The GEEC2 spectroscopic survey of Galaxy Groups at $0.8<z<1$

We present the data release of the Gemini-South GMOS spectroscopy in the fields of 11 galaxy groups at $0.8<z<1$, within the COSMOS field. This forms the basis of the Galaxy Environment Evolution Collaboration 2 (GEEC2) project to study galaxy evolution in haloes with $Msim 10^{13}M_odot$ across cosmic time. The final sample includes $162$ spectroscopically--confirmed members with $R<24.75$, and is $>50$ per cent complete for galaxies within the virial radius, and with stellar mass $M_{rm star}>10^{10.3}M_odot$. Including galaxies with photometric redshifts we have an effective sample size of $sim 400$ galaxies within the virial radii of these groups. We present group velocity dispersions, dynamical and stellar masses. Combining with the GCLASS sample of more massive clusters at the same redshift we find the total stellar mass is strongly correlated with the dynamical mass, with $log{M_{200}}=1.20left(log{M_{rm star}}-12right)+14.07$. This stellar fraction of $~sim 1$ per cent is lower than predicted by some halo occupation distribution models, though the weak dependence on halo mass is in good agreement. Most groups have an easily identifiable most massive galaxy (MMG) near the centre of the galaxy distribution, and we present the spectroscopic properties and surface brightness fits to these galaxies. The total stellar mass distribution in the groups, excluding the MMG, compares well with an NFW profile with concentration $4$, for galaxies beyond $sim 0.2R_{200}$. This is more concentrated than the number density distribution, demonstrating that there is some mass segregation.

Overconsumption, outflows and the quenching of satellite galaxies

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.

Removal and mixing of the coronal gas from satellites in galaxy groups: cooling the intragoup gas

The existence of an extended hot gaseous corona surrounding clusters, groups and massive galaxies is well established by observational evidence and predicted by current theories of galaxy formation. When a small galaxy collides with a larger one, their coronae are the first to interact, producing disturbances that remove gas from the smaller system and settle it into the corona of the larger one. For a Milky-Way-size galaxy merging into a low-mass group, ram pressure stripping and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability are the most relevant of these disturbances. We argue that the turbulence generated by the latter mixes the material of both coronae in the wake of the orbiting satellite creating a warm phase mixture with a cooling time a factor of several shorter than that of the ambient intragroup gas. We reach this conclusion using analytic estimates, as well as adiabatic and dissipative high resolution numerical simulations of a spherical corona subject to the ablation process of a constant velocity wind with uniform density and temperature. Although this is a preliminary analysis, our results are promising and we speculate that the mixture could potentially trigger in situ star formation and/or be accreted into the central galaxy as a cold gas flow resulting in a new mode of star formation in galaxy groups and clusters.

The Dawn of the Red: Star formation histories of group galaxies over the past 5 billion years

We examine the star formation properties of group and field galaxies in two surveys, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; at z ~ 0.08) and the Group Environment and Evolution Collaboration (GEEC; at z ~ 0.4). Using UV imaging from the GALEX space telescope, along with optical and, for GEEC, near infrared photometry, we compare the observed spectral energy distributions to large suites of stellar population synthesis models. This allows us to accurately determine star formation rates and stellar masses. We find that star forming galaxies of all environments undergo a systematic lowering of their star formation rate between z=0.4 and z=0.08 regardless of mass. Nonetheless, the fraction of passive galaxies is higher in groups than the field at both redshifts. Moreover, the difference between the group and field grows with time and is mass-dependent, in the sense the the difference is larger at low masses. However, the star formation properties of star forming galaxies, as measured by their average specific star formation rates, are consistent within the errors in the group and field environment at fixed redshift. The evolution of passive fraction in groups between z=0.4 and z=0 is consistent with a simple accretion model, in which galaxies are environmentally affected 3 Gyrs after falling into a ~ 10E13 Msun group. This long timescale appears to be inconsistent with the need to transform galaxies quickly enough to ensure that star forming galaxies appear similar in both the group and field, as observed.

