arXiv subjects

Lihwai Lin

Publications and source records attributed to Lihwai Lin.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Anomalously low metallicity regions in MaNGA star-forming galaxies: Accretion Caught in Action?

We use data from 1222 late-type star-forming galaxies in the SDSS IV MaNGA survey to identify regions in which the gas-phase metallicity is anomalously-low compared to expectations from the tight empirical relation between metallicity and stellar surface mass-density at a given stellar mass. We find anomalously low metallicity (ALM) gas in 10% of the star-forming spaxels, and in 25% of the galaxies in the sample. The incidence rate of ALM gas increases strongly with both global and local measures of the specific star-formation rate, and is higher in lower mass galaxies and in the outer regions of galaxies. The incidence rate is also significantly higher in morphologically disturbed galaxies. We estimate that the lifetimes of the ALM regions are a few hundred Myr. We argue that the ALM gas has been delivered to its present location by a combination of interactions, mergers, and accretion from the halo, and that this infusion of gas stimulates star-formation. Given the estimated lifetime and duty cycle of such events, we estimate that the time-averaged accretion rate of ALM gas is similar to the star-formation rate in late type galaxies over the mass-range M$_* \sim10^9$ to 10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$.

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arXiv2018

The Effect of Galaxy Interactions on Molecular Gas Properties

Galaxy interactions are often accompanied by an enhanced star formation rate (SFR). Since molecular gas is essential for star formation, it is vital to establish whether, and by how much, galaxy interactions affect the molecular gas properties. We investigate the effect of interactions on global molecular gas properties by studying a sample of 58 galaxies in pairs and 154 control galaxies. Molecular gas properties are determined from observations with the JCMT, PMO, CSO telescopes, and supplemented with data from the xCOLD GASS and JINGLE surveys at $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{12}$CO(2-1). The SFR, gas mass ($M_\mathrm{H_{2}}$), and gas fraction ($f_{gas}$) are all enhanced in galaxies in pairs by $\sim$ 2.5 times compared to the controls matched in redshift, mass, and effective radius, while the enhancement of star formation efficiency (SFE $\equiv$ SFR/$M_{H_{2}}$) is less than a factor of 2. We also find that the enhancements in SFR, $M_{H_{2}}$ and $f_{gas}$ increase with decreasing pair separation and are larger in systems with smaller stellar mass ratio. Conversely, the SFE is only enhanced in close pairs (separation $<$ 20 kpc) and equal-mass systems; therefore most galaxies in pairs lie in the same parameter space on the SFR-$M_{H_{2}}$ plane as controls. This is the first time that the dependence of molecular gas properties on merger configurations is probed statistically with a relatively large sample and with a carefully-selected control sample for individual galaxies. We conclude that galaxy interactions do modify the molecular gas properties, although the strength of the effect is merger configuration dependent.

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arXiv2018

JINGLE, a JCMT legacy survey of dust and gas for galaxy evolution studies: I. Survey overview and first results

JINGLE is a new JCMT legacy survey designed to systematically study the cold interstellar medium of galaxies in the local Universe. As part of the survey we perform 850um continuum measurements with SCUBA-2 for a representative sample of 193 Herschel-selected galaxies with M*>10^9Msun, as well as integrated CO(2-1) line fluxes with RxA3m for a subset of 90 of these galaxies. The sample is selected from fields covered by the Herschel-ATLAS survey that are also targeted by the MaNGA optical integral-field spectroscopic survey. The new JCMT observations combined with the multi-wavelength ancillary data will allow for the robust characterization of the properties of dust in the nearby Universe, and the benchmarking of scaling relations between dust, gas, and global galaxy properties. In this paper we give an overview of the survey objectives and details about the sample selection and JCMT observations, present a consistent 30 band UV-to-FIR photometric catalog with derived properties, and introduce the JINGLE Main Data Release (MDR). Science highlights include the non-linearity of the relation between 850um luminosity and CO line luminosity, and the serendipitous discovery of candidate z>6 galaxies.

