COSMOS Brightest Group Galaxies -- III: Evolution of stellar ages

Abstract

The unique characteristics of the brightest group galaxies (BGGs) link the evolutionary continuum between galaxies like the Milky Way and more massive BCGs in dense clusters. This study investigates the stellar properties of BGGs over cosmic time (z = 0.08-1.30), extending our previous work (Gozaliasl et al. 2016, 2018; Paper I and Paper II). We analyze data of 246 BGGs from our X-ray galaxy group catalog in the COSMOS field, examining stellar age, mass, star formation rate (SFR), specific SFR (sSFR), and halo mass. Comparisons are made with Millennium and Magneticum simulations. We explore the variation of stellar properties with the projected offset from the X-ray peak or host halo center. Using a mock galaxy catalog, we evaluated the accuracy of SED-derived stellar ages, finding a mean absolute error of about one Gyr. Observed BGG age distributions show a bias towards younger ages compared to semi-analytical models and the Magneticum simulation. Our analysis of stellar age versus mass reveals trends with a positive slope, suggesting complex evolutionary pathways across redshifts. We observe a negative correlation between stellar age and SFR across all redshift ranges. Using a cosmic-time-dependent main sequence framework, we identify star-forming BGGs, finding that about 20% of BGGs in the local universe exhibit star-forming characteristics, increasing to 50% at $z=1.0$. Our findings support an inside-out formation scenario for BGGs, where older stellar populations are near the X-ray peak and younger populations at larger offsets indicate ongoing star formation. The distribution of stellar ages for lower-mass BGGs ($10^{10-11}{M}_{\odot }$) deviates from constant ages predicted by models, highlighting current models' limitations in capturing galaxies' complex star formation histories.