Direct observational evidence for a large transient galaxy population in groups at 0.85<z<1

(abridged) We introduce our survey of galaxy groups at 0.85<z<1, as an extension of the Group Environment and Evolution Collaboration (GEEC). Here we present the first results, based on Gemini GMOS-S nod-and-shuffle spectroscopy of seven galaxy groups selected from spectroscopically confirmed, extended XMM detections in COSMOS. In total we have over 100 confirmed group members, and four of the groups have >15 members. The dynamical mass estimates are in good agreement with the masses estimated from the X-ray luminosity, with most of the groups having 13<log(Mdyn/Msun)<14. Our spectroscopic sample is statistically complete for all galaxies with Mstar>1E10.1 Msun, and for blue galaxies we sample masses as low as Mstar=1E8.8 Msun. Like lower-redshift groups, these systems are dominated by red galaxies, at all stellar masses Mstar>1E10.1 Msun. Few group galaxies inhabit the blue cloud that dominates the surrounding field; instead, we find a large and possibly distinct population of galaxies with intermediate colours. The green valley that exists at low redshift is instead well-populated in these groups, containing ~30 per cent of galaxies. These do not appear to be exceptionally dusty galaxies, and about half show prominent Balmer-absorption lines. Furthermore, their HST morphologies appear to be intermediate between those of red-sequence and blue-cloud galaxies of the same stellar mass. We postulate that these are a transient population, migrating from the blue cloud to the red sequence, with a star formation rate that declines with an exponential timescale 0.6 Gyr< tau < 2 Gyr. Their prominence among the group galaxy population, and the marked lack of blue, star-forming galaxies, provides evidence that the group environment either directly reduces star formation in member galaxies, or at least prevents its rejuvenation during the normal cycle of galaxy evolution.

The stellar and hot gas content of low-mass galaxy clusters

We analyse the stellar and hot gas content of 18 nearby, low-mass galaxy clusters, detected in redshift space and selected to have a dynamical mass 3E14<M/Msun<6E14, as measured from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. We combine X-ray measurements from both Chandra and XMM with ground-based near-infrared observations from CTIO, AAT and CFHT to compare the mass in hot gas and stars to the dynamical mass and state of the clusters. Only 13 of the clusters are detected in X-ray emission, and for these systems we find that a range of 7-20 per cent of their baryonic mass, and <3 per cent of their dynamical mass, is detected in starlight, similar to what is observed in more massive clusters. In contrast, the five undetected clusters are underluminous in X-ray emission, by up to a factor 10, given their stellar mass. Although the velocity distribution of cluster members in these systems is indistinguishable from a Gaussian, all show subtle signs of being unrelaxed: either they lack a central, dominant galaxy, or the bright galaxy distribution is less concentrated and/or more elongated than the rest of the sample. Thus we conclude that low-mass clusters and groups selected from the velocity distribution of their galaxies exhibit a dichotomy in their hot gas properties. Either they are detected in X-ray, in which case they generally lie on the usual scaling relations, or they are completely undetected in X-ray emission. The non-detections may be partly related to the apparently young dynamical state of the clusters, but it remains a distinct possibility that some of these systems are exceptionally devoid of hot emitting gas as the result of its expulsion or rarefaction.

Dust accretion and destruction in galaxy groups and clusters

We examine the dust distribution around a sample of 70,000 low redshift galaxy groups and clusters derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By correlating spectroscopically identified background quasars with the galaxy groups we obtain the relative colour excess due to dust reddening. We present a significant detection of dust out to a clustercentric distance of 30 Mpc/h in all four independent SDSS colours, consistent with the expectations of weak lensing masses of similar mass halos and excess galaxy counts. The wavelength dependence of this colour excess is consistent with the expectations of a Milky Way dust law with R_V=3.1. Further, we find that the halo mass dependence of the dust content is much smaller than would be expected by a simple scaling, implying that the dust-to-gas ratio of the most massive clusters (~10E14 Msun/h) is ~3% of the local ISM value, while in small groups (~10E12.7 Msun/h) it is ~55% of the local ISM value. We also find that the dust must have a covering fraction on the order of 10% to explain the observed color differences, which means the dust is not just confined to the most massive galaxies. Comparing the dust profile with the excess galaxy profile, we find that the implied dust-to-galaxy ratio falls significantly towards the group or cluster center. This has a significant halo mass dependence, such that the more massive groups and clusters show a stronger reduction. This suggests that either dust is destroyed by thermal sputtering of the dust grains by the hot, dense gas or the intrinsic dust production is reduced in these galaxies.

