Engineering topics

Walters, Dan (ORCID:0000000274295871)

Publications and source records attributed to Walters, Dan (ORCID:0000000274295871).

2 records

DOE OSTI2022

The ALMaQUEST Survey X: what powers merger induced star formation?

ABSTRACT Galaxy mergers are known to trigger both extended and central star formation. However, what remains to be understood is whether this triggered star formation is facilitated by enhanced star formation efficiencies (SFEs), or an abundance of molecular gas fuel. This work presents spatially resolved measurements of CO emission collected with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) for 20 merging galaxies (either pairs or post-mergers) selected from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. Eleven additional merging galaxies are selected from the ALMA MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, resulting in a set of 31 mergers at various stages of interaction and covering a broad range of star formation rates (SFRs). We investigate galaxy-to-galaxy variations in the resolved Kennicutt–Schmidt relation, (rKS: $\Sigma _{\textrm {H}_2}$ versus ΣSFR), the resolved molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS: Σ⋆ versus $\Sigma _{\textrm {H}_2}$), and the resolved star-forming main sequence (rSFMS: Σ⋆ versus ΣSFR). We quantify offsets from these resolved relations to determine if SFR, molecular gas fraction, or/and SFE is/are enhanced in different regions of an individual galaxy. By comparing offsets in all three parameters, we can discern whether gas fraction or SFE powers an enhanced ΣSFR. We find that merger-induced star formation can be driven by a variety of mechanisms, both within a galaxy and between different mergers, regardless of interaction stage.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Quenching time-scales in the IllustrisTNG simulation

ABSTRACT The time-scales for galaxy quenching offer clues to its underlying physical drivers. We investigate central galaxy quenching time-scales in the IllustrisTNG 100-1 simulation, their evolution over time, and the pre-quenching properties of galaxies that predict their quenching time-scales. Defining quenching duration τq as the time between crossing specific star formation rate (sSFR) thresholds, we find that ${\sim} 40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of galaxies quench rapidly with τq < 1 Gyr, but a substantial tail of galaxies can take up to 10 Gyr to quench. Furthermore, 29 per cent of galaxies that left the star-forming main sequence (SFMS) more than 2 Gyr ago never fully quench by z = 0. While the median τq is fairly constant with epoch, the rate of galaxies leaving the SFMS increases steadily over cosmic time, with the rate of slow quenchers being dominant around z ∼ 2–0.7. Compared to fast quenchers (τq < 1 Gyr), slow-quenching galaxies (τq > 1 Gyr) were more massive, had more massive black holes, had larger stellar radii, and accreted gas with higher specific angular momentum (AM) prior to quenching. These properties evolve little by z = 0, except for the accreting gas AM for fast quenchers, which reaches the same high AM as the gas in slow quenchers. By z = 0, slow quenchers also have residual star formation in extended gas rings. Using the expected relationship between stellar age gradient and τq for inside-out quenching we find agreement with Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) integral field unit (IFU) observations. Our results suggest the accreting gas AM and potential well depth determine the quenching time-scale.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