Ageing and Quenching through the ageing diagram: predictions from simulations and observational constraints

Abstract

We study recent changes on the star formation history (SFH) of galaxies by means of the ageing diagram (AD), tracing the fraction of stars formed during the last $\sim 20$ Myr through the equivalent width of the H$\alpha$ line and $\sim 1-3$ Gyr through the dust-corrected optical colour $(g-r{)}_0$ or the Balmer break. We provide a physical characterization by using Pipe3D estimates of the SFH of CALIFA and MaNGA galaxies, in combination with the predictions from IllustrisTNG-100. Our results show that the AD may be divided into four domains that correlate with the stellar mass fractions formed in the last 20 Myr and 3 Gyr: Ageing systems, whose SFR changes on scales of several Gyr, account for $70-80\%$ of the galaxy population. Objects whose SFH was abruptly truncated in the last $\sim 1$ Gyr arrange along a detached Quenched sequence that represents $\sim 5-10\%$ by (volume-corrected) number for $10^9<M_{\ast }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }<10^{12}$. Undetermined systems represent an intermediate population between the Ageing and Quenched regimes. Finally, Retired galaxies, dominated by old stellar populations, are located at the region in the AD where the Ageing and Quenched sequences converge. Defining different star formation activity levels in terms of the birth rate parameter $b\equiv \frac{SFR}{⟨SFR⟩}$, we find that galaxies transit from the Ageing to Quenched sequences on scales $\sim 500$ Myr. We conclude that the ageing diagram provides a useful tool to discern recently Quenched galaxies from the dominant Ageing population.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (42)

• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• 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
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment
• Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies
• PRIMUS: Constraints on Star Formation Quenching and Galaxy Merging, and the Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function From z=0-1
• The MaNGA Integral Field Unit Fiber Feed System for the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope
• The SDSS-IV MaNGA Sample: Design, Optimization, and Usage Considerations
• SDSS-IV MaNGA IFS Galaxy Survey --- Survey Design, Execution, and Initial Data Quality
• On the frequency, intensity and duration of starburst episodes triggered by galaxy interactions and mergers
• CALIFA: a diameter-selected sample for an integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey. II. First public data release
• Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey. III. Second public data release
• The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• Stellar kinematics across the Hubble sequence in the CALIFA survey: General properties and aperture corrections
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: pyPipe3D analysis release for 10,000 galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly: Deconstructing Bimodality - I. Red ones and blue ones
• The influence of the environmental history on quenching star formation in a $\Lambda$CDM universe
• A Catalog of Local E+A(post-starburst) Galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Quenching of star formation in clusters I. Transition galaxies
• pyFIT3D and pyPipe3D -- The new version of the Integral Field Spectroscopy data analysis pipeline
• On the occurrence of galaxy harassment
• From global to spatially resolved in low-redshift galaxies
• Sub one percent mass fractions of young stars in red massive galaxies
• The New Galaxy Evolution Paradigm Revealed by the Herschel Surveys
• Anisotropic satellite galaxy quenching modulated by supermassive black hole activity
• The diverse evolutionary pathways of post-starburst galaxies
• The specific star formation rate function at different mass scales and quenching: A comparison between cosmological models and SDSS
• Resolving the age bimodality of galaxy stellar populations on kpc scales
• Quenching and the UVJ diagram in the SIMBA cosmological simulation
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Different Quenching Histories of Fast and Slow Rotators
• Quenching Timescales in the IllustrisTNG Simulation
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Timescales for galaxies crossing the green valley
• Do galaxies die? Different views from simulations and observations in the Local Universe
• A single galaxy population? statistical evidence that the Star-Forming Main Sequence might be the tip of the iceberg
• Rapidly quenched galaxies in the Simba cosmological simulation and observations
• Detection of young ($\le$20 Myr) stellar populations in apparently quenched low-mass galaxies using red spectral line indices
• Estimation of the Galaxy Quenching Rate in the Illustris Simulation
• Galaxy evolution on resolved scales: ageing and quenching in CALIFA

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Tracing the evolutionary pathways of dust and cold gas in high-z quiescent galaxies with SIMBA
• Ageing and Quenching through the ageing diagram II: physical characterization of galaxies
• Measuring the physical imprints of gas flows in galaxies I: Accretion rate histories
• Re-assessing the stellar population scaling relations of the galaxies in the Local Universe
• Intrinsic and Environmental Effects on the Distribution of Star Formation in TNG100 Galaxies
• Ageing and Quenching: Influence of Galaxy Environment and Nuclear Activity in Transition Stage