Post-starburst (or “E+A”) galaxies trace the fastest and most dramatic processes in galaxy evolution. Recent work studying the evolution of galaxies through this phase has revealed insights on how ...galaxies undergo structural and stellar population changes as well as the role of various feedback mechanisms. In this review, I summarize recent work on identifying post-starburst galaxies; tracing the role of this phase through cosmic time; measuring stellar populations, on-going star formation, morphologies, kinematics, interstellar medium properties, and active galactic nucleus activity; mechanisms to cause the recent starburst and its end; and the future evolution to quiescence (or not). The review concludes with a list of open questions and exciting possibilities for future facilities.
We constrain the recent star formation histories of the host galaxies of eight optical/UV-detected tidal disruption events (TDEs). Six hosts had quick starbursts of <200 Myr duration that ended ...10-1000 Myr ago, indicating that TDEs arise at different times in their hosts' post-starburst evolution. If the disrupted star formed in the burst or before, the post-burst age constrains its mass, generally excluding O, most B, and highly massive A stars. If the starburst arose from a galaxy merger, the time since the starburst began limits the coalescence timescale and thus the merger mass ratio to more equal than 12:1 in most hosts. This uncommon ratio, if also that of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary, disfavors the scenario in which the TDE rate is boosted by the binary but is insensitive to its mass ratio. The stellar mass fraction created in the burst is 0.5%-10% for most hosts, not enough to explain the observed 30-200× boost in TDE rates, suggesting that the host's core stellar concentration is more important. TDE hosts have stellar masses 109.4-1010.3 M☉, consistent with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey volume-corrected, quiescent Balmer-strong comparison sample and implying SMBH masses of 105.5-107.5 M☉. Subtracting the host absorption line spectrum, we uncover emission lines; at least five hosts have ionization sources inconsistent with star formation that instead may be related to circumnuclear gas, merger shocks, or post-AGB stars.
Recent studies of Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) have revealed unexpected correlations between the TDE rate and the large-scale properties of the host galaxies. In this review, we present the host ...galaxy properties of all TDE candidates known to date and quantify their distributions. We consider throughout the differences between observationally-identified types of TDEs and differences from spectroscopic control samples of galaxies. We focus here on the black hole and stellar masses of TDE host galaxies, their star formation histories and stellar populations, the concentration and morphology of the optical light, the presence of AGN activity, and the extra-galactic environment of the TDE hosts. We summarize the state of several possible explanations for the links between the TDE rate and host galaxy type. We present estimates of the TDE rate for different host galaxy types and quantify the degree to which rate enhancement in some types results in rate suppression in others. We discuss the possibilities for using TDE host galaxies to assist in identifying TDEs in upcoming large transient surveys and possibilities for TDE observations to be used to study their host galaxies.
Abstract We report the discovery of an extended emission-line region (EELR) in MUSE observations of Markarian 950, a nearby ( z = 0.01628) poststarburst (PSB) galaxy that hosted the tidal disruption ...event (TDE) iPTF 16fnl. The EELR requires a nonstellar ionizing continuum with a luminosity L ion , min ≳ 10 43 erg s −1 , inconsistent with the current weak state ( L IR,AGN < 2.5 × 10 42 erg s −1 ) of the galactic nucleus. The ionized gas has low velocity (∼–50 km s −1 ) and low turbulence ( σ gas ≲ 50 km s −1 ) and is kinematically decoupled from the stellar motions, indicating that the gas kinematics is not active galactic nucleus (AGN) driven. Markarian 950 is the third PSB galaxy to host a weak nuclear ionizing source as well as an EELR and a TDE. The overall properties of these three galaxies, including the kinematics and accretion history, are unusual but strikingly similar. We estimate that the incidence of EELRs in PSB-TDE hosts is a factor of ∼10 × higher than in other PSB galaxies. This suggests that a gas-rich postmerger environment is a key ingredient in driving elevated TDE rates. Based on the current observations, we cannot rule out that the EELRs may be powered through an elevated TDE rate in these galaxies. If the EELRs are not TDE powered, the presence of intermittent AGN activity, and in particular the fading of the AGN, may be associated with an increased TDE rate and/or an increased rate of detecting TDEs.
