of local post-starburst galaxies: Implications for the mass-metallicity relation
• When the Well Runs Dry: Modeling Environmental Quenching of High-mass Satellites in Massive Clusters at \boldmath$z\gtrsim 1$
• Galaxy quenching timescales from a forensic reconstruction of their colour evolution
• High-velocity outflows persist up to 1 Gyr after a starburst in recently-quenched galaxies at z > 1
• Rapidly quenched galaxies in the Simba cosmological simulation and observations
• COSMOS-Web: A history of galaxy migrations over the stellar mass-star formation rate plane
• A simple spectroscopic technique to identify rejuvenating galaxies
• Optical Properties of Peaked Spectrum Radio Sources
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Self-Organizing Map Application on Nearby Galaxies
• Tracing the evolutionary pathways of dust and cold gas in high-z quiescent galaxies with SIMBA
• 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
• DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z}\sim 1.2$ have compact structures and dense cores
• Searching for local counterparts of high-redshift post-starburst galaxies in integral field unit spectroscopic surveys of nearby galaxies
• AGN lifetimes in UV-selected galaxies: a clue to supermassive black hole-host galaxy coevolution
• Estimating lifetimes of uv-selected massive galaxies at $0.5\le z\le 2.5$ in the cosmos/ultravista field through clustering analyses
• Central Concentration of Asymmetric Features in Post-starburst Galaxies at $z\sim 0.8$
• The spatially-resolved effect of mergers on the stellar mass assembly of MaNGA galaxies
• Dust sub-millimetre emission in green valley galaxies
• TP-AGB stars and stellar population properties of a post-starburst galaxy at $z\sim 2$ through optical and NIR spectroscopy with JWST
• The diverse quenching pathways of post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA
• Recent star formation in 0.5<z<1.5 quiescent galaxies
• The Origin of the Gas and Its Low Star Formation Efficiency in Quiescent Galaxies
• Gamma Analytical Modeling Evolution (GAME) I: The physical implications of deriving the stellar mass functions from z=0 to z=8
• Post-starburst galaxies in the centers of intermediate redshift clusters
• SQuIGGLE: Studying Quenching in Intermediate-z Galaxies -- Gas, AnguLar Momentum, and Evolution
• EMBERS I: Low redshift post-starburst galaxies are frequently depleted in molecular gas relative to star forming progenitors