24 Pages, 45 figures

References in corpus (149)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• Galaxy Harassment and the Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies
• First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies
• Accurate photometric redshifts for the CFHT Legacy Survey calibrated using the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• The epochs of early-type galaxy formation as a function of environment
• Color Separation of Galaxy Types in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data
• Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
• COSMOS Photometric Redshifts with 30-bands for 2-deg2
• The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe
• Simba: Cosmological Simulations with Black Hole Growth and Feedback
• Galaxy Luminosity Functions to z~1: DEEP2 vs. COMBO-17 and Implications for Red Galaxy Formation
• Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z=4 from UltraVISTA
• zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS redshift survey covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS field
• Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4: I. The Catalogue and Basic Properties
• Environmental Effects on Late-Type Galaxies in Nearby Clusters
• UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS
• The Stellar Population Histories of Early-Type Galaxies. II. Controlling Parameters of the Stellar Populations
• Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly between 0.2<z<2 from the S-COSMOS survey
• Galaxy formation in the Planck Cosmology - I. Matching the observed evolution of star formation rates, colours and stellar masses
• A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang
• COSMOS2020: A panchromatic view of the Universe to $z\sim 10$ from two complementary catalogs
• The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• On Star Formation Rates and Star Formation Histories of Galaxies out to z ~ 3
• Ages and metallicities of early-type galaxies in the SDSS: new insight into the physical origin of the colour-magnitude and the Mg2-sigmaV relations
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): The GAMA Galaxy Group Catalogue (G3Cv1)
• Towards a realistic population of simulated galaxy groups and clusters
• Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• The Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey: optical/IR identifications
• The Main Sequence of star-forming galaxies across cosmic times
• The accretion of galaxies into groups and clusters
• Multiple Images of a Highly Magnified Supernova Formed by an Early-Type Cluster Galaxy Lens
• Early-type galaxies in the SDSS. II. Correlations between observables
• A Weak Lensing Study of X-ray Groups in the COSMOS survey: Form and Evolution of the Mass-Luminosity Relation
• Efficient Formation of Massive Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn by Feedback-Free Starbursts
• A Turnover in the Galaxy Main Sequence of Star Formation at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ for Redshifts $z<1.3$
• A Catalogue and Analysis of Local Galaxy Ages and Metallicities
• Simulations of the galaxy population constrained by observations from z=3 to the present day: implications for galactic winds and the fate of their ejecta
• The DEIMOS 10k spectroscopic survey catalog of the COSMOS field
• The Milky Way has no in-situ halo other than the heated thick disc. Composition of the stellar halo and age-dating the last significant merger with Gaia DR2 and APOGEE
• SZ effects in the Magneticum Pathfinder Simulation: Comparison with the Planck, SPT, and ACT results
• Encoding the infrared excess (IRX) in the NUVrK color diagram for star-forming galaxies
• Evidence for Significant Growth in the Stellar Mass of Brightest Cluster Galaxies over the Past 10 Billion Years
• Morphology and star formation in IllustrisTNG: the build-up of spheroids and discs
• Charting the evolution of the ages and metallicities of massive galaxies since z=0.7
• On the evolution and environmental dependence of the star formation rate versus stellar mass relation since z~2
• Early assembly of the most massive galaxies
• The Assembly of Galaxy Clusters
• A Multiwavelength Study of a Sample of 70 micron Selected Galaxies in the COSMOS Field II: The Role of Mergers in Galaxy Evolution
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4
• The FMOS-COSMOS survey of star-forming galaxies at z~1.6 III. Survey design, performance, and sample characteristics
• When the Milky Way turned off the lights: APOGEE provides evidence of star formation quenching in our Galaxy
• Early-type galaxies in low-density environments
• Jellyfish galaxies with the IllustrisTNG simulations: I. Gas-stripping phenomena in the full cosmological context
• Introducing RomulusC: A Cosmological Simulation of a Galaxy Cluster with Unprecedented Resolution
• Stochastic modelling of star-formation histories II: star-formation variability from molecular clouds and gas inflow
• Stellar Ages and Metallicities of Central and Satellite Galaxies: Implications for Galaxy Formation and Evolution
• Detection of stellar light from quasar host galaxies at redshifts above 6
• The Evolution of Central Group Galaxies in Hydrodynamical Simulations
• Characterizing Diffused Stellar Light in simulated galaxy clusters
• A new formulation of the Type Ia SN rate and its consequences on galactic chemical evolution
• Red-sequence galaxies with young stars and dust: The cluster Abell 901/902 seen with COMBO-17
• Gone after one orbit: How cluster environments quench galaxies
• The Growth in Size and Mass of Cluster Galaxies since z=2
• Star-Forming Brightest Cluster Galaxies at 0.25 < z < 1.25: A Transitioning Fuel Supply
• Simulating Groups and the IntraGroup Medium: The Surprisingly Complex and Rich Middle Ground Between Clusters and Galaxies
• Galaxy Assembly Bias on the Red Sequence
• Scaling Properties of Galaxy Groups
• The Complete Local Volume Groups Sample - I. Sample Selection and X-ray Properties of the High-Richness Subsample
• The three phases of galaxy formation
• Little change in the sizes of the most massive galaxies since z = 1
• Chandra centres for COSMOS X-ray galaxy groups: Differences in stellar properties between central dominant and offset brightest group galaxies
• The Stellar Mass Growth of Brightest Cluster Galaxies in the IRAC Shallow Cluster Survey
• Brightest cluster galaxies in cosmological simulations: achievements and limitations of AGN feedback models
• Stellar populations in the centres of brightest cluster galaxies
• An EAGLE's View of Ex-situ Galaxy Growth
