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Enci Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Enci Wang.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The circumgalactic medium traced by Mg II absorption with DESI: dependence on galaxy stellar mass, star formation rate and azimuthal angle

Understanding the circumgalactic medium (CGM) distribution of galaxies is the key to revealing the dynamical exchange of materials between galaxies and their surroundings. In this work, we use DESI EDR dataset to investigate the cool CGM of galaxies ($0.3 10.0$, the EW(Mg II) at the minor axis is largely suppressed with respect to low mass galaxies. This suggests that the competing processes, such as stellar feedback and gravity, play a key role in shaping the distribution of outflowing gas.

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The first exploration of the correlations between \textit{WISE} 12 \micron\ and CO emission in early-type galaxies

We present the analysis of a comprehensive sample of 352 early-type galaxies using public data, to investigate the correlations between CO luminosities and mid-infrared luminosities observed by \textit{Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer} (\textit{WISE}). We find strong correlations between both CO (1-0) and CO (2-1) luminosities and 12 \micron\ luminosity, boasting a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9 and an intrinsic scatter smaller than 0.1 dex. The consistent slopes observed for the relationships of CO (1-0) and CO (2-1) suggest that the line ratio R21 lacks correlation with mid-infrared emission in early-type galaxies, which is significantly different from star-forming galaxies. Moreover, the slopes of $L_{\rm CO (1-0)}$--$L_{\mbox{12\micron}}$ and $L_{\rm CO (2-1)}$--$L_{\mbox{12\micron}}$ relations in early-type galaxies are steeper than those observed in star-forming galaxies. Given the absence of correlation with color, morphology or sSFR, the correlation between deviations and the molecular gas mass surface density could be eliminated by correcting the possible 12 \micron\ emission from old stars or adopting a systematically different $α_{\rm CO}$. The latter, on average, is equivalent to adding an constant CO brightness density, specifically ${2.8{_{-0.6}}\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!^{+0.8}}~[\mathrm{K~km~s^{-1}}]$ and ${4.4{_{-1.4}}\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!^{+2.2}}~[\mathrm{K~km~s^{-1}}]$ for CO (1-0) and (2-1) respectively. These explorations will serve as useful tools for estimating the molecular gas content in gas-poor galaxies and understanding associated quenching processes.

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Size Growth on Short Timescales of Star-Forming Galaxies: Insights from Size Variation with Rest-Frame Wavelength with JADES

We investigate size variation with rest-frame wavelength for star-forming galaxies based on the second JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey data release. Star-forming galaxies are typically smaller at longer wavelength from UV-to-NIR at $z<3.5$, especially for more massive galaxies, indicating the inside-out assembly with in-situ star formation if ignoring dust attenuation. The size variation with wavelength shows strong dependence on stellar mass, and shows little or no dependence on redshift, specific star formation rate and galaxy environment. This suggests that the size growth of star-forming galaxies is a self-regulated process primarily governed by stellar mass. We model size as a function of both mass and redshift simultaneously, obtaining $R_{\rm e} \propto M_*^{0.23} (1+z)^{-1.04}$ at a wavelength of 0.45 ${μ\mathrm{m}}$, and $R_{\rm e} \propto M_*^{0.20} (1+z)^{-1.08}$ at 1.0 ${μ\mathrm{m}}$. Based on this size evolution and the star formation main sequence from the literature, we obtain the locus of typical size growth for individual galaxies of different masses on the mass-size plane. The moving trend of galaxies on the mass-size plane, which indicates the slopes of their locus, strongly correlates with the size ratio between 0.45 ${μ\mathrm{m}}$ and 1.0 ${μ\mathrm{m}}$, supporting the idea that the size variation with wavelength provides important information on size growth of galaxies on short timescales.