Detailed modeling of the recent star formation histories (SFHs) of post-starburst (or "E+A") galaxies is impeded by the degeneracy between the time elapsed since the starburst ended (post-burst age), ...the fraction of stellar mass produced in the burst (burst strength), and the burst duration. To resolve this issue, we combine GALEX ultraviolet photometry, SDSS photometry and spectra, and new stellar population synthesis models to fit the SFHs of 532 post-starburst galaxies. In addition to an old stellar population and a recent starburst, 48% of the galaxies are best fit with a second recent burst. Lower stellar mass galaxies (log M /M☉ < 10.5) are more likely to experience two recent bursts, and the fraction of their young stellar mass is more strongly anticorrelated with their total stellar mass. Applying our methodology to other, younger post-starburst samples, we identify likely progenitors to our sample and examine the evolutionary trends of molecular gas and dust content with post-burst age. We discover a significant (4 ) decline, with a 117-230 Myr characteristic depletion time, in the molecular gas to stellar mass fraction with the post-burst age. The implied rapid gas depletion rate of 2-150 M☉ yr−1 cannot be due to current star formation, given the upper limits on the current star formation rates in these post-starbursts. Nor are stellar winds or supernova feedback likely to explain this decline. Instead, the decline points to the expulsion or destruction of molecular gas in outflows, a possible smoking gun for active galactic nucleus feedback.
We present the discovery and early evolution of ASASSN-19bt, a tidal disruption event (TDE) discovered by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) at a distance of d 115 Mpc and the ...first TDE to be detected by TESS. As the TDE is located in the TESS Continuous Viewing Zone, our data set includes 30 minute cadence observations starting on 2018 July 25, and we precisely measure that the TDE begins to brighten ∼8.3 days before its discovery. Our data set also includes 18 epochs of Swift UVOT and XRT observations, 2 epochs of XMM-Newton observations, 13 spectroscopic observations, and ground data from the Las Cumbres Observatory telescope network, spanning from 32 days before peak through 37 days after peak. ASASSN-19bt thus has the most detailed pre-peak data set for any TDE. The TESS light curve indicates that the transient began to brighten on 2019 January 21.6 and that for the first 15 days, its rise was consistent with a flux ∝t2 power-law model. The optical/UV emission is well fit by a blackbody spectral energy distribution, and ASASSN-19bt exhibits an early spike in its luminosity and temperature roughly 32 rest-frame days before peak and spanning up to 14 days, which has not been seen in other TDEs, possibly because UV observations were not triggered early enough to detect it. It peaked on 2019 March 4.9 at a luminosity of L 1.3 × 1044 erg s−1 and radiated E 3.2 × 1050 erg during the 41 day rise to peak. X-ray observations after peak indicate a softening of the hard X-ray emission prior to peak, reminiscent of the hard/soft states in X-ray binaries.
We derive dust masses (Mdust) from the spectral energy distributions of 58 post-starburst galaxies (PSBs). There is an anticorrelation between specific dust mass (Mdust/M ) and the time elapsed since ...the starburst ended, indicating that dust was either destroyed, expelled, or rendered undetectable over the ∼1 Gyr after the burst. The Mdust/M depletion timescale, , is consistent with that of the CO-traced , suggesting that dust and gas are altered via the same process. Extrapolating these trends leads to the Mdust/M and values of early-type galaxies (ETGs) within 1-2 Gyr, a timescale consistent with the evolution of other PSB properties into ETGs. Comparing Mdust and for PSBs yields a calibration, log , that allows us to place 33 PSBs on the Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) plane, . Over the first ∼200-300 Myr, the PSBs evolve down and off of the KS relation, as their star formation rate (SFR) decreases more rapidly than . Afterwards, continues to decline whereas the SFR levels off. These trends suggest that the star formation efficiency bottoms out at 10−11 yr−1 and will rise to ETG levels within 0.5-1.1 Gyr afterwards. The SFR decline after the burst is likely due to the absence of gas denser than the CO-traced H2. The mechanism of the Mdust/M and decline, whose timescale suggests active galactic nucleus/low-ionization nuclear emission-line region feedback, may also be preventing the large CO-traced molecular gas reservoirs from collapsing and forming denser star-forming clouds.
