Quenching low-mass satellite galaxies: evidence for a threshold ICM density

Abstract

We compile a sample of SDSS galaxy clusters with high-quality Chandra X-ray data to directly study the influence of the dense intra-cluster medium (ICM) on the quenching of satellite galaxies. We study the quenched fractions of satellite galaxies as a function of ICM density for low- ($10^9\lesssim M_{\star }\lesssim 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$), intermediate- ($10^{10}\lesssim M_{\star }\lesssim 10^{10.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$), and high-mass ($M_{\star }\gtrsim 10^{10.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) satellite galaxies with $>3000$ satellite galaxies across 24 low-redshift ($z<0.1$) clusters. For low-mass galaxies we find evidence for a broken powerlaw trend between satellite quenched fraction and local ICM density. The quenched fraction increases modestly at ICM densities below a threshold before increasing sharply beyond this threshold toward the cluster center. We show that this increase in quenched fraction at high ICM density is well matched by a simple, analytic model of ram pressure stripping. These results are consistent with a picture where low-mass cluster galaxies experience an initial, slow-quenching mode driven by steady gas depletion, followed by rapid quenching associated with ram pressure of cold-gas stripping near (one quarter of the virial radius, on average) the cluster center.

17 pages plus appendix, 10 figures, accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (32)

• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4: I. The Catalogue and Basic Properties
• Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment
• Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies
• Intracluster Medium Entropy Profiles for a Chandra Archival Sample of Galaxy Clusters
• xCOLD GASS: the complete IRAM-30m legacy survey of molecular gas for galaxy evolution studies
• GALEX-SDSS-WISE Legacy Catalog (GSWLC): Star Formation Rates, Stellar Masses and Dust Attenuations of 700,000 Low-redshift Galaxies
• A universal model for halo concentrations
• Stellar Masses and SFRs for 1M Galaxies from SDSS and WISE
• A deeper X-ray study of the core of the Perseus galaxy cluster: the power of sound waves and the distribution of metals and cosmic rays
• LoCuSS: The slow quenching of star formation in cluster galaxies and the need for pre-processing
• BUDHIES II: A phase-space view of HI gas stripping and star-formation quenching in cluster galaxies
• Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters
• The Correlation of Star Formation Quenching with Internal Galaxy Properties and Environment
• Star formation quenching in simulated group and cluster galaxies: When, how, and why?
• The influence of the environmental history on quenching star formation in a $\Lambda$CDM universe
• Galaxy Evolution in Hickson Compact Groups: The Role of Ram Pressure Stripping and Strangulation
• Direct X-ray Spectral Deprojection of Galaxy Clusters
• The growth of the galaxy cluster Abell 85: mergers, shocks, stripping and seeding of clumping
• The Different Environmental Dependencies of Star-formation for Giant and Dwarf Galaxies
• The pre-processing of subhaloes in SDSS groups and clusters
• Morphological Fractions of Galaxies in WINGS Clusters: revisiting the Morphology-Density Paradigm
• The Three Hundred Project: Ram pressure and gas content of haloes and subhaloes in the phase-space plane
• Evidence of pre-processing and a dependence on dynamical state for low-mass satellite galaxies
• The galaxy cluster outskirts probed by Chandra
• Mass segregation trends in SDSS galaxy groups
• Connecting optical and X-ray tracers of galaxy cluster relaxation
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The absence of stellar mass segregation in galaxy groups and consistent predictions from GALFORM and EAGLE simulations
• Uncovering Mass Segregation with Galaxy Analogues in Dark Matter Simulations

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Ram pressure stripping candidates in the Coma Cluster: Evidence for enhanced star formation
• A New Method to Quantify Environment and Model Ram-Pressure Stripping in N-Body Simulations
• Multiscale cosmic web detachments, connectivity, and preprocessing in the supercluster SClA2142 cocoon
• Cluster induced quenching of galaxies in the massive cluster XMMXCSJ2215.9-1738 at z~1.5 traced by enhanced metallicities inside half R200
• From Blue Cloud to Red Sequence: Evidence of Morphological Transition Prior to Star Formation Quenching
• The Westerbork Coma Survey: A blind, deep, high-resolution HI survey of the Coma cluster
• Investigating the Projected Phase Space of Gaussian and Non-Gaussian Clusters
• The Three Hundred project: connection between star formation quenching and dynamical evolution in and around simulated galaxy clusters
• Exploring Galaxy Evolution Time-Scales in Clusters: Insights from the Projected Phase Space
• The miniJPAS survey: The galaxy populations in the most massive cluster in miniJPAS, mJPC2470-1771
• Evidence for anisotropic quenching in massive galaxy clusters at $z\approx 0.5$
• Environmental cluster effects and galaxy evolution: The HI properties of the Abell clusters A85/A496/A2670
• A 100 kpc Ram Pressure Tail Trailing the Group Galaxy NGC 2276
• Probing the influence of the protocluster environment on galaxy morphology at z = 2.23
• Morpho-kinematics of MACS J0416.1-2403 low mass galaxies