Star formation and stellar & AGN feedback in the absence of accretion, not gas stripping, set the quenching timescale in satellite galaxies

Abstract

Observational measurements hint at a peak in the quenching timescale of satellite galaxies in groups and clusters as a function of their stellar masses at $M_{\star }\approx 10^{9.5}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$; less and more massive satellite galaxies quench faster. We investigate the origin of these trends using the EAGLE simulation in which they are qualitatively reproduced for satellites with $10^9<M_{\star }/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }<10^{11}$ around hosts of $10^{13}<M_{200c}/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }<10^{14.6}$. We select gas particles of simulated galaxies at the time that they become satellites and track their evolution. Interpreting these data yields insights into the prevailing mechanism that leads to the depletion of the interstellar medium (ISM) and the cessation of star formation. We find that for satellites across our entire range in stellar mass the quenching timescale is to leading order set by the depletion of the ISM by star formation and stellar & AGN feedback in the absence of sustained accretion of fresh gas. The turnover in the quenching timescale as a function of stellar mass is a direct consequence of the maximum in the star formation efficiency (or equivalently the minimum in the total -- stellar plus AGN -- feedback efficiency) at the same stellar mass. We can discern the direct stripping of the ISM by ram pressure and/or tides in the simulations; these mechanisms modulate the quenching timescale but do not drive its overall scaling with satellite stellar mass. Our findings argue against a scenario in which the turnover in the quenching timescale is a consequence of the competing influences of gas stripping and 'starvation'.

16 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (31)

• 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
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• The effect of photo-ionization on the cooling rates of enriched, astrophysical plasmas
• Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations
• The Importance of Satellite Quenching for the Build-Up of the Red Sequence of Present Day Galaxies
• Modelling discontinuities and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in SPH
• Inviscid SPH
• Ram Pressure Stripping in High-Density Environments
• LoCuSS: The slow quenching of star formation in cluster galaxies and the need for pre-processing
• Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters
• The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies
• A chronicle of galaxy mass assembly in the EAGLE simulation
• How do central and satellite galaxies quench? -- Insights from spatially resolved spectroscopy in the MaNGA survey
• Galactic outflow rates in the EAGLE simulations
• The influence of the environmental history on quenching star formation in a $\Lambda$CDM universe
• Satellite quenching timescales in clusters from projected phase space measurements matched to simulated orbits
• Overconsumption, outflows and the quenching of satellite galaxies
• Physical properties of SDSS satellite galaxies in projected phase-space
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Environmental Quenching of Centrals and Satellites in Groups
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Inside-out vs. outside-in quenching in different local environments
• A homogeneous measurement of the delay between the onsets of gas stripping and star formation quenching in satellite galaxies of groups and clusters
• Galactic inflow and wind recycling rates in the EAGLE simulations
• YZiCS: Unveiling Quenching History of Cluster Galaxies Using Phase-space Analysis
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: Public release of particle data
• CANDELS Sheds Light on the Environmental Quenching of Low-mass Galaxies
• How gas flows shape the stellar-halo mass relation in the EAGLE simulation
• GOGREEN: a critical assessment of environmental trends in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations at z ~ 1
• Baryonic mass budgets for haloes in the EAGLE simulation, including ejected and prevented gas
• Constraining quenching timescales in galaxy clusters by forward-modelling stellar ages and quiescent fractions in projected phase space
• Star formation concentration as a tracer of environmental quenching in action: a study of the Eagle and C-Eagle simulations

Cited by in corpus (2)

• The ALMaQUEST Survey XVII: Unveiling Multiple Quenching Pathways in Green Valley Galaxies via Molecular Gas and Quenching Timescale Analyses
• The role of gas stripping in the quenching of satellite galaxies using SHARK v2.0