CANDELS Sheds Light on the Environmental Quenching of Low-mass Galaxies

Journal
Date Issued
2017
Author(s)
Guo, Yicheng
•
Bell, Eric F.
•
Lu, Yu
•
Koo, David C.
•
Faber, S. M.
•
Koekemoer, Anton M.
•
Kurczynski, Peter
•
Lee, Seong-Kook
•
Papovich, Casey
•
Chen, Zhu
•
Dekel, Avishai
•
Ferguson, Henry C.
•
•
Giavalisco, Mauro
•
Kocevski, Dale D.
•
Nayyeri, Hooshang
•
Pérez-González, Pablo G.
•
Pforr, Janine
•
Rodríguez-Puebla, Aldo
•
DOI
Abstract
We investigate the environmental quenching of galaxies, especially those with stellar masses (M *) < 109.5 M ☉, beyond the local universe. Essentially all local low-mass quenched galaxies (QGs) are believed to live close to massive central galaxies, which is a demonstration of environmental quenching. We use CANDELS data to test whether or not such a dwarf QG-massive central galaxy connection exists beyond the local universe. For this purpose, we only need a statistically representative, rather than complete, sample of low-mass galaxies, which enables our study to z ≳ 1.5. For each low-mass galaxy, we measure the projected distance (d proj) to its nearest massive neighbor (M * > 1010.5 M ☉) within a redshift range. At a given z and M *, the environmental quenching effect is considered to be observed if the d proj distribution of QGs ({d}{proj}Q) is significantly skewed toward lower values than that of star-forming galaxies ({d}{proj}{SF}). For galaxies with 108 M ☉ < M * < 1010 M ☉, such a difference between {d}{proj}Q and {d}{proj}{SF} is detected up to z ∼ 1. Also, about 10% of the quenched galaxies in our sample are located between two and four virial radii (R Vir) of the massive halos. The median projected distance from low-mass QGs to their massive neighbors, {d}{proj}Q/{R}{Vir}, decreases with satellite M * at M * ≲ 109.5 M ☉, but increases with satellite M * at M * ≳ 109.5 M ☉. This trend suggests a smooth, if any, transition of the quenching timescale around M * ∼ 109.5 M ☉ at 0.5 < z < 1.0.
Volume
841
Issue
2
Start page
L22
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
2041-8205
Ads BibCode
2017ApJ...841L..22G
Rights
open.access
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