GASP XIII. Star formation in gas outside galaxies Poggianti, Bianca M; Gullieuszik, Marco; Tonnesen, Stephanie ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
02/2019, Letnik:
482, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Exploiting the data from the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE (GASP) program, we compare the integrated star formation rate-mass relation (SFR-M*) relation of 42 cluster galaxies ...undergoing ram-pressure stripping (RPS; "stripping galaxies") to that of 32 field and cluster undisturbed galaxies. Theoretical predictions have so far led to contradictory conclusions about whether or not ram pressure can enhance the star formation (SF) in the gas disks and tails, and until now a statistically significant observed sample of stripping galaxies was lacking. We find that stripping galaxies occupy the upper envelope of the control sample SFR-M* relation, showing a systematic enhancement of the SFR at any given mass. The star formation enhancement occurs in the disk (0.2 dex), and additional SF takes place in the tails. Our results suggest that strong RPS events can moderately enhance the SF also in the disk prior to gas removal.
Within the GASP survey, aimed at studying the effect of ram pressure stripping on star formation quenching in cluster galaxies, we analyze here ALMA observations of the jellyfish galaxy JW100. We ...find an unexpected large amount of molecular gas (∼2.5 × 1010 ), 30% of which is located in the stripped gas tail out to ∼35 kpc from the galaxy center. The overall kinematics of the molecular gas is similar to the one shown by the ionized gas, but for clear signatures of double components along the stripping direction detected only out to 2 kpc from the disk. The line ratio r21 has a clumpy distribution and in the tail can reach large values (≥1), while its average value is low (0.58 with a 0.15 dispersion). All these evidence strongly suggest that the molecular gas in the tail is newly born from stripped H i gas or newly condensed from stripped diffuse molecular gas. The analysis of interferometric data at different scales reveals that a significant fraction (∼40%) of the molecular gas is extended over large scales (≥8 kpc) in the disk, and this fraction becomes predominant in the tail (∼70%). By comparing the molecular gas surface density with the star formation rate surface density derived from the H emission from MUSE data, we find that the depletion time on 1 kpc scale is particularly large (5-10 Gyr) both within the ram-pressure-disturbed region in the stellar disk and in the complexes along the tail.
With MUSE, Chandra, VLA, ALMA, and UVIT data from the GASP program, we study the multiphase baryonic components in a jellyfish galaxy (JW100) with a stellar mass 3.2 × 1011 M hosting an active ...galactic nucleus (AGN). We present its spectacular extraplanar tails of ionized and molecular gas, UV stellar light, and X-ray and radio continuum emission. This galaxy represents an excellent laboratory to study the interplay between different gas phases and star formation and the influence of gas stripping, gas heating, and AGNs. We analyze the physical origin of the emission at different wavelengths in the tail, in particular in situ star formation (related to H , CO, and UV emission), synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons (producing the radio continuum), and heating of the stripped interstellar medium (ISM; responsible for the X-ray emission). We show the similarities and differences of the spatial distributions of ionized gas, molecular gas, and UV light and argue that the mismatch on small scales (1 kpc) is due to different stages of the star formation process. We present the relation H -X-ray surface brightness, which is steeper for star-forming regions than for diffuse ionized gas regions with a high O i/H ratio. We propose that ISM heating due to interaction with the intracluster medium (either for mixing, thermal conduction, or shocks) is responsible for the X-ray tail, observed O i excess, and lack of star formation in the northern part of the tail. We also report the tentative discovery in the tail of the most distant (and among the brightest) currently known ULX, a pointlike ultraluminous X-ray source commonly originating in a binary stellar system powered by either an intermediate-mass black hole or a magnetized neutron star.
Abstract
Exploiting broad- and narrowband images of the Hubble Space Telescope from the near-UV to
I
-band rest frame, we study the star-forming clumps of six galaxies of the GASP sample undergoing ...strong ram pressure stripping. Clumps are detected in H
α
and near-UV, tracing star formation on different timescales. We consider clumps located in galaxy disks and stripped tails and formed in stripped gas but still close to the disk, called extraplanar. We detect 2406 H
α
-selected clumps (1708 in disks, 375 in extraplanar regions, and 323 in tails) and 3745 UV-selected clumps (2021 disk, 825 extraplanar, and 899 tail clumps). Only ∼15% of star-forming clumps are spatially resolved, meaning that most are smaller than ∼140 pc. We study the luminosity and size distribution functions (LDFs and SDFs, respectively) and the luminosity–size relation. The average LDF slope is 1.79 ± 0.09, while the average SDF slope is 3.1 ± 0.5. The results suggest that the star formation is turbulence-driven and scale-free, as in main-sequence galaxies. All of the clumps, whether they are in the disks or tails, have an enhanced H
α
luminosity at a given size, compared to the clumps in main-sequence galaxies. Indeed, their H
α
luminosity is closer to that of clumps in starburst galaxies, indicating that ram pressure is able to enhance the luminosity. No striking differences are found among disk and tail clumps, suggesting that the different environments in which they are embedded play a minor role in influencing the star formation.
