Issue |
A&A
Volume 458, Number 1, October IV 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 39 - 52 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20065161 | |
Published online | 16 October 2006 |
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: the build-up of the colour–density relation
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, Milan, Italy; e-mail: olga.cucciati@brera.inaf.it
2
Universitá di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
3
Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR 6207 CNRS-Université de Provence, 13288 Marseille, France
4
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Astronomia, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
5
Laboratoire d'Astropysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS-Université de Provence, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
6
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
7
IASF – INAF, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
8
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, 98 bis Bvd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
9
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
10
IRA – INAF, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
11
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
12
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (UMR 5572), 14 avenue E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
13
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
14
Max Planck Institut fur Astrophysik, 85741 Garching, Germany
15
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
16
Integral Science Data Centre, ch. d'Écogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
17
Geneva Observatory, ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
Received:
8
March
2006
Accepted:
19
July
2006
We investigate the redshift and luminosity evolution of the
galaxy colour-density relation using the data from the First Epoch
VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). The size (6582 galaxies with good
quality redshifts), depth () and redshift sampling rate
(20% on the mean) of the survey enable us to reconstruct the 3D
galaxy environment on relatively local scales (
Mpc) up to
redshift
. Particular attention has been devoted to
calibrate a density reconstruction scheme, which factors out survey
selection effects and reproduces in an unbiased way the underlying
“real” galaxy environment. We find that the colour-density relation
shows a dramatic change as a function of cosmic time. While at lower
redshift we confirm the existence of a steep colour-density relation,
with the fraction of the reddest(/bluest) galaxies of the same
luminosity increasing(/decreasing) as a function of density, this
trend progressively disappears in the highest redshift bins
investigated. Our results suggest the existence of an epoch
(more remote for brighter galaxies) characterized by the
absence of the colour-density relation on the
Mpc scales
investigated. The rest frame
colour–magnitude diagram shows
a bimodal pattern in both low and high density environments up to
redshift
. We find that the bimodal distribution is not
universal but strongly depends upon environment: at lower redshifts
the colour–magnitude diagrams in low and high density regions are
significantly different while the progressive weakening of the
colour-density relation causes the two bimodal distributions to nearly
mirror each other in the highest redshift bin investigated. Both the
colour-density and the colour–magnitude-density relations, on the
Mpc scales, appear to be a transient, cumulative product of
genetic and environmental factors that have been operating over at
least a period of 9 Gyr. These findings support an evolutionary
scenario in which star formation/gas depletion processes are
accelerated in more luminous objects and in high density environments:
star formation activity is progressively shifting with cosmic time
towards lower luminosity galaxies (downsizing), and out of high density
environments.
Key words: cosmology: observations / large scale structure of Universe / galaxies: distances and redshifts / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: statistics / galaxies: fundamental parameters
© ESO, 2006
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