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Bipolar blobs as evidence of hidden AGN activities in the low-mass galaxies

We report the evidence of a hidden black hole (BH) in a low-mass galaxy, MaNGA 9885-9102, and provide a new method to identify active BH in low mass galaxies. This galaxy is originally selected from the MaNGA survey with distinctive bipolar H$α$ blobs at the minor axis. The bipolar feature can be associated with AGN activity, while the two blobs are classified as the H II regions on the BPT diagram, making the origins confusing. The Swift UV continuum shows that the two blobs do not have UV counterparts, suggesting that the source of ionization is out of the blobs. Consistent with this, the detailed photoionization models prefer to AGN rather than star-forming origin with a significance of 5.8$σ$. The estimated BH mass is $M_{\rm BH}\sim$7.2$\times 10^5 M_\odot$ from the $M_{\rm BH}-σ_*$ relationship. This work introduces a novel method for detecting the light echo of BHs, potentially extending to intermediate mass, in low metallicity environments where the traditional BPT diagram fails.

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Exploring the origin of cold gas and star formation in a rare population of strongly bulge-dominated early-type Galaxies

We analyze the properties of a rare population, the strongly bulge-dominated early-type galaxies (referred to as sBDEs) with significant HI gas, using the databases from the FAST All Sky HI survey (FASHI) and the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. We select the sBDEs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and cross-match with the FASHI-ALFALFA combined HI sample, resulting in 104 HI-rich sBDEs. These sBDEs tend to have extremely high HI reservoirs, which is rare in previous studies such as ATLAS$^{3D}$. 70% of the selected sBDEs are classified as quiescent galaxies, even though they have a large HI reservoir. We study the properties of these sBDEs from five main aspects: stellar population, gas-phase metallicity, stacked HI spectra, environment, and spatially resolved MaNGA data. The majority of HI-rich sBDEs appear to show lower gas-phase metallicity and are located in significantly lower-density environments, suggesting an external origin for their HI gas. We find that star-forming sBDEs exhibit statistically higher star formation efficiency and slightly older stellar populations compared to normal star-forming galaxies, suggesting a recent star formation on Gyr-timescale. They also show narrower and more concentrated HI profiles compared to control star-forming galaxies, which may explain their higher star formation efficiency.

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Revisiting the fundamental metallicity relation with observation and simulation

The gas-phase metallicity of galaxies is regulated by multiple astrophysical processes, which makes it a crucial diagnostic of galaxy formation and evolution. Beyond the fundamental mass-metallicity relation, a debate about the secondary galaxy property to predict the metallicity of galaxies arises. Motivated by this, we systematically examine the relationship between gas-phase metallicity and other galaxy properties, i.e. star formation rate (SFR) and galaxy size, in addition to stellar mass in both observation and simulation. We utilize the data from the MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) survey and the TNG50 simulations. We find that the combination of $M_*/R_{\rm e}^β$ with $β\sim 0.6-1$ is in much stronger correlation to the metallicity than stellar mass alone, regardless of whether the SFR is included or not, in both observation and simulation. This indicates that galaxy size plays a more important role in determining gas-phase metallicity of galaxies than SFR. In addition, the TNG simulation predicts that the SFR, although being a subdominant role, becomes increasingly important in high-$z$ universe. Finally, we speculate that SFR modulates metallicity on the temporal dimension, synchronized with time-varying gas inflows, and galaxy size regulates metallicity on the spatial dimension by affecting the gravitational potential and the mass loading factor.

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From Halos to Galaxies. IX. Estimate of Halo Assembly History for SDSS Galaxy Groups

The properties of the galaxies are tightly connected to their host halo mass and halo assembly history. Accurate measurement of the halo assembly history in observation is challenging but crucial to the understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. The stellar-to-halo mass ratio ($M_*/M_{\mathrm{h}}$) for the centrals has often been used to indicate the halo assembly time $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$ of the group, where $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$ is the lookback time at which a halo has assembled half of its present-day virial mass. Using mock data from the semi-analytic models, we find that $M_*/M_{\mathrm{h}}$ shows a significant scatter with $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$, with a strong systematic difference between the group with a star-forming central (blue group) and passive central (red group). To improve the accuracy, we develop machine-learning models to estimate $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$ for galaxy groups using only observable quantities in the mocks. Since star-formation quenching will decouple the co-growth of the dark matter and baryon, we train our models separately for blue and red groups. Our models have successfully recovered $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$, within an accuracy of $\sim$ 1.09 Gyr. With careful calibrations of individual observable quantities in the mocks with SDSS observations, we apply the trained models to the SDSS Yang et al. groups and derive the $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$ for each group for the first time. The derived SDSS $t_{\mathrm{h,50}}$ distributions are in good agreement with that in the mocks, in particular for blue groups. The derived halo assembly history, together with the halo mass, make an important step forward in studying the halo-galaxy connections in observation.