ABSTRACT
We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging of a pre-explosion counterpart to SN 2019yvr obtained 2.6 yr before its explosion as a type Ib supernova (SN Ib). Aligning to a post-explosion ...Gemini-S/GSAOI image, we demonstrate that there is a single source consistent with being the SN 2019yvr progenitor system, the second SN Ib progenitor candidate after iPTF13bvn. We also analysed pre-explosion Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) imaging, but we do not detect any counterparts at the SN location. SN 2019yvr was highly reddened, and comparing its spectra and photometry to those of other, less extinguished SNe Ib we derive $E(B-V)=0.51\substack{+0.27\\
-0.16}$ mag for SN 2019yvr. Correcting photometry of the pre-explosion source for dust reddening, we determine that this source is consistent with a log (L/L⊙) = 5.3 ± 0.2 and $T_{\mathrm{eff}} = 6800\substack{+400\\
-200}$ K star. This relatively cool photospheric temperature implies a radius of 320$\substack{+30\\
-50}~\mathrm{ R}_{\odot}$, much larger than expectations for SN Ib progenitor stars with trace amounts of hydrogen but in agreement with previously identified SN IIb progenitor systems. The photometry of the system is also consistent with binary star models that undergo common envelope evolution, leading to a primary star hydrogen envelope mass that is mostly depleted but still seemingly in conflict with the SN Ib classification of SN 2019yvr. SN 2019yvr had signatures of strong circumstellar interaction in late-time (>150 d) spectra and imaging, and so we consider eruptive mass-loss and common envelope evolution scenarios that explain the SN Ib spectroscopic class, pre-explosion counterpart, and dense circumstellar material. We also hypothesize that the apparent inflation could be caused by a quasi-photosphere formed in an extended, low-density envelope, or circumstellar matter around the primary star.
ABSTRACT Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) are transient events observed when a star passes close enough to a supermassive black hole to be tidally destroyed. Many TDE candidates have been discovered in ...host galaxies whose spectra have weak or no line emission yet strong Balmer line absorption, indicating a period of intense star formation that has recently ended. As such, TDE host galaxies fall into the rare class of quiescent Balmer-strong galaxies. Here, we quantify the fraction of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with spectral properties like those of TDE hosts, determining the extent to which TDEs are over-represented in such galaxies. Galaxies whose spectra have Balmer absorption − (H ) > 4 (where (H ) is the error in the Lick index) and H emission equivalent width (EW) < 3 have had a strong starburst in the last ∼Gyr. They represent 0.2% of the local galaxy population, yet host 3 of 8 (37.5%) optical/UV-selected TDE candidates. A broader cut, 1.31 and H EW < 3 , nets only 2.3% of SDSS galaxies, but 6 of 8 (75%) optical/UV TDE hosts. Thus, quiescent Balmer-strong galaxies are over-represented among the TDE hosts by a factor of 33-190. The high-energy-selected TDE Swift J1644 also lies in a galaxy with strong Balmer lines and weak H emission, implying a enhancement in such hosts and providing an observational link between the γ/X-ray-bright and optical/UV-bright TDE classes.
Abstract
How do galaxies transform from blue, star-forming spirals to red, quiescent early-type galaxies? To answer this question, we analyzed a set of 26 gas-rich, shocked post-starburst galaxies ...with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging in
B
,
I
, and
H
bands and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
i
-band imaging of similar depth but lower resolution. We found that post-starbursts in our sample have intermediate morphologies between disk- and bulge-dominated (Sérsic
n
=
1.7
−
0.0
+
0.3
) and have red bulges, likely due to dust obscuration in the cores. A majority of galaxies in our sample are more morphologically disturbed than regular galaxies (88%, corresponding to >3
σ
significance) when observed with HST, with asymmetry and Sérsic residual flux fraction being the most successful measures of disturbance. Most disturbances are undetected at the lower resolution of SDSS imaging. Although ∼27% galaxies are clear merger remnants, we found that disturbances in another ∼30% of the sample are internal, caused by small-scale perturbations or dust substructures rather than tidal features, and require high-resolution imaging to detect. We found 2.8
σ
evidence that asymmetry features fade on timescales ∼200 Myr, and may vanish entirely after ∼750 Myr, so we do not rule out a possible merger origin of all post-starbursts given that asymmetric features may have already faded. This work highlights the importance of small-scale disturbances, detected only in high-resolution imaging, in understanding structural evolution of transitioning galaxies.
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