What Drives Galaxies from the Main Sequence to the Green Valley?
Abstract
Green valley galaxies (by selection) exhibit lower specific star formation rates and are thought to be in the transition from the active star-forming phase to the quiescent state. Physical mechanisms responsible for the depleted star formation in green valley galaxies, however, are still under debate. Using the ALMA-MaNGA Quenching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) CO observations, we study the so-called `resolved star formation scaling relations', which describe relationships among surface densities of star formation rate, stellar mass, and molecular gas mass. By comparing the kpc-scale scaling relations between the main sequence and green valley galaxies, we are able to quantify if the deficit of star formation in green valley galaxies is driven by depleted molecular gas or inefficient star formation. And finally, we present our recent ALMA dense gas (HCN and HCO+) observations for a set of selected ALMaQUEST galaxies to discuss whether the green valley galaxies lack dense molecular gas or not.
- Publication:
-
Resolving the Rise and Fall of Star Formation in Galaxies
- Pub Date:
- 2023
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921322004410
- Bibcode:
- 2023IAUS..373..173L
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxies;
- Molecular Gas;
- Galaxy Evolution