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Disk Assembly of the Milky Way Suggested from the Time-resolved Chemical Abundance

Both simulations and observations suggest that the disk assembly of galaxies is governed by the interplay between coplanar gas inflow, ex-planar gas outflow and in-situ star formation on the disk, known as the leaky accretion disk. This scenario predicts a strong connection between radial distributions of star formation and chemical abundances. The Milky Way, being the sole galaxy where we can reliably measure star formation histories and the corresponding temporally-resolved chemical abundances with individual stars, provides a unique opportunity to scrutinize this scenario. Based on the recent large spectroscopic and photometric surveys of Milky Way stars, we obtain the radial profiles of magnesium abundance ([Mg/H]) and star formation rate (SFR) surface density at different lookback time. We find the radial profiles of [Mg/H] can be well-reproduced using the leaky accretion disk model with only two free parameters for stars formed within 4 Gyr, as well as the flattening at large radii of metallicity profiles traced by HII regions and Cepheids. Furthermore, the constraint effective yield of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies show broad consistency with the theoretical predictions from stellar chemical evolution model with a mass-loading factor of 0-2. These results support that the recent assembly of the Milky Way adheres to the leaky accretion disk scenario, bridging the disk formation of our home galaxy to the big picture of disk formation in the Universe.

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The Formation of Star-forming Disks in the TNG50 Simulation

We investigate the disk formation process in the TNG50 simulation, examining the profiles of SFR surface density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$), gas inflow and outflow, and the evolution of the angular momentum of inflowing gas particles. The TNG50 galaxies tend to have larger star-forming disks, and also show larger deviations from exponential profiles in $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ when compared to real galaxies in the MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) survey. The stellar surface density of TNG50 galaxies show good exponential profiles, which is found to be the result of strong radial migration of stars over time. However, this strong radial migration of stars in the simulation produces flatter age profiles in TNG50 disks compared to observed galaxies. The star formation in the simulated galaxies is sustained by a net gas inflow and this gas inflow is the primary driver for the cosmic evolution of star formation, as expected from simple gas-regulator models of galaxies. There is no evidence for any significant loss of angular momentum for the gas particles after they are accreted on to the galaxy, which may account for the large disk sizes in the TNG50 simulation. Adding viscous processes to the disks, such as the magnetic stresses from magneto-rotational instability proposed by Wang & Lilly 2022, will likely reduce the sizes of the simulated disks and the tension with the sizes of real galaxies, and may produce more realistic exponential profiles.

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Searching for Spectroscopic Signatures of Ongoing Quenching in SDSS Galaxies

In this paper we estimate the "star formation change parameter", SFR$_{79}$, which characterizes the current SFR relative to the average during the last 800 Myr, for $\sim$ 300'000 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The goals are to examine, in a much larger and independent sample, the trends previously reported in a sample of star-forming MaNGA galaxies, and also to search for spectroscopic signatures of ongoing quenching in the so-called "Green Valley", which is generally believed to contain galaxies that are migrating from the star-forming (SF) population to the quenched population of galaxies. Measuring SFR$_{79}$ for our large sample of SDSS galaxies, we first confirm the basic results of SF galaxies published by Wang & Lilly. We then discuss in detail the calibration and meaning of SFR$_{79}$ for galaxies that are well below the SFMS and establish the expected statistical signature of systematic ongoing quenching from modelling the z$\sim$0 quenching rate of the SF population. We conclude that it is not possible at present to establish unambiguous observational evidence for systematic ongoing quenching processes, due to limitations both in the noise of the observational data, in particular in the measurements of H$δ$ absorption, and in the calibration of SFR$_{79}$, as well as biases introduced by the necessity of selecting objects with significant H$α$ emission. We do however see plausible indications of ongoing quenching, which are quantitatively consistent with expectations from "growth+quenching" models of galaxy evolution and a typical e-folding timescale for quenching of $\sim500$ Myr.

