Resolved Molecular Gas Observations of MaNGA Post-starbursts Reveal a Tumultuous Past

Abstract

Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) have recently and rapidly quenched their star-formation, thus they are an important way to understand how galaxies transition from star-forming late-types to quiescent early-types. The recent discovery of large cold gas reservoirs in PSBs calls into question the theory that galaxies must lose their gas to become quiescent. Optical Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) surveys have revealed two classes of PSBs: central PSBs with central quenching regions and ring PSBs with quenching in their outskirts. We analyze a sample of 13 nearby (z < 0.1) PSBs with spatially resolved optical IFS data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey and matched resolution Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of ${}^{12}$CO(1-0). Disturbed stellar kinematics in 7/13 of our PSBs and centrally concentrated molecular gas is consistent with a recent merger for most of our sample. In galaxies without merger evidence, alternate processes may funnel gas inwards and suppress star-formation, which may include outflows, stellar bars, and minor mergers or interactions. The star-formation efficiencies of the post-starburst regions in nearly half our galaxies are suppressed while the gas fractions are consistent with star-forming galaxies. AGN feedback may drive this stabilization, and we observe AGN-consistent emission in the centers of 5/13 galaxies. Finally, our central and ring PSBs have similar properties except the ionized and molecular gas in central PSBs is more disturbed. Overall, the molecular gas in our PSBs tends to be compact and highly disturbed, resulting in concentrated gas reservoirs unable to form stars efficiently.

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (43)

• Array Programming with NumPy
• The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Host Galaxies and Classification of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• astroquery: An Astronomical Web-Querying Package in Python
• Understanding Galaxy Evolution through Emission Lines
• 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
• Star Formation and the Growth of Stellar Mass
• Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity
• The Detailed Evolution of E+A Galaxies into Early Types
• Are galactic star formation and quenching governed by local, global or environmental phenomena?
• 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
• Discovery of Large Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Suppression of Star Formation in NGC 1266
• High resolution observations of HCN and HCO+ J=3-2 in the disk and outflow of Mrk231 -Detection of vibrationally excited HCN in the warped nucleus
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: The molecular gas main sequence and the origin of the star forming main sequence
• Galaxy Zoo: Secular evolution of barred galaxies from structural decomposition of multi-band images
• The evolution of the cold interstellar medium in galaxies following a starburst
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Quenching of star formation in clusters I. Transition galaxies
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Environments of Poststarburst Galaxies at z~0.1 and z~0.8
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• HI-MaNGA: Tracing the physics of the neutral and ionized ISM with the second data release
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Spatially resolved star formation in barred galaxies
• Exceptional AGN-driven turbulence inhibits star formation in the 3C 326N radio-galaxy
• Galaxy Zoo: Stronger bars facilitate quenching in star forming galaxies
• ALMaQUEST -- IV. The ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) Survey
• Effect of bars on the galaxy properties
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: II. What drives central starbursts at z~0?
• After The Fall: Resolving the Molecular Gas in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Evidence of ongoing AGN-driven feedback in a quiescent post starburst E+A galaxy
• Insights on bar quenching from a multi-wavelength analysis: The case of Messier 95
• Abundance diagnosis of E+A (post-starburst) galaxies
• Strong Far-IR Cooling Lines, Peculiar CO Kinematics and Possible Star Formation Suppression in Hickson Compact Group 57
• The Evolution of the Interstellar Medium in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• ALMaQUEST -- VII: Star Formation Scaling Relations of Green Valley Galaxies
• Color-Magnitude Distribution of Face-on Nearby Galaxies in SDSS DR7
• A Multiwavelength view of IC 860: What Is in Action inside Quenching Galaxies
• The Elephant in the Bathtub: when the physics of star formation regulate the baryon cycle of galaxies
• Refining the E+A Galaxy: A Spatially Resolved Spectrophotometric Sample of Nearby Post-starburst Systems in SDSS-IV MaNGA (MPL-5)
• Are all post-starbursts mergers? HST reveals hidden disturbances in the majority of PSBs
• On the quenching of star formation in observed and simulated central galaxies: Evidence for the role of integrated AGN feedback

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Post-Starburst Properties of Post-Merger Galaxies
• The fate of the interstellar medium in early-type galaxies. III. The mechanism of ISM removal and quenching of star formation
• Post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA: Two broad categories of evolutionary pathways
• The diverse quenching pathways of post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA
• The ALMaQUEST Survey XVII: Unveiling Multiple Quenching Pathways in Green Valley Galaxies via Molecular Gas and Quenching Timescale Analyses
• EMBERS I: Low redshift post-starburst galaxies are frequently depleted in molecular gas relative to star forming progenitors