AKARI Observation of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Supercluster at z = 0.087: mid-infrared view of transition galaxies


Abstract in English

We present the mid-infrared (MIR) properties of galaxies within a supercluster in the North Ecliptic Pole region at z?0.087 observed with the AKARI satellite. We use data from the AKARI NEP-Wide (5.4 deg2) IR survey and the CLusters of galaxies EVoLution studies (CLEVL) mission program. We show that near-IR (3 {mu}m)-mid- IR (11 {mu}m) color can be used as an indicator of the specific star formation rate and the presence of intermediate age stellar populations. From the MIR observations, we find that red-sequence galaxies consist not only of passively evolving red early-type galaxies, but also of 1) weak-SFG (disk-dominated star-forming galaxies which have star formation rates lower by sim 4 times than blue-cloud galaxies), and 2) intermediate- MXG (bulge-dominated galaxies showing stronger MIR dust emission than normal red early-type galaxies). Those two populations can be a set of transition galaxies from blue, star-forming, late-type galaxies evolving into red, quiescent, early-type ones. We find that the weak-SFG are predominant at intermediate masses (1010Modot < Mstar < 1010.5Modot) and are typically found in local densities similar to the outskirts of galaxy clusters. As much as 40% of the supercluster member galaxies in this mass range can be classified as weak-SFGs, but their proportion decreases to < 10% at larger masses (Mstar > 1010.5 Modot) at any galaxy density. The fraction of the intermediate-MXG among red- sequence galaxies at 1010Modot < Mstar < 1011Modot also decreases as the density and mass increase. In particular, sim42% of the red-sequence galaxies with early-type morphologies are classified as intermediate-MXG at intermediate densities. These results suggest that the star formation activity is strongly dependent on the stellar mass, but that the morphological transformation is mainly controlled by the environment.

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