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The Similar Signatures of Coplanar Gas Inflow and Disk Warps in Galactic Gas Kinematic Maps

Hydrodynamic simulations suggest that galactic gas disks form when coplanar gas spirals into the inner regions of the disk. We recently presented a simple "modified accretion disk" model of viscous galactic disks in which star-formation is fed by a radial flow of gas. However, little observational evidence has been presented for such inflows, which are expected to be only a few km s$^{-1}$ in the central regions of the disk, i.e. within three disk scale-lengths, but could reach of order 50-100 km s$^{-1}$ in the very outer disk. The effects of systematic inflow on the 2-d velocity field are examined and it is shown that these are quite similar to those produced by geometric warps of the disks, with twist distortions of both the kinematic major and minor axes. This makes it potentially difficult to distinguish between these in practice. By comparing the handedness of the observed twisting of the kinematic axes and of the spiral arms for a sample of nearby galaxies, we find (assuming that the spiral arms are generally trailing) that the effects of warps are in fact likely to dominate over the effects of radial inflows. However, the common practice of treating these twist distortions of the kinematic major and minor axes as being due only to warps can lead, for galaxies of low-to-intermediate inclinations, to substantial underestimates of any systematic inflow.

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The Gas-phase Metallicity Profiles of Star-forming Galaxies in the Modified Accretion Disk Framework

Simulations indicate that the inflow of gas of star-forming galaxies is almost co-planar and co-rotating with the gas disk, and that the outflow of gas driven by stellar winds and/or supernova explosions is preferentially perpendicular to the disk. This indicates that the galactic gas disk can be treated as a modified accretion disk. In this work, we focus on the metal enhancement in galactic disks in this scenario of gas accretion. Assuming that the star formation rate surface density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$) is of exponential form, we obtain the analytic solution of gas-phase metallicity with only three free parameters: the scalelength of $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ ($h_{\rm R}$), the metallicity of the inflowing gas and the mass-loading factor defined as the wind-driven outflow rate surface density per $Σ_{\rm SFR}$. According to this simple model, the negative gradient of gas-phase metallicity is a natural consequence of the radial inflow of cold gas which is continuously enriched by in-situ star formation as it moves towards the disk center. We fit the model to the observed metallicity profiles for six nearby galaxies chosen to have well-measured metallicity profiles extending to very large radii. Our model can well characterize the overall features of the observed metallicity profiles. The observed profiles usually show a floor at the outer regions of the disk, corresponding to the metallicity of inflow gas. Furthermore, we find the $h_{\rm R}$ of $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ inferred from these fits agree well with independent estimates from $Σ_{\rm SFR}$ profiles, supporting the basic model.

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The Origin of Exponential Star-forming Disks

The disk components of galaxies generally show an exponential profile extending over several scale lengths, both in mass and star-formation rate, but the physical origin is not well understood. We explore a physical model in which the galactic gas disk is viewed as a "modified accretion disk" in which coplanar gas inflow, driven by viscous stresses in the disk, provides the fuel for star formation, which progressively removes gas as it flows inwards. We show that magnetic stresses from magneto-rotational instability are the most plausible source of the required viscosity, and construct a simple physical model to explore this. A key feature is to link the magnetic field strength to the local star-formation surface density, $B_{\rm tot} \propto Σ_{\rm SFR}^α$. This provides a feed-back loop between star-formation and the flow of gas. We find that the model naturally produces stable steady-state exponential disks, as long as $α\sim$ 0.15, the value indicated from spatially-resolved observations of nearby galaxies. The disk scale-length $h_{\rm R}$ is set by the rate at which the disk is fed, by the normalization of the $B_{\rm tot}-Σ_{\rm SFR}$ relation and by the circular velocity of the halo. The angular momentum distribution of the gas and stars within the disk is a consequence of the transfer of angular momentum that is inherent to the operation of an accretion disk, rather than the initial angular momentum of the inflowing material. We suggest that magnetic stresses likely play a major role in establishing the stable exponential form of galactic disks.

