Color bimodality: Implications for galaxy evolution

Abstract

We use a sample of 69726 galaxies from the SDSS to study the variation of the bimodal color-magnitude (CM) distribution with environment. Dividing the galaxy population by environment (Sigma_5) and luminosity (-23<M_r<-17), the u-r color functions are modeled using double-Gaussian functions. This enables a deconvolution of the CM distributions into two populations: red and blue sequences. The changes with increasing environmental density can be separated into two effects: a large increase in the fraction of galaxies in the red distribution, and a small color shift in the CM relations of each distribution. The average color shifts are 0.05+-0.01 and 0.11+-0.02 for the red and blue distributions, respectively, over a factor of 100 in projected neighbor density. The red fraction varies between about 0% and 70% for low-luminosity galaxies and between about 50% and 90% for high-luminosity galaxies. This difference is also shown by the variation of the luminosity functions with environment. We demonstrate that the effects of environment and luminosity can be unified. A combined quantity, Sigma_mod = Sigma_5/Mpc^{-2} + L_r/L_{-20.2}, predicts the fraction of red galaxies, which may be related to the probability of transformation events. Our results are consistent with major interactions (mergers and/or harassment) causing galaxies to transform from the blue to the red distribution. We discuss this and other implications for galaxy evolution from earlier results and model the effect of slow transformations on the color functions.