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arXiv2018

SDSS IV MaNGA - sSFR profiles and the slow quenching of discs in green valley galaxies

We study radial profiles in H$α$ equivalent width and specific star formation rate (sSFR) derived from spatially-resolved SDSS-IV MaNGA spectroscopy to gain insight on the physical mechanisms that suppress star formation and determine a galaxy's location in the SFR-$\rm M_\star$ diagram. Even within the star-forming `main sequence', the measured sSFR decreases with stellar mass, both in an integrated and spatially-resolved sense. Flat sSFR radial profiles are observed for $\rm log(M_\star/ M_\odot) < 10.5$, while star-forming galaxies of higher mass show a significant decrease in sSFR in the central regions, a likely consequence of both larger bulges and an inside-out growth history. Our primary focus is the green valley, constituted by galaxies lying below the star formation main sequence, but not fully passive. In the green valley we find sSFR profiles that are suppressed with respect to star-forming galaxies of the same mass at all galactocentric distances out to 2 effective radii. The responsible quenching mechanism therefore appears to affect the entire galaxy, not simply an expanding central region. The majority of green valley galaxies of $\rm log(M_\star/ M_\odot) > 10.0$ are classified spectroscopically as central low-ionisation emission-line regions (cLIERs). Despite displaying a higher central stellar mass concentration, the sSFR suppression observed in cLIER galaxies is not simply due to the larger mass of the bulge. Drawing a comparison sample of star forming galaxies with the same $\rm M_\star$ and $\rm Σ_{1~kpc}$ (the mass surface density within 1 kpc), we show that a high $\rm Σ_{1~kpc}$ is not a sufficient condition for determining central quiescence.

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arXiv2018

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Galaxy Pair Fraction and Correlated Active Galactic Nuclei

We have identified 105 galaxy pairs at z ~ 0.04 with the MaNGA integral-field spectroscopic data. The pairs have projected separations between 1 kpc and 30 kpc, and are selected to have radial velocity offsets less than 600 km/s and stellar mass ratio between 0.1 and 1. The pair fraction increases with both the physical size of the integral-field unit and the stellar mass, consistent with theoretical expectations. We provide the best-fit analytical function of the pair fraction and find that ~3% of M* galaxies are in close pairs. For both isolated galaxies and paired galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are selected using emission-line ratios and H_alpha equivalent widths measured inside apertures at a fixed physical size. We find AGNs in ~24% of the paired galaxies and binary AGNs in ~13% of the pairs. To account for the selection biases in both the pair sample and the MaNGA sample, we compare the AGN comoving volume densities with those expected from the mass- and redshift-dependent AGN fractions. We find a strong (~5x) excess of binary AGNs over random pairing and a mild (~20%) deficit of single AGNs. The binary AGN excess increases from ~2x to ~6x as the projected separation decreases from 10-30 kpc to 1-10 kpc. Our results indicate that pairing of galaxies preserves the AGN duty cycle in individual galaxies but increases the population of binary AGNs through correlated activities. We suggest tidally-induced galactic-scale shocks and AGN cross-ionization as two plausible channels to produce low-luminosity narrow-line-selected binary AGNs.

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arXiv2018

SDSS IV MaNGA: Dependence of Global and Spatially-resolved SFR-M* Relations on Galaxy Properties

Galaxy integrated Hα star formation rate-stellar mass relation, or SFR(global)-M*(global) relation, is crucial for understanding star formation history and evolution of galaxies. However, many studies have dealt with SFR using unresolved measurements, which makes it difficult to separate out the contamination from other ionizing sources, such as active galactic nuclei and evolved stars. Using the integral field spectroscopic observations from SDSS-IV MaNGA, we spatially disentangle the contribution from different Hα powering sources for ~1000 galaxies. We find that, when including regions dominated by all ionizing sources in galaxies, the spatially-resolved relation between Hα surface density (ΣHα(all)) and stellar mass surface density (Σ*(all)) progressively turns over at high Σ*(all) end for increasing M*(global) and bulge dominance (bulge-to-total light ratio, B/T). This in turn leads to the flattening of the integrated Hα(global)-M*(global) relation in the literature. By contrast, there is no noticeable flattening in both integrated Hα(HII)-M*(HII) and spatially-resolved ΣHα(HII)-Σ*(HII) relations when only regions where star formation dominates the ionization are considered. In other words, the flattening can be attributed to the increasing regions powered by non-star-formation sources, which generally have lower ionizing ability than star formation. Analysis of the fractional contribution of non-star-formation sources to total Hα luminosity of a galaxy suggests a decreasing role of star formation as an ionizing source toward high-mass, high-B/T galaxies and bulge regions. This result indicates that the appearance of the galaxy integrated SFR-M* relation critically depends on their global properties (M*(global) and B/T) and relative abundances of various ionizing sources within the galaxies.