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Hosts and triggers of AGNs in the Local Universe

Based on the spectroscopic and shear catalogs for SDSS galaxies in the local Universe, we compare optically-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with control star-forming and quiescent galaxies on galactic, inter-halo and larger scales. We find that AGNs are preferentially found in two specific stages of galaxy evolution: star-burst and `green valley' phases, and that the stellar population of their host galaxies is quite independent of stellar mass, different from normal galaxies. Combining galaxy-galaxy lensing and galaxy clustering on large scales, we measure the mass of AGN host halos. The typical halo mass is about $10^{12}h^{-1}\rm M_{\odot}$, similar to the characteristic mass in the stellar mass-halo mass relation (SHMR). For given stellar mass, AGN host galaxies and star-forming galaxies share the same SHMR, while quiescent galaxies have more massive halos. Clustering analysis on halo scales reveals that AGNs are surrounded by a larger number of satellites (with stellar mass down to 1/1000 of the mass of the central galaxy) than star-forming galaxies, and that galaxies with larger stellar velocity dispersion have more satellites. The number of satellites also increase with halo mass, reaching unity around $10^{12}h^{-1}\rm M_{\odot}$. Our results suggest a scenario, in which the interaction of the central galaxy with the satellites triggers an early episode of star burst and AGN activities, followed by multiple AGN cycles driven by the non-axisymmetric structure produced by the interaction. The feedback from the starburst and AGN reduces the amount of cold gas for fueling the central black hole, producing a characteristic halo mass scale, $\sim 10^{12}h^{-1}\rm M_{\odot}$, where the AGN fraction peaks.

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Gas-phase Metallicity as a Diagnostic of the Drivers of Star-formation on Different Spatial Scales

We examine the correlations of star formation rate (SFR) and gas-phase metallicity $Z$. We first predict how the SFR, cold gas mass and $Z$ will change with variations in inflow rate or in star-formation efficiency (SFE) in a simple gas-regulator framework. The changes $Δ{\rm log}$SFR and $Δ{\rm log} Z$, are found to be negatively (positively) correlated when driving the gas-regulator with time-varying inflow rate (SFE). We then study the correlation of $Δ{\rm log}$sSFR (specific SFR) and $Δ{\rm log}$(O/H) from observations, at both $\sim$100 pc and galactic scales, based on two 2-dimensional spectroscopic surveys with different spatial resolutions, MAD and MaNGA. After taking out the overall mass and radial dependences, which may reflect changes in inflow gas metallicity and/or outflow mass-loading, we find that $Δ{\rm log}$sSFR and $Δ{\rm log}$(O/H) on galactic are found to be negatively correlated, but $Δ{\rm log}$sSFR and $Δ{\rm log}$(O/H) are positively correlated on $\sim$100 pc scales within galaxies. If we assume that the variations across the population reflect temporal variations in individual objects, we conclude that variations in the star formation rate are primarily driven by time-varying inflow at galactic scales, and driven by time-varying SFE at $\sim$100 pc scales. We build a theoretical framework to understand the correlation between SFR, gas mass and metallicity, as well as their variability, which potentially uncovers the relevant physical processes of star formation at different scales.