The accretion of galaxies into groups and clusters

We use the galaxy stellar mass and halo merger tree information from the semi-analytic model galaxy catalogue of Font et al. (2009) to examine the accretion of galaxies into a large sample of groups and clusters, covering a wide range in halo mass (10E12.9 to 10E15.3 Msun/h), and selected from each of four redshift epochs (z=0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5). We find that clusters at all examined redshifts have accreted a significant fraction of their final galaxy populations through galaxy groups. A 10E14.5 Msun/h mass cluster at z=0 has, on average, accreted ~ 40% of its galaxies (Mstellar > 10E9 Msun/h) from halos with masses greater than 10E13 Msun/h. Further, the galaxies which are accreted through groups are more massive, on average, than galaxies accreted through smaller halos or from the field population. We find that at a given epoch, the fraction of galaxies accreted from isolated environments is independent of the final cluster or group mass. In contrast, we find that observing a cluster of the same halo mass at each redshift epoch implies different accretion rates of isolated galaxies, from 5-6 % per Gyr at z=0 to 15% per Gyr at z=1.5. We find that combining the existence of a Butcher Oemler effect at z=0.5 and the observations that galaxies within groups display significant environmental effects with galaxy accretion histories justifies striking conclusions. Namely, that the dominant environmental process must begin to occur in halos of 10E12 -- 10E13 Msun/h, and act over timescales of > 2 Gyrs. This argues in favor of a mechanism like strangulation, in which the hot halo of a galaxy is stripped upon infalling into a more massive halo . This simple model predicts that by z=1.5 galaxy groups and clusters will display little to no environmental effects.

The colour of galaxies in distant groups

(Abridged) We present new optical and near-infrared imaging for a sample of 98 spectroscopically-selected galaxy groups at 0.25<z<0.55. We measure accurate colours for group members and the surrounding field population, statistically complete above a stellar mass limit of M=1E10 Msun. The overall colour distribution is bimodal in both the field and group samples; but at fixed luminosity the fraction of group galaxies populating the red peak is larger, by 20+/-7 per cent, than that of the field. In particular, group members with early-type morphologies, as identified in HST imaging, exhibit a tight red sequence, similar to that seen for more massive clusters. We show that approximately 20-30 per cent of galaxies on the red sequence may be dust-reddened galaxies with non-negligible star formation and early-spiral morphologies. This is true of both the field and group sample, and shows little dependence on near infrared luminosity. Thus, the fraction of bright group members with no sign of star formation or AGN activity is 54+/-6 per cent. Our field sample, which includes galaxies in all environments, contains 35+/-3 per cent of such inactive galaxies, consistent with the amount expected if all such galaxies are located in groups and clusters. This reinforces our earlier conclusions, that dense environments at z<0.5 are associated with a premature cessation of star formation in some galaxies; in particular we find no evidence for significantly enhanced star formation in these environments. Simple galaxy formation models predict a quenching of star formation in groups that is too efficient, overpopulating the red sequence. Attempts to fix this by increasing the timescale of this quenching equally for all group members distorts the colour distribution in a way that is inconsistent with observations.

Evolution in the Disks and Bulges of Group Galaxies since z=0.4

We present quantitative morphology measurements of a sample of optically selected group galaxies at 0.3 < z < 0.55 using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the GIM2D surface brightness--fitting software package. The group sample is derived from the Canadian Network for Observational Cosmology Field Redshift survey (CNOC2) and follow-up Magellan spectroscopy. We compare these measurements to a similarly selected group sample from the Millennium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) at 0.05 < z < 0.12. We find that, at both epochs, the group and field fractional bulge luminosity (B/T) distributions differ significantly, with the dominant difference being a deficit of disk--dominated (B/T < 0.2) galaxies in the group samples. At fixed luminosity, z=0.4 groups have ~ 5.5 +/- 2 % fewer disk--dominated galaxies than the field, while by z=0.1 this difference has increased to ~ 19 +/- 6 %. Despite the morphological evolution we see no evidence that the group environment is actively perturbing or otherwise affecting the entire existing disk population. At both redshifts, the disks of group galaxies have similar scaling relations and show similar median asymmetries as the disks of field galaxies. We do find evidence that the fraction of highly asymmetric, bulge--dominated galaxies is 6 +/- 3 % higher in groups than in the field, suggesting there may be enhanced merging in group environments. We replicate our group samples at z=0.4 and z=0 using the semi-analytic galaxy catalogues of Bower et al (2006). This model accurately reproduces the B/T distributions of the group and field at z=0.1. However, the model does not reproduce our finding that the deficit of disks in groups has increased significantly since z=0.4.