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arXiv2017

SDSS-IV MANGA: Spatially Resolved Star Formation Main Sequence and LI(N)ER Sequence

We present our study on the spatially resolved H_alpha and M_star relation for 536 star-forming and 424 quiescent galaxies taken from the MaNGA survey. We show that the star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR), derived based on the H_alpha emissions, is strongly correlated with the M_star surface density (Sigma_star) on kpc scales for star- forming galaxies and can be directly connected to the global star-forming sequence. This suggests that the global main sequence may be a consequence of a more fundamental relation on small scales. On the other hand, our result suggests that about 20% of quiescent galaxies in our sample still have star formation activities in the outer region with lower SSFR than typical star-forming galaxies. Meanwhile, we also find a tight correlation between Sigma_H_alpha and Sigma_star for LI(N)ER regions, named the resolved "LI(N)ER" sequence, in quiescent galaxies, which is consistent with the scenario that LI(N)ER emissions are primarily powered by the hot, evolved stars as suggested in the literature.

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arXiv2017

First results on the cluster galaxy population from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. III. Brightest cluster galaxies, stellar mass distribution, and active galaxies

The unprecedented depth and area surveyed by the Subaru Strategic Program with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC-SSP) have enabled us to construct and publish the largest distant cluster sample out to $z\sim 1$ to date. In this exploratory study of cluster galaxy evolution from $z=1$ to $z=0.3$, we investigate the stellar mass assembly history of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), evolution of stellar mass and luminosity distributions, stellar mass surface density profile, as well as the population of radio galaxies. Our analysis is the first high redshift application of the top N richest cluster selection, which is shown to allow us to trace the cluster galaxy evolution faithfully. Over the 230 deg$^2$ area of the current HSC-SSP footprint, selecting the top 100 clusters in each of the 4 redshift bins allows us to observe the buildup of galaxy population in descendants of clusters whose $z\approx 1$ mass is about $2\times 10^{14}\,M_\odot$. Our stellar mass is derived from a machine-learning algorithm, which is found to be unbiased and accurate with respect to the COSMOS data. We find very mild stellar mass growth in BCGs (about 35% between $z=1$ and 0.3), and no evidence for evolution in both the total stellar mass-cluster mass correlation and the shape of the stellar mass surface density profile. We also present the first measurement of the radio luminosity distribution in clusters out to $z\sim 1$, and show hints of changes in the dominant accretion mode powering the cluster radio galaxies at $z\sim 0.8$.

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arXiv2017

Resolved star formation and molecular gas properties of green valley galaxies: a first look with ALMA and MaNGA

We study the role of cold gas in quenching star formation in the green valley by analysing ALMA $^{12}$CO (1-0) observations of three galaxies with resolved optical spectroscopy from the MaNGA survey. We present resolution-matched maps of the star formation rate and molecular gas mass. These data are used to calculate the star formation efficiency (SFE) and gas fraction ($f_{\rm~gas}$) for these galaxies separately in the central `bulge' regions and outer disks. We find that, for the two galaxies whose global specific star formation rate (sSFR) deviates most from the star formation main sequence, the gas fraction in the bulges is significantly lower than that in their disks, supporting an `inside-out' model of galaxy quenching. For the two galaxies where SFE can be reliably determined in the central regions, the bulges and disks share similar SFEs. This suggests that a decline in $f_{\rm~gas}$ is the main driver of lowered sSFR in bulges compared to disks in green valley galaxies. Within the disks, there exist common correlations between the sSFR and SFE and between sSFR and $f_{\rm~gas}$ on kpc scales -- the local SFE or $f_{\rm~gas}$ in the disks declines with local sSFR. Our results support a picture in which the sSFR in bulges is primarily controlled by $f_{\rm~gas}$, whereas both SFE and $f_{\rm~gas}$ play a role in lowering the sSFR in disks. A larger sample is required to confirm if the trend established in this work is representative of green valley as a whole.

