Modelling the quenching of star formation activity from the evolution of the colour-magnitude relation in VIPERS
Journal
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Manzoni, G.
•
•
Baugh, C. M.
•
Norberg, P.
•
•
Fritz, A.
•
Haines, C. P.
•
Zamorani, G.
•
•
Guzzo, L.
•
•
Małek, K.
•
Pollo, A.
•
Siudek, M.
•
Abstract
We study the evolution of the colour-magnitude relation for galaxies in the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) by introducing the concept of the bright edge, and use this to derive constraints on the quenching of star formation activity in galaxies over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.1. The bright-edge of the colour-magnitude diagram evolves with little dependence on galaxy colour, and therefore on the amount of star formation taking place in bright galaxies. We modelled this evolution with delayed exponential star formation histories (SFHs), to better understand the average time-scale of the turn-off in star formation activity. We show that using SFHs without quenching, the transition from the blue cloud to the red sequence is too slow. This indicates that a scenario purely driven by the consumption of the gas inside each galaxy does not reproduce the observed evolution of the colour-magnitude bright edge. For instantaneous quenching, the best match to the observations assumes that galaxies stop their star formation at a randomly distributed time up to ∼ 2 - 2.5 Gyr after observation. We argue that quenching is required over a wide range of stellar masses. Qualitatively similar evolution of the bright edge is found in the predictions of a semi-analytical galaxy formation model, but quantitatively there are marked differences with the observations. This illustrates the utility of the bright edge as a test of galaxy formation models. The evolution changes and no longer matches the observed trend if feedback from heating by active galactic nuclei is turned off.
Volume
84
Start page
101515
Issn Identifier
1384-1076
Ads BibCode
2021NewA...8401515M
Rights
open.access
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
1-s2.0-S1384107620301445-main.pdf
Description
[Administrators only]
Size
8.78 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a93664d89cc5b2ed1a424ca5218d8596
Loading...
Name
1911.02445.pdf
Description
preprint
Size
2.77 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
91e03a6c7c319eb013be7452b5123304