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arXiv · 1803.05076

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): impact of the group environment on galaxy star formation

Abstract

We explore how the group environment may affect the evolution of star-forming galaxies. We select 1197 Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) groups at $0.05\leq z \leq 0.2$ and analyze the projected phase space (PPS) diagram, i.e. the galaxy velocity as a function of projected group-centric radius, as a local environmental metric in the low-mass halo regime $10^{12}\leq (M_{200}/M_{\odot})< 10^{14}$. We study the properties of star-forming group galaxies, exploring the correlation of star formation rate (SFR) with radial distance and stellar mass. We find that the fraction of star-forming group members is higher in the PPS regions dominated by recently accreted galaxies, whereas passive galaxies dominate the virialized regions. We observe a small decline in specific SFR of star-forming galaxies towards the group center by a factor $\sim 1.2$ with respect to field galaxies. Similar to cluster studies, we conclude for low-mass halos that star-forming group galaxies represent an infalling population from the field to the halo and show suppressed star formation.

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S. Barsanti, M. S. Owers, S. Brough, L. J. M. Davies, S. P. Driver, M. L. P. Gunawardhana, B. W. Holwerda, J. Liske, J. Loveday, K. A. Pimbblet, A. S. G. Robotham, E. N. Taylor. 2018-03-13. Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): impact of the group environment on galaxy star formation. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Faab61a

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