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arXiv2017

Evolution of Galactic Outflows at $z\sim0$-$2$ Revealed with SDSS, DEEP2, and Keck spectra

We conduct a systematic study of galactic outflows in star-forming galaxies at $z\sim0$-$2$ based on the absorption lines of optical spectra taken from SDSS DR7, DEEP2 DR4, and Keck Erb et al. We carefully make stacked spectra of homogeneous galaxy samples with similar stellar mass distributions at $z\sim0$-$2$, and perform the multi-component fitting of model absorption lines and stellar continua to the stacked spectra. We obtain the maximum ($v_\rm{max}$) and central ($v_\rm{out}$) outflow velocities, and estimate the mass loading factors ($η$), a ratio of the mass outflow rate to the star formation rate (SFR). Investigating the redshift evolution of the outflow velocities measured with the absorption lines whose depths and ionization energies are similar (Na I D and Mg I at $z\sim0$-$1$; Mg II and C II at $z\sim1$-$2$), we identify, for the first time, that the average value of $v_\rm{max}$ ($v_\rm{out}$) significantly increases by 0.05-0.3 dex from $z\sim0$ to $2$ at a given SFR. Moreover, we find that the value of $η$ increases from $z\sim0$ to $2$ by $η\propto (1 + z)^{1.2\pm0.3}$ at a given halo circular velocity $v_\rm{cir}$ , albeit with a potential systematics caused by model parameter choices. The redshift evolution of $v_\rm{max}$ ($v_\rm{out}$) and $η$ is consistent with the galaxy-size evolution and the local velocity-SFR surface density relation, and explained by high-gas fractions in high-redshift massive galaxies, which is supported by recent radio observations. We obtain a scaling relation of $η\propto v_\rm{cir}^a$ for $a = -0.2 \pm 1.1$ in our $z\sim0$ galaxies that agrees with the momentum-driven outflow model ($a = -1$) within the uncertainty.

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arXiv2017

First results on the cluster galaxy population from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. II. Faint end color-magnitude diagrams and radial profiles of red and blue galaxies at $0.1<z<1.1$

We present a statistical study of the redshift evolution of the cluster galaxy population over a wide redshift range from 0.1 to 1.1, using $\sim 1900$ optically-selected CAMIRA clusters from $\sim 232$~deg$^2$ of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Wide S16A data. Our stacking technique with a statistical background subtraction reveals color-magnitude diagrams of red-sequence and blue cluster galaxies down to faint magnitudes of $m_z\sim 24$. We find that the linear relation of red-sequence galaxies in the color-magnitude diagram extends down to the faintest magnitudes we explore with a small intrinsic scatter $σ_{\rm int}(g-r)<0.1$. The scatter does not evolve significantly with redshift. The stacked color-magnitude diagrams are used to define red and blue galaxies in clusters for studying their radial number density profiles without resorting to photometric redshifts of individual galaxies. We find that red galaxies are significantly more concentrated toward cluster centers and blue galaxies dominate the outskirt of clusters. We explore the fraction of red galaxies in clusters as a function of redshift, and find that the red fraction decreases with increasing distances from cluster centers. The red fraction exhibits a moderate decrease with increasing redshift. The radial number density profiles of cluster member galaxies are also used to infer the location of the steepest slope in the three dimensional galaxy density profiles. For a fixed threshold in richness, we find little redshift evolution in this location.