• An EAGLE view of the missing baryons
• Galaxies grow their bulges and black holes in diverse ways
• The DIANOGA simulations of galaxy clusters: characterizing star formation in proto-clusters
• Growth of brightest cluster galaxies via mergers since z = 1
• Forming intracluster gas in a galaxy protocluster at a redshift of 2.16
• The stellar halos of ETGs in the IllustrisTNG simulations: the photometric and kinematic diversity of galaxies at large radii
• The baryon content of groups and clusters of galaxies in the FABLE simulations
• Slow-then-rapid quenching as traced by tentative evidence for enhanced metallicities of cluster galaxies at z~0.2 in the slow quenching phase
• The Outer Halos of Very Massive Galaxies: BCGs and their DSC in the Magneticum Simulations
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Testing galaxy formation models through the most massive galaxies in the Universe
• A spectroscopic sample of massive, evolved z~2 galaxies: Implications for the evolution of the mass-size relation
• Rapid early coeval star formation and assembly of the most massive galaxies in the universe
• The Colours of Elliptical galaxies
• LoCuSS: The infall of X-ray groups onto massive clusters
• Cold gas in a complete sample of group-dominant early-type galaxies
• Mining the gap: evolution of the magnitude gap in X-ray galaxy groups from the 3 square degree XMM coverage of CFHTLS
• The Roles of Mass and Environment in the Quenching of Galaxies. II
• SPIDER X - Environmental effects in central and satellite early-type galaxies through the stellar fossil record
• Group connectivity in COSMOS: a tracer of mass assembly history
• Reionization and the ISM/Stellar Origins with JWST and ALMA (RIOJA): The core of the highest redshift galaxy overdensity at $z=7.88$ confirmed by NIRSpec/JWST
• The Imprint of Cosmic Web Quenching on Central Galaxies
• GASP XXXIII. The ability of spatially resolved data to distinguish among the different physical mechanisms affecting galaxies in low-density environments
• The origin of the mass scales for maximal star formation efficiency and quenching: the critical role of Supernovae
• Galaxy Quenching from Cosmic Web Detachment
• Ultimate age-dating method for galaxy groups; clues from the Millennium Simulations
• Clocking the formation of today's largest galaxies: Wide field integral spectroscopy of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and their surroundings
• The history of star formation and mass assembly in early-type galaxies
• Red but not dead : Unveiling the Star-forming Far-infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of SpARCS Brightest Cluster Galaxies at 0 < z < 1.8
• Gas condensation in Brightest Group Galaxies unveiled with MUSE
• FMOS near-IR spectroscopy of Herschel selected galaxies: star formation rates, metallicity and dust attenuation at z~1
• Evolution of Star-formation Properties of High-redshift Cluster Galaxies since $z=2$
• Isolated elliptical galaxies in the local Universe
• Accretion of Galaxy Groups into Galaxy Clusters
• Brightest Cluster Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations with Adaptive Mesh Refinement: Successes and Failures
• Detection of a Substantial Molecular Gas Reservoir in a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 1.7
• Formation and Morphology of the First Galaxies in the Cosmic Morning
• Massive central galaxies of galaxy groups in the Romulus simulations: an overview of galaxy properties at z=0
• Evolution and Role of Mergers in the BCG-Cluster Alignment. A View from Cosmological Hydro-Simulations
• Aging of galaxies along the morphological sequence, marked by bulge growth and disk quenching
• Evolution of galaxy groups in the Illustris simulation
• VIS3COS: III. environmental effects on the star formation histories of galaxies at z~0.8 seen in [OII], H$\delta$, and Dn4000
• GOGREEN: a critical assessment of environmental trends in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations at z ~ 1
• Quantifying the role of ram pressure stripping of galaxies within galaxy groups
• Brightest Group Galaxies: Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate (paper I)
• Evolution of the galaxy luminosity function in progenitors of fossil groups
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): 'No Smoking' zone for giant elliptical galaxies?
• Merger histories of brightest group galaxies from MUSE stellar kinematics
• The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: Constraints on AGN Feedback in Galaxy Groups
• Death at watersheds: galaxy quenching in low-density environments
• Anisotropic infall in the outskirts of OmegaWINGS galaxy clusters
• The present-day gas content of simulated field dwarf galaxies
• A Framework for Empirical Galaxy Phenomenology: The Scatter in Galaxy Ages and Stellar Metallicities
• Spatially-resolved properties of early-type group-dominant galaxies with MUSE: gas content, ionisation mechanisms and metallicity gradients
• Velocity dispersion of the brightest cluster galaxies in cosmological simulations
• AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: galaxy population properties and their redshift dependence
• The Obsidian model: Three regimes of black hole feedback
• Brightest group galaxies-II: the relative contribution of BGGs to the total baryon content of groups at z<1.3
• Kinematic unrest of low mass galaxy groups
• The Connection between Star-Forming Galaxies, AGN Host Galaxies and Early-Type Galaxies in the SDSS
• The Stellar Mass Assembly of Low Redshift, Massive, Central Galaxies in SDSS and the TNG300 simulation
• On the nature of Small Galaxy Systems
• AMICO-COSMOS galaxy cluster and group catalogue up to $z=2$: Sample properties and X-ray counterparts
• Star forming and gas rich brightest cluster galaxies at $z\sim 0.4$ in the Kilo-Degree Survey
• Constraints on Fluctuating Star Formation Rates for Intermediate-mass Galaxies with H$\alpha$ and UV Luminosities
• On the origin of red spirals: Does assembly bias play a role?
• Insights into the evolution of five isolated galaxies

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The COSMOS-Web deep galaxy group catalog up to $z=3.7$
• REBELS-IFU: Spatially Resolved Ionizing Photon Production Efficiencies of 12 Bright Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
• Star formation quenching precedes morphological transformation in COSMOS-WEB's richest galaxy groups
• The Journey to Dominance: How BCGs Evolve Differently from Other Massive Galaxies
• Forged by Feedback: Stellar Properties of Brightest Group Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations