The miniJPAS survey

The role of group environment in quenching star formation

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), PO Box 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
e-mail: rosa@iaa.es
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, PO Box 476, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
³ Zentrum für Astronomie, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
⁴ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
⁵ Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 20080-090 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
⁷ Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
⁸ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁹ Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 1371, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
¹⁰ Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, R.S, Brazil
¹¹ Observatório Nacional, Ministério da Ciencia, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações, Rua General José Cristino, 77, São Cristóvão, 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹² Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 311 West Hall, 1085 South University Ave., Ann Arbor, USA
¹³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Box 870324 Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
¹⁴ Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Manuel Lardizabal Ibilbidea 4, San Sebastián, Spain
¹⁵ Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
¹⁶ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 40210-340 Salvador, BA, Brazil
¹⁷ Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Avda. Los Castros s/n., 39005 Santander, Spain
¹⁸ Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, R. do Matão 1226, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
¹⁹ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain

Received: 16 May 2022
Accepted: 11 July 2022

Abstract

The miniJPAS survey has observed ∼1 deg² of the AEGIS field with 60 bands (spectral resolution of R ∼ 60) in order to demonstrate the scientific potential of the Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS), which will map ∼8000 deg² of the northern sky over the coming years. In particular, this paper demonstrates the potential of J-PAS in detecting groups with mass of up to 10¹³ M_⊙ and in characterising their galaxy populations up to z ∼ 1. The parametric code BaySeAGal is used to derive the stellar population properties by fitting the J-PAS spectral energy distribution (SED) of the galaxy members in 80 groups at z ≤ 0.8 previously detected by the AMICO code, and of a galaxy field sample retrieved from the whole miniJPAS down to r <  22.75 (AB). Blue, red, quiescent, and transition (blue quiescent or green valley) galaxy populations are identified through their rest-frame (extinction-corrected) (u − r)_int colour, galaxy stellar mass (M_⋆), and specific star formation rate (sSFR). We measure the abundance of these galaxies as a function of M_⋆ and environment in order to investigate the role that groups play in quenching star formation. Our findings are as follows. (i) The fraction of red and quiescent galaxies in groups increases with M_⋆ and is always higher in groups (28% on average) than in the field (5%). (ii) The quenched fraction excess (QFE) in groups shows a strong dependence on M_⋆, and increases from a few percent for galaxies with M_⋆ <  10¹⁰ M_⊙ to higher than 60% for galaxies with M_⋆ >  3 × 10¹¹ M_⊙. (iii) The abundance excess of transition galaxies in groups shows a modest dependence on M_⋆, being 5%–10% for galaxies with M_⋆ <  10¹¹ M_⊙. (iv) The fading timescale, defined as the time that galaxies in groups spend in the transition phase, is very short (< 1.5 Gyr), indicating that the star formation of galaxies in groups declines very rapidly. (v) The evolution of the galaxy quenching rate in groups shows a modest but significant evolution since z ∼ 0.8. This latter result is compatible with the expected evolution with constant QFE = 0.4, which has been previously measured for satellites in the nearby Universe, as traced by SDSS. Further, this evolution is consistent with a scenario where the low-mass star forming galaxies in clusters at z = 1–1.4 are environmentally quenched, as previously reported by other surveys.