arXiv · 1006.5001
Galaxy evolution as a function of environment and luminosity
Abstract
We present an analysis of star formation and nuclear activity of about 28000 galaxies in a volume-limited sample taken from SDSS DR4 low-redshift catalogue (LRC) taken from the New York University Value Added Galaxy Catalogue (NYU-VAGC) of Blanton et al. 2005, with 0.005 ~ L*) galaxies. Moreover the fraction of galaxies with the optical signatures of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) decreases steadily from ~50\% at Mr~-21 to ~0 per cent by Mr~-18 closely mirroring the luminosity dependence of the passive galaxy fraction in low-density environments (see fig. 1 continuous lines). This result reflects the increasing importance of AGN feedback with galaxy mass for their evolution, such that the star formation histories of massive galaxies are primarily determined by their past merger history.
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A. Mercurio, C. P. Haines, A. Gargiulo, F. La Barbera, P. Merluzzi, G. Busarello. 2010-06-25. Galaxy evolution as a function of environment and luminosity. https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.5001
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