The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency
Abstract
Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-DR7, including structural measurements from 2D surface brightness fits with GIM2D, we show how the fraction of quiescent galaxies depends on galaxy stellar mass M*, effective radius Re, fraction of r-band light in the bulge, B/T, and their status as a central or satellite galaxy at 0.01 < z < 0.2. For central galaxies we confirm that the quiescent fraction depends not only on stellar mass, but also on Re. The dependence is particularly strong as a function of M_*/R_e^α, with α ∼ 1.5. This appears to be driven by a simple dependence on B/T over the mass range 9 < log (M*/M⊙) < 11.5, and is qualitatively similar even if galaxies with B/T > 0.3 are excluded. For satellite galaxies, the quiescent fraction is always larger than that of central galaxies, for any combination of M*, Re and B/T. The quenching efficiency is not constant, but reaches a maximum of ∼0.7 for galaxies with 9 < log (M*/M⊙) < 9.5 and Re < 1 kpc. This is the same region of parameter space in which the satellite fraction itself reaches its maximum value, suggesting that the transformation from an active central galaxy to a quiescent satellite is associated with a reduction in Re due to an increase in dominance of a bulge component.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- May 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu331
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1402.3394
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.440..843O
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: evolution;
- galaxies: structure;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 17 pages, 28 figures, accepted to MNRAS. Catalog available at http://quixote.uwaterloo.ca/~mbalogh/downloads/Omand_published.fits