The Size-Mass Relation of Post-Starburst Galaxies in the Local Universe

Abstract

We present a study of the size--mass relation for local post-starburst (PSB) galaxies at $z\lesssim 0.33$ selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 8. We find that PSB galaxies with stellar mass ($M_{\ast }$) at $10^9{M}_{\odot }<M_{\ast }<10^{12}{M}_{\odot }$ have their galaxy size smaller than or comparable with those of quiescent galaxies (QGs). After controlling redshift and stellar mass, the sizes of PSBs are $\sim 13\%$ smaller on average than those of QGs, such differences become larger and significant towards the low-$M_{\ast }$ end, especially at $10^{9.5}{M}_{\odot }\lesssim M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{10.5}{M}_{\odot }$ where PSBs can be on average $\sim 19\%$ smaller than QGs. In comparison with predictions of possible PSB evolutionary pathways from cosmological simulations, we suggest that a fast quenching of star formation following a short-lived starburst event (might be induced by major merger) should be the dominated pathway of our PSB sample. Furthermore, by cross-matching with group catalogs, we confirm that local PSBs at $M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ are more clustered than more massive ones. PSBs resided in groups are found to be slightly larger in galaxy size and more disk-like compared to field PSBs, which is qualitatively consistent with and thus hints the environment-driven fast quenching pathway for group PSBs. Taken together, our results support multiple evolutionary pathways for local PSB galaxies: while massive PSBs are thought of as products of fast quenching following a major merger-induced starburst, environment-induced fast quenching should play a role in the evolution of less massive PSBs, especially at $M_{\ast }\lesssim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$.

arXiv comment16 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ

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