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Dust Attenuation Curve for Local Subgalactic Star-forming Regions

We compile a sample of about 157,000 spaxels from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at the Apache Point Observatory survey to derive the average dust attenuation curve for subgalactic star-forming regions of local star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in the optical wavelength, following the method of \cite{Calzetti1994}. We obtain a $D_n(4000)$-independent average attenuation curve for spaxels with $1.1\leq D_n(4000)<1.3$, which is similar to the one derived from either local starbursts or normal SFGs. We examine whether and how the shape of the average attenuation curve changes with several local and global physical properties. For spaxels with $1.2\leq D_n(4000)<1.3$, we find no dependence on either local or global physical properties for the shape of the average attenuation curve. However, for spaxels with younger stellar population ($1.1\leq D_n(4000)<1.2$), shallower average attenuation curves are found for star-forming regions with smaller stellar mass surface density, smaller star formation rate surface density, or those residing in the outer region of galaxies. These results emphasize the risk of using one single attenuation curve to correct the dust reddening for all types of star-forming regions, especially for those with fairly young stellar population.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: the indispensable role of bars in enhancing the central star formation of low-$z$ galaxies

We analyse two-dimensional maps and radial profiles of EW(H$α$), EW(H$δ_A$), and D$_n$(4000) of low-redshift galaxies using integral field spectroscopy from the MaNGA survey. Out of $\approx1400$ nearly face-on late-type galaxies with a redshift $z<0.05$, we identify 121 "turnover" galaxies that each have a central upturn in EW(H$α$), EW(H$δ_A$) and/or a central drop in D$_n$(4000), indicative of ongoing/recent star formation. The turnover features are found mostly in galaxies with a stellar mass above $\sim$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$ and NUV-$r$ colour less than $\approx5$. The majority of the turnover galaxies are barred, with a bar fraction of 89$\pm$3\%. Furthermore, for barred galaxies the radius of the central turnover region is found to tightly correlate with one third of the bar length. Comparing the observed and the inward extrapolated star formation rate surface density, we estimate that the central SFR have been enhanced by an order of magnitude. Conversely, only half of the barred galaxies in our sample have a central turnover feature, implying that the presence of a bar is not sufficient to lead to a central SF enhancement. We further examined the SF enhancement in paired galaxies, as well as the local environment, finding no relation. This implies that environment is not a driving factor for central SF enhancement in our sample. Our results reinforce both previous findings and theoretical expectation that galactic bars play a crucial role in the secular evolution of galaxies by driving gas inflow and enhancing the star formation and bulge growth in the center.

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Characteristic mass in galaxy quenching: environmental versus internal effects

A clear transition feature of galaxy quenching is identified in the multi-parameter space of stellar mass ($M_*$), bulge to total mass ratio ($B/T_{\rm m}$), halo mass ($M_{\rm h}$) and halo-centric distance ($r/r_{180}$). For given halo mass, the characteristic stellar mass ($M_{*, \rm ch}$) for the transition is about one-fifth of that of the corresponding central galaxy, and almost independent of $B/T_{\rm m}$. Once $B/T_{\rm m}$ is fixed, the quenched fraction of galaxies with $M_{*} < M_{*, \rm ch}$ increases with $M_{\rm h}$, but decreases with $M_*$ in the inner part of halos ($r/r_{180} < 0.5$). In the outer part ($r/r_{180} > 0.5$), the trend with $M_{\rm h}$ remains but the correlation with $M_*$ is absent or becomes positive. For galaxies above $M_{\rm *, ch}$ and with $B/T_{\rm m}$ fixed, the quenched fraction increases with $M_{\rm *}$, but depends only weakly on $M_{\rm h}$ in both the inner and outer regions. At fixed $B/T_{\rm m}$ and $M_*$, the quenched fraction increases with decreasing $r/r_{180}$ for galaxies with $M_{*} < M_{*, \rm ch}$, and depends only weakly on $r/r_{180}$ for galaxies with $M_{*} > M_{*, \rm ch}$. Our finding provides a physically-motivated way to classify galaxies in halos into two classes based on their quenching properties: an `upper class' with $M_{*} > M_{\rm *,ch}$ and a `lower class' with $M_{*} < M_{\rm *,ch}$. Environmental quenching is important for `lower class' galaxies, while internal quenching plays the dominating role for the `upper class'.

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