Abstract
Determining which between projected local density and distance from the cluster center plays a major role in regulating morphological fractions in clusters is a longstanding debate. Reaching ...a definitive answer will shed light on the main physical mechanisms at play in the most extreme environments. Here we make use of the data from the OmegaWINGS survey, currently the largest survey of clusters in the local universe extending beyond 2 virial radii from the cluster cores, to extend the previous analysis outside the virial radius. Local density and clustercentric distance seems to play different roles for galaxies of different morphology: the fraction of elliptical galaxies mainly depends on local density, suggesting that their formation was linked to the primordial densities, which now correspond to the cluster cores. Only the fraction of low-mass ellipticals shows an anticorrelation with clustercentric distance, suggesting a different origin for these objects. Excluding elliptical galaxies, the relative fraction of S0s and spirals instead depends on local density only far from the cluster cores, while within the virial radius their proportion is regulated by distance, suggesting that cluster-specific processes halt the star formation and transform Sp galaxies into S0s. This interpretation is supported by literature results on the kinematical analysis of early- and late-type galaxies, according to which fast and slow rotators have distinct dependencies on halo mass and local density.
Abstract
Galaxies inhabit a wide range of environments and therefore are affected by different physical mechanisms. Spatially resolved maps combined with the knowledge of the hosting environment are ...very powerful for classifying galaxies by physical process. In the context of the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP), we present a study of 27 non-cluster galaxies: 24 of them were selected for showing asymmetries and disturbances in the optical morphology, suggestive of gas stripping; 3 of them are passive galaxies and were included to characterize the final stages of galaxy evolution. We therefore provide a panorama of the different processes taking place in low-density environments. The analysis of VLT/MUSE data allows us to separate galaxies into the following categories: galaxy–galaxy interactions (2 galaxies), mergers (6), ram pressure stripping (4), cosmic web stripping (2), cosmic web enhancement (5), gas accretion (3), and starvation (3). In one galaxy we identify the combination of merger and ram pressure stripping. Only 6/27 of these galaxies have just a tentative classification. We then investigate where these galaxies are located on scaling relations determined for a sample of undisturbed galaxies. Our analysis shows the successes and limitations of a visual optical selection in identifying the processes that deplete galaxies of their gas content and probes the power of IFU data in pinning down the acting mechanism.
Abstract
Growing evidence in support of a connection between active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity and the ram pressure stripping (RPS) phenomenon has been found both observationally and ...theoretically in the past decades. In this work, we further explore the impact of RPS on the AGN activity by estimating the gas-phase metallicity of nuclear regions and the mass–metallicity relation of galaxies at
z
≤ 0.07 and with stellar masses
log
M
*
/
M
⊙
≥
9.0
, either experiencing RPS or not. To measure oxygen abundances, we exploit Integral Field Spectroscopy data from the GASP and MaNGA surveys, photoionization models generated with the code
Cloudy
and the code
Nebulabayes
to compare models and observations. In particular, we build
Cloudy
models to reproduce line ratios induced by photoionization from stars, AGN, or a contribution of both. We find that the distributions of metallicity and O
iii
λ
5007 luminosity of galaxies undergoing RPS are similar to the ones of undisturbed galaxies. Independently of the RPS, we do not find a correlation between stellar mass and AGN metallicity in the mass range
log
M
*
/
M
⊙
≥
10.4
, while for the star-forming galaxies we observe the well-known mass–metallicity relation between
9.0
≤
log
M
*
/
M
⊙
≤
10.8
with a scatter mainly driven by the star formation rate and a plateau around
log
M
*
/
M
⊙
∼
10.5
. The gas-phase metallicity in the nuclei of AGN hosts is enhanced with respect to those of star-forming galaxies by a factor of ∼ 0.05 dex regardless of the RPS.
Abstract
X-ray studies of jellyfish galaxies play a crucial role in understanding the interactions between the interstellar medium (ISM) and the intracluster medium (ICM). In this paper, we focused ...on the jellyfish galaxy JO201. By combining archival Chandra observations, Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer H
α
cubes, and maps of the emission fraction of the diffuse ionized gas, we investigated both its high-energy spectral properties and the spatial correlation between its X-ray and optical emissions. The X-ray emission of JO201 is provided by both the Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (
L
= 2.7 · 10
41
erg s
−1
, not corrected for intrinsic absorption) and an extended component (
L
1.9–4.5 · 10
41
erg s
−1
) produced by a warm plasma (
kT
keV), whose luminosity is higher than expected from the observed star formation (
L
3.8 · 10
40
erg s
−1
). The spectral analysis showed that the X-ray emission is consistent with the thermal cooling of hot plasma. These properties are similar to the ones found in other jellyfish galaxies showing extended X-ray emission. A point-to-point analysis revealed that this X-ray emission closely follows the ISM distribution, whereas
CLOUDY
simulations proved that the ionization triggered by this warm plasma would be able to reproduce the O
i
/H
α
excess observed in JO201. We conclude that the galactic X-ray emitting plasma originates on the surface of the ISM as a result of the ICM–ISM interplay. This process would entail the cooling and accretion of the ICM onto the galaxy, which could additionally fuel the star formation, and the emergence of O
i
/H
α
excess in the optical spectrum.
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