Issue |
A&A
Volume 558, October 2013
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A135 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321411 | |
Published online | 21 October 2013 |
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey⋆
The different assembly history of passive and star-forming LB ≳ LBB galaxies in the group environment at z < 1
1 Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM
(Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
e-mail: clsj@cefca.es
2 Centro de Estudios de Física del
Cosmos de Aragón, Plaza San Juan 1, planta 2, 44001
Teruel,
Spain
3 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di
Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127
Bologna,
Italy
4 Institut de Recherche en
Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), CNRS, 14 avenue Édouard Belin, 31400
Toulouse,
France
5 IRAP, Université de Toulouse,
UPS-OMP,
31400
Toulouse,
France
Received:
5
March
2013
Accepted:
15
August
2013
Aims. Understanding the role of environment in galaxy evolution is an important but still open issue. In the present work we study the close environment of red and blue LB ≳ LB* galaxies hosted by VVDS-Deep groups.
Methods. We use the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey to study the close environment of galaxies in groups at 0.2 ≤ z < 0.95. Close neighbours of LB ≳ LB* galaxies (MBe = MB + 1.1z ≤ -20) are identified with MBe ≤ −18.25 and within a relative distance 5 h-1 kpc ≤ rp ≤ 100 h-1 kpc and relative velocity Δv ≤ 500 km s-1. The richness 𝒩 of a group is defined as the number of MBe ≤ −18.25 galaxies belonging to that group. We split our principal sample into red, passive galaxies with NUV − r ≥ 4.25 and blue, star-forming galaxies with NUV − r < 4.25. We study how the number of close neighbours per LB ≳ LB* galaxy depends on 𝒩, colour, and redshift.
Results. Blue galaxies with a close neighbour are primarily located in poor groups, while the red ones are in rich groups. The number of close neighbours per red galaxy increases with 𝒩, ‾nred ∝ 0.11𝒩, while that of blue galaxies does not depend on 𝒩 and is roughly constant. In addition, these trends are found to be independent of redshift, and only the average ‾nblue evolves, decreasing with cosmic time.
Conclusions. Our results support the following assembly history of LB ≳ LB* galaxies in the group environment: red, massive (M⋆ ~ 1010.8 M⊙) galaxies were formed in/accreted by the dark matter halo of the group at early times (z ≳ 1), therefore their number of neighbours provides a fossil record of the stellar mass assembly of groups, traced by their richness 𝒩. On the other hand, blue, less massive (M⋆ ~ 1010.2 M⊙) galaxies have recently been accreted by the group potential and are still in their parent dark matter halo, having the same number of neighbours irrespective of 𝒩. As time goes by, these blue galaxies settle in the group potential and turn red and/or fainter, thus becoming satellite galaxies in the group. With a toy quenching model, we estimate an infall rate of field galaxies into the group environment of ℜinfall = 0.9−1.5 × 10-4 Mpc-3 Gyr-1 at z ~ 0.7.
Key words: galaxies: groups: general / galaxies: evolution
Based on data obtained with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope, Paranal, Chile, under Large Programmes 070.A-9007 and 177.A-0837. Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.
© ESO, 2013
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