Connecting galaxy structure and star formation: the role of environment in formation of S0 galaxies

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the reason behind the increased occurrence of S0 galaxies in high density environments. Our sample comprises of $\sim$ 2500 spiral and $\sim$ 2000 S0 galaxies spanning a wide range of environments. Dividing the galaxies into categories of classical and pseudobulge hosting spiral and S0 galaxies, we have studied their properties as a function of the environment. We find that the fraction of pseudobulge hosting disc galaxies decreases with increase in density. The classical bulge hosting spirals and S0 galaxies follow a similar trend in less dense environments but towards higher densities, we observe an increase in the fraction of classical bulge host S0 galaxies at the expense of spirals. Comparing the structural and the star formation properties of galaxies on the size-mass and $NUV-r$ colour-mass planes respectively, we infer that classical bulge hosting spirals are likely to get transformed into S0 morphology. We notice a trend of galaxy structure with environment such that the fraction of classical bulge hosting spiral galaxies is found to increase with environment density. We also find that among classical bulge hosting spirals, the fraction of quenched galaxies increases in denser environments. We surmise that the existence of more classical bulge hosting spirals galaxies and more efficient quenching leads to the observed increased occurrence of S0 galaxies in high density environments. The relation between galaxy structure and environment also exists for the disc galaxies irrespective of their visual morphology, which is driven mainly by halo mass.

14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

References in corpus (23)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• 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
• Structural Properties of Pseudo-Bulges, Classical Bulges and Elliptical Galaxies: an SDSS Perspective
• The Evolution of Galaxy Structure over Cosmic Time
• Bulge Formation by the Coalescence of Giant Clumps in Primordial Disk Galaxies
• A Wide-field Survey of Two Z~0.5 Galaxy Clusters: Identifying the Physical Processes Responsible for the Observed Transformation of Spirals into S0s
• Ongoing Assembly of Massive Galaxies by Major Merging in Large Groups and Clusters from the SDSS
• Green Valley Galaxies
• On the interdependence of galaxy morphology, star formation, and environment in massive galaxies in the nearby Universe
• The Physical Origins of The Morphology-Density Relation: Evidence for Gas Stripping from the SDSS
• LoCuSS: Pre-processing in galaxy groups falling into massive galaxy clusters at z=0.2
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Bulge-disc structural coupling resulting from major mergers
• RCSED - A Value-Added Reference Catalog of Spectral Energy Distributions of 800,299 Galaxies in 11 Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared Bands: Morphologies, Colors, Ionized Gas and Stellar Populations Properties
• Properties of Dark Matter Halos as a Function of Local Environment Density
• Measuring the fading of S0 galaxies using globular clusters
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Evolution in the Tully-Fisher relation since $z\sim 1$
• Lenticular Galaxy Formation - Possible Luminosity Dependence
• A Spitzer Study of Pseudobulges in S0 Galaxies : Secular Evolution of Disks
• Age bimodality in the central region of pseudobulges in S0 galaxies
• Pseudo bulges in galaxy groups: the role of environment in secular evolution

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The galaxy population within the virial radius of the Perseus cluster
• Synergies between low- and intermediate-redshift galaxy populations revealed with unsupervised machine learning
• Witnessing the star-formation quenching in $L_{\ast }$ ellipticals
• The redshift evolution of the S0 fraction for $z<1$ in COSMOS
• The Nature of the Double Nuclei in the Barred S0 Galaxy IC676
• Structure and Kinematics of Star-forming Elliptical Galaxies in SDSS-MaNGA
• The Way to Quench: Galaxy evolution in Abell 2142
• Emergence of the Galaxy Morphology-Star Formation Activity-Clustercentric Radius Relations in Galaxy Clusters
• Emergence of red, star-forming galaxies (red misfits) in a ΛCDM universe
• Star-forming S0 Galaxies in SDSS-MaNGA: fading spirals or rejuvenated S0s?
• Using the EAGLE simulations to elucidate the origin of disc surface brightness profile breaks as a function of mass and environment