A general approach to quenching and galactic conformity

Abstract

We develop a conceptual framework and methodology to study the drivers of the quenching of galaxies, including the drivers of galactic conformity. The framework is centred on the statistic $\Delta$, which is defined as the difference between the observed star-formation state of a galaxy, and a prediction of its state based on an empirical model of quenching. In particular, this work uses the average quenching effects of stellar mass and local density to construct an empirical model of quenching. $\Delta$ is therefore a residual which reflects the effects of drivers of quenching not captured by stellar mass and local density, or so-called 'hidden variables'. Through a toy model, we explore how the statistical properties of $\Delta$ can be used to learn about the internal and external hidden variables which control the quenching of a sample of galaxies. We then apply this analysis to a sample of local galaxies and find that, after accounting for the average quenching effects of stellar mass and local density, $\Delta$ remains correlated out to separations of 3 Mpc. Furthermore, we find that external hidden variables remain important for driving the residual quenching of low-mass galaxies, while the residual quenching of high-mass galaxies is driven mostly by internal properties. These results, along with a similar analysis of a semi-analytical mock catalogue, suggest that it is necessary to consider halo-related properties as candidates for hidden variables. A preliminary halo-based analysis indicates that much of the correlation of $\Delta$ can be attributed to the physics associated with individual haloes.

arXiv comment19 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (32)

• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• The broken hierarchy of galaxy formation
• Stellar Masses and Star Formation Histories for 10^5 Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• 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 Harassment and the Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe
• Multiwavelength study of massive galaxies at z~2. I. Star formation and galaxy growth
• Quantifying the bimodal color-magnitude distribution of galaxies
• NYU-VAGC: a galaxy catalog based on new public surveys
• Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4: I. The Catalogue and Basic Properties
• Galaxy bimodality versus stellar mass and environment
• Properties of Galaxy Groups in the SDSS: I.-- The Dependence of Colour, Star Formation, and Morphology on Halo Mass
• Ram Pressure Stripping of Spiral Galaxies in Clusters
• Galaxy formation in the Planck Cosmology - I. Matching the observed evolution of star formation rates, colours and stellar masses
• Bulge mass is king: The dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• A Re-examination of Galactic Conformity and a Comparison with Semi-analytic Models of Galaxy Formation
• Surface density effects in quenching: cause or effect?
• The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency
• Quenching of Star Formation in SDSS Groups: Centrals, Satellites, and Galactic Conformity
• Assessing Colour-dependent Occupation Statistics Inferred from Galaxy Group Catalogues
• Galaxy formation in the Planck cosmology - IV. Mass and environmental quenching, conformity and clustering
• On the Physical Origin of Galactic Conformity
• Halo Histories vs. Galaxy Properties at z=0 II: Large-Scale Galactic Conformity
• On the evidence for large-scale galactic conformity in the local Universe
• Physical origin of the large-scale conformity in the specific star formation rates of galaxies
• Group quenching and galactic conformity at low redshift

Cited by in corpus (6)

• On the environmental influence of groups and clusters of galaxies beyond the virial radius: Galactic conformity at few Mpc scales
• Dissect two-halo galactic conformity effect for central galaxies: The dependence of star formation activities on the large-scale environment
• Star Formation Histories from SEDs and CMDs Agree: Evidence for Synchronized Star Formation in Local Volume Dwarf Galaxies over the Past 3 Gyr
• Conditional Colour-Magnitude Distribution of Central Galaxies in Galaxy Formation Models
• The conformity of HI galaxies in ALFALFA-SDSS sample
• Assessing the connection between galactic conformity and assembly-type bias