Post-starburst galaxies in the centers of intermediate redshift clusters

Abstract

We present results from MUSE spatially-resolved spectroscopy of 21 post-starburst galaxies in the centers of 8 clusters from $z\sim 0.3$ to $z\sim 0.4$. We measure spatially resolved star-formation histories (SFHs), the time since quenching ($t_Q$) and the fraction of stellar mass assembled in the past 1.5 Gyr (${\mu }_{1.5}$). The SFHs display a clear enhancement of star-formation prior to quenching for 16 out of 21 objects, with at least 10% (and up to $>50$%) of the stellar mass being assembled in the past 1.5 Gyr and $t_Q$ ranging from less than 100 Myrs to $\sim 800$ Myrs. By mapping $t_Q$ and ${\mu }_{1.5}$, we analyze the quenching patterns of the galaxies. Most galaxies in our sample have quenched their star-formation from the outside-in or show a side-to-side/irregular pattern, both consistent with quenching by ram-pressure stripping. Only three objects show an inside-out quenching pattern, all of which are at the high-mass end of our sample. At least two of them currently host an active galactic nucleus. In two post-starbursts, we identify tails of ionized gas indicating that these objects had their gas stripped by ram pressure very recently. Post-starburst features are also found in the stripped regions of galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping in the same clusters, confirming the link between these classes of objects. Our results point to ram-pressure stripping as the main driver of fast quenching in these environments, with active galactic nuclei playing a role at high stellar masses.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (28)

• The Host Galaxies and Classification of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• Improving the full spectrum fitting method: accurate convolution with Gauss-Hermite functions
• The Circumgalactic Medium
• COLD GASS, an IRAM Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas in Massive Galaxies: II. The non-universality of the Molecular Gas Depletion Timescale
• Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity
• Ram pressure feeding super-massive black holes
• The environments of starburst and post-starburst galaxies at z=0.4-0.8
• The evolution of post-starburst galaxies from z=2 to z= 0.5
• The UV properties of E+A galaxies: constraints on feedback-driven quenching of star formation
• Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. Paper I: Non-Starbursting Galaxies
• Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. II. Starbursts and the Combined Global Schmidt Law
• 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
• A spectrophotometric model applied to cluster galaxies: the WINGS dataset
• GASP IV: A muse view of extreme ram-pressure stripping in the plane of the sky: the case of jellyfish galaxy JO204
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at $z<1$
• GASP XXIII: A jellyfish galaxy as an astrophysical laboratory of the baryonic cycle
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• Rejuvenation in $z\sim 0.8$ quiescent galaxies in LEGA-C
• NoSOCS in SDSS. VI. The Environmental Dependence of AGN in Clusters and Field in the Local Universe
• The diverse evolutionary pathways of post-starburst galaxies
• X-ray bright active galactic nuclei in massive galaxy clusters III: New insights into the triggering mechanisms of cluster AGN
• Simultaneous analysis of SDSS spectra and GALEX photometry with STARLIGHT: Method and early results
• Inverse stellar population age gradients of post-starburst galaxies at z=0.8 with LEGA-C
• From starburst to quiescence: post-starburst galaxies and their large-scale clustering over cosmic time
• Clues on the history of early-type galaxies from SDSS spectra and GALEX photometry
• The Star Formation History of Late Type Galaxies