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Register a new userOverconsumption, outflows and the quenching of satellite galaxies
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The baryon cycle of galaxies is a dynamic process involving the intake, consumption and ejection of vast quantities of gas. In contrast, the conventional picture of satellite galaxies has them methodically turning a large gas reservoir into stars until this reservoir is forcibly removed due to external ram pressure. This picture needs revision. Our modern understanding of the baryon cycle suggests that in some regimes the simple interruption of the fresh gas supply may quench satellite galaxies long before stripping events occur, a process we call overconsumption. We compile measurements from the literature of observed satellite quenching times at a range of redshifts to determine if satellites are principally quenched through orbit-based gas stripping events -- either direct stripping of the disk (ram pressure stripping) or the extended gas halo (strangulation) -- or from internally-driven star formation outflows via overconsumption. The observed timescales show significant deviation from the evolution expected for gas stripping mechanisms and suggest that either ram pressure stripping is much more efficient at high redshift, or that secular outflows quench satellites before orbit-based stripping occurs. Given the strong redshift evolution of star formation rates, at high redshift (z > 1.5) even moderate outflow rates will lead to extremely short quenching times with the expectation that such satellites will be quenched almost immediately following the cessation of cosmological inflow, regardless of stripping events. Observations of high redshift satellites give an indirect but sensitive measure of the outflow rate with current measurements suggesting that outflows are no larger than 2.5 times the star formation rate for galaxies with a stellar mass of 10^{10.5} solar masses.
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We present the star formation histories (SFHs) of 20 faint M31 satellites ($-12 lesssim M_V lesssim -6$) that were measured by modeling sub-horizontal branch (HB) depth color-magnitude diagrams constructed from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging. Reinforcing previous results, we find that virtually all galaxies quenched between 3 and 9 Gyr ago, independent of luminosity, with a notable concentration $3-6$ Gyr ago. This is in contrast to the Milky Way (MW) satellites, which are generally either faint with ancient quenching times or luminous with recent ($<3$ Gyr) quenching times. We suggest that systematic differences in the quenching times of M31 and MW satellites may be a reflection of the varying accretion histories of M31 and the MW. This result implies that the formation histories of low-mass satellites may not be broadly representative of low-mass galaxies in general. Among the M31 satellite population we identify two distinct groups based on their SFHs: one with exponentially declining SFHs ($tau sim 2$ Gyr) and one with rising SFHs with abrupt quenching. We speculate how these two groups could be related to scenarios for a recent major merger involving M31. The Cycle 27 HST Treasury survey of M31 satellites will provide well-constrained ancient SFHs to go along with the quenching times we measure here. The discovery and characterization of M31 satellites with $M_V gtrsim -6$ would help quantify the relative contributions of reionization and environment to quenching of the lowest-mass satellites.
The vast majority of low-mass satellite galaxies around the Milky Way and M31 appear virtually devoid of cool gas and show no signs of recent or ongoing star formation. Cosmological simulations demonstrate that such quenching is expected and is due to the harsh environmental conditions that satellites face when joining the Local Group (LG). However, recent observations of Milky Way analogues in the SAGA survey present a very different picture, showing the majority of observed satellites to be actively forming stars, calling into question the realism of current simulations and the typicality of the LG. Here we use the ARTEMIS suite of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to carry out a careful comparison with observations of dwarf satellites in the LG, SAGA, and the Local Volume (LV) survey. We show that differences between SAGA and the LG and LV surveys, as well as between SAGA and the ARTEMIS simulations, can be largely accounted for by differences in the host mass distributions and observational selection effects, specifically that low-mass satellites which have only recently been accreted are more likely to be star-forming, have a higher optical surface brightness, and are therefore more likely to be included in the SAGA survey. This picture is confirmed using data from the deeper LV survey, which shows pronounced quenching at low masses, in accordance with the predictions of LCDM-based simulations.
We study dwarf satellite galaxy quenching using observations from the Geha et al. (2012) NSA/SDSS catalog together with LCDM cosmological simulations to facilitate selection and interpretation. We show that fewer than 30% of dwarfs (M* ~ 10^8.5-10^9.5 Msun) identified as satellites within massive host halos (Mhost ~ 10^12.5-10^14 Msun) are quenched, in spite of the expectation from simulations that half of them should have been accreted more than 6 Gyr ago. We conclude that whatever the action triggering environmental quenching of dwarf satellites, the process must be highly inefficient. We investigate a series of simple, one-parameter quenching models in order to understand what is required to explain the low quenched fraction and conclude that either the quenching timescale is very long (> 9.5 Gyr, a slow starvation scenario) or that the environmental trigger is not well matched to accretion within the virial volume. We discuss these results in light of the fact that most of the low mass dwarf satellites in the Local Group are quenched, a seeming contradiction that could point to a characteristic mass scale for satellite quenching.
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we adopt the sSFR-$Sigma_{1kpc}$ diagram as a diagnostic tool to understand quenching in different environments. sSFR is the specific star formation rate, and $Sigma_{1kpc}$ is the stellar surface density in the inner kpc. Although both the host halo mass and group-centric distance affect the satellite population, we find that these can be characterised by a single number, the quenched fraction, such that key features of the sSFR-$Sigma_{1kpc}$ diagram vary smoothly with this proxy for the environment. Particularly, the sSFR of star-forming galaxies decreases smoothly with this quenched fraction, the sSFR of satellites being 0.1 dex lower than in the field. Furthermore, $Sigma_{1kpc}$ of the transition galaxies (i.e., the green valley or GV) decreases smoothly with the environment, by as much as 0.2 dex for $M_* = 10^{9.75-10} M_{odot}$ from the field, and decreasing for satellites in larger halos and at smaller radial distances within same-mass halos. We interpret this shift as indicating the relative importance of todays field quenching track vs. the cluster quenching track. These environmental effects in the sSFR-$Sigma_{1kpc}$ diagram are most significant in our lowest mass range ($9.75 < log M_{*}/M_{odot} < 10$). One feature that is shared between all environments is that at a given $M_{*}$ quenched galaxies have about 0.2-0.3 dex higher $Sigma_{1kpc}$ than the star-forming population. These results indicate that either $Sigma_{1kpc}$ increases (subsequent to satellite quenching), or $Sigma_{1kpc}$ for individual galaxies remains unchanged, but the original $M_*$ or the time of quenching is significantly different from those now in the GV.
We study outflows driven by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) using high- resolution simulations of idealized z=2 isolated disk galaxies. Episodic accretion events lead to outflows with velocities >1000 km/s and mass outflow rates up to the star formation rate (several tens of Msun/yr). Outflowing winds escape perpendicular to the disk with wide opening angles, and are typically asymmetric (i.e. unipolar) because dense gas above or below the AGN in the resolved disk inhibits outflow. Owing to rapid variability in the accretion rates, outflowing gas may be detectable even when the AGN is effectively off. The highest velocity outflows are sometimes, but not always, concentrated within 2-3 kpc of the galactic center during the peak accretion. With our purely thermal AGN feedback model -- standard in previous literature -- the outflowing material is mostly hot (10^6 K) and diffuse (nH<10^(-2) cm-3), but includes a cold component entrained in the hot wind. Despite the powerful bursts and high outflow rates, AGN feedback has little effect on the dense gas in the galaxy disk. Thus AGN-driven outflows in our simulations do not cause rapid quenching of star-formation, although they may remove significant amounts of gas of long (>Gyr) timescales.
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