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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : galaxy environments and star formation rate variations

Wijesinghe, D.B.; Hopkins, A.M.; Brough, S.; Taylor, E.N.; Norberg, P.; Bauer, A.; Brown, M.J.I.; Cameron, E.; Conselice, C.J.; Croom, S.; Driver, S.; Grootes, M.W.; Jones, D.H.; Kelvin, L.; Loveday, J.; Pimbblet, K.A.; Popescu, C.C.; Prescott, M.; Sharp, R.; Baldry, I.; Sadler, E.M.; Liske, J.; Robotham, A.S.G.; Bamford, S.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Gunawardhana, M.; Meyer, M.; Parkinson, H.; Drinkwater, M.J.; Peacock, J.; Tuffs, R.

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Authors

D.B. Wijesinghe

A.M. Hopkins

S. Brough

E.N. Taylor

A. Bauer

M.J.I. Brown

E. Cameron

C.J. Conselice

S. Croom

S. Driver

M.W. Grootes

D.H. Jones

L. Kelvin

J. Loveday

K.A. Pimbblet

C.C. Popescu

M. Prescott

R. Sharp

I. Baldry

E.M. Sadler

J. Liske

A.S.G. Robotham

S. Bamford

J. Bland-Hawthorn

M. Gunawardhana

M. Meyer

H. Parkinson

M.J. Drinkwater

J. Peacock

R. Tuffs



Abstract

We present a detailed investigation into the effects of galaxy environment on their star formation rates (SFRs) using galaxies observed in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We use three independent volume-limited samples of galaxies within z < 0.2 and Mr < −17.8. We investigate the known SFR–density relationship and explore in detail the dependence of SFR on stellar mass and density. We show that the SFR–density trend is only visible when we include the passive galaxy population along with the star-forming population. This SFR–density relation is absent when we consider only the star-forming population of galaxies, consistent with previous work. While there is a strong dependence of the EWHα on density we find, as in previous studies, that these trends are largely due to the passive galaxy population and this relationship is absent when considering a ‘star-forming’ sample of galaxies. We find that stellar mass has the strongest influence on SFR and EWHα with the environment having no significant effect on the star formation properties of the star-forming population. We also show that the SFR–density relationship is absent for both early- and late-type star-forming galaxies. We conclude that the stellar mass has the largest impact on the current SFR of a galaxy, and any environmental effect is not detectable. The observation that the trends with density are due to the changing morphology fraction with density implies that the time-scales must be very short for any quenching of the SFR in infalling galaxies. Alternatively, galaxies may in fact undergo predominantly in situ evolution where the infall and quenching of galaxies from the field into dense environments is not the dominant evolutionary mode.

Citation

Wijesinghe, D., Hopkins, A., Brough, S., Taylor, E., Norberg, P., Bauer, A., …Tuffs, R. (2012). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) : galaxy environments and star formation rate variations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 423(4), 3679-3691. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21164.x

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jul 11, 2012
Deposit Date Jun 3, 2014
Publicly Available Date Aug 22, 2014
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 423
Issue 4
Pages 3679-3691
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21164.x
Keywords Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: formation, Galaxies: general, Galaxies: star formation.

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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