Quenching in the Right Place at the Right Time: Tracing the Shared History of Starbursts, AGNs, and Post-starburst Galaxies Using Their Structures and Multiscale Environments

Hassen M. Yesuf

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac83b0

paper

Quenching in the Right Place at the Right Time: Tracing the Shared History of Starbursts, AGNs, and Post-starburst Galaxies Using Their Structures and Multiscale Environments

arXiv:2207.12844 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac83b0

Abstract

This work uses multiscale environments and structures of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as consistency checks of the evolution from starburst to quiescence at redshift $z < 0.2$ . The environmental indicators include fixed aperture mass overdensities ( $δ_{x Mpc}$ , $x \in {0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8} h^{- 1}$ Mpc), $k$ -nearest neighbor distances, the tidal parameter, halo mass ( $M_{h}$ ), and satellite/central classification. The residuals of specific star formation rates ( $Δ SSFR$ ) is used to select starbursts ( $Δ SSFR > 0.6$ dex, $N \approx 8, 600$ ). Quenched post-starbursts (QPSBs) are selected using H $α < 3$ angstrom in emission and H $δ_{A} > 4$ angstrom in absorption ( $N \approx 750$ ). The environments of starbursts and QPSBs are compared with those of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and inactive galaxies of varying $Δ SSFR$ . The environments of starbursts, AGNs, and QPSBs are unlike the environments of most quiescent galaxies (QGs). About $70% - 90%$ of starbursts, AGNs with H $δ_{A} > 4$ , and QPSBs are centrals, $\sim 80% - 90%$ have $M_{h} < 1 0^{13} M_{⊙}$ , and only $\sim 2% - 4%$ have $M_{h} > 1 0^{14} M_{⊙}$ or live in clusters. Their $M_{h}$ and satellite fractions are also different from those of QGs. All QPSBs are matched to some SFGs, starbursts, AGNs, and QGs of similar $M_{⋆}$ , environments, concentration indices, and velocity dispersions. A significant fraction ( $\sim 20% - 30%$ ) of starbursts cannot be matched to QPSBs or QGs. The implications are: (1) some starbursts do not quench rapidly. (2) Satellite-quenching mechanisms operating in high density environments cannot account for most QPSBs. (3) The evolution from starbursts to QPSBs to QGs is not the dominant path at $z < 0.2$ . (4) Starbursts are not mainly triggered by tidal interactions.

Accepted for publication in ApJ. 42 pages, including 17 figures and 7 Tables. The paper also includes a useful review of previous studies of environments of starburst and post-starburst galaxies

Quenching in the Right Place at the Right Time: Tracing the Shared History of Starbursts, AGNs, and Post-starburst Galaxies Using Their Structures and Multiscale Environments

Abstract

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