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arXiv2017

Great Optically Luminous Dropout Research Using Subaru HSC (GOLDRUSH). I. UV Luminosity Functions at $z \sim 4-7$ Derived with the Half-Million Dropouts on the 100 deg$^2$ Sky

We study the UV luminosity functions (LFs) at $z\sim 4$, $5$, $6,$ and $7$ based on the deep large-area optical images taken by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru strategic program (SSP). On the 100 deg$^2$ sky of the HSC SSP data available to date, we make enormous samples consisting of a total of 579,565 dropout candidates at $z\sim 4-7$ by the standard color selection technique, 358 out of which are spectroscopically confirmed by our follow-up spectroscopy and other studies. We obtain UV LFs at $z \sim 4-7$ that span a very wide UV luminosity range of $\sim 0.002 - 100 \, L_{\rm UV}^\ast$ ($-26 < M_{\rm UV} < -14$ mag) by combining LFs from our program and the ultra-deep Hubble Space Telescope legacy surveys. We derive three parameters of the best-fit Schechter function, $ϕ^\ast$, $M_{\rm UV}^\ast$, and $α$, of the UV LFs in the magnitude range where the AGN contribution is negligible, and find that $α$ and $ϕ^\ast$ decrease from $z\sim 4$ to $7$ with no significant evolution of $M_{\rm UV}^\ast$. Because our HSC SSP data bridge the LFs of galaxies and AGNs with great statistical accuracy, we carefully investigate the bright end of the galaxy UV LFs that are estimated by the subtraction of the AGN contribution either aided with spectroscopy or the best-fit AGN UV LFs. We find that the bright end of the galaxy UV LFs cannot be explained by the Schechter function fits at $> 2 σ$ significance, and require either double power-law functions or modified Schechter functions that consider a magnification bias due to gravitational lensing.

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arXiv2017

The Pan-STARRS1 Medium-deep Survey: Star Formation Quenching in Group and Cluster Environments

We make use of a catalog of 1600 Pan-STARRS1 groups produced by the probability friends-of-friends algorithm to explore how the galaxy properties, i.e. the specific star formation rate (SSFR) and quiescent fraction, depend on stellar mass and group-centric radius. The work is the extension of Lin et al. (2014). In this work, powered by a stacking technique plus a background subtraction for contamination removal, a finer correction and more precise results are obtained than in our previous work. We find that while the quiescent fraction increases with decreasing group-centric radius the median SSFRs of star-forming galaxies in groups at fixed stellar mass drop slightly from the field toward the group center. This suggests that the major quenching process in groups is likely a fast mechanism. On the other hand, a reduction in SSFRs by ~0.2 dex is seen inside clusters as opposed to the field galaxies. If the reduction is attributed to the slow quenching effect, the slow quenching process acts dominantly in clusters. In addition, we also examine the density-color relation, where the density is defined by using a sixth-nearest neighbor approach. Comparing the quiescent fractions contributed from the density and radial effect, we find that the density effect dominates over the massive group or cluster galaxies, and the radial effect becomes more effective in less massive galaxies. The results support mergers and/or starvation as the main quenching mechanisms in the group environment, while harassment and/or starvation dominate in clusters.

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arXiv2017

The nature of H$α$-selected galaxies along the large-scale structure at z=0.4 revealed by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey

We present the environmental dependence of colour, stellar mass, and star formation (SF) activity in H-alpha-selected galaxies along the large-scale structure at z=0.4 hosting twin clusters in DEEP2-3 field, discovered by Subaru Strategic Programme of Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC SSP). By combining photo-z selected galaxies and H-alpha emitters selected with broad-band and narrow-band (NB) data of the recent data release of HSC SSP (DR1), we confirm that galaxies in higher-density environments or galaxies in the cluster central regions show redder colours. We find that there still remains a possible colour-density and colour-radius correlation even if we restrict the sample to H-alpha-selected galaxies, likely due to the presence of massive H-alpha emitters in denser regions. We also find a hint of increased star formation rates (SFR) amongst H-alpha emitters towards the highest-density environment, again primarily driven by the excess of red/massive H-alpha emitters in high-density environment, while their specific SFR does not significantly change with environment. This work demonstrates the power of the HSC SSP NB data to study SF galaxies across environment in the distant universe.

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arXiv2017

First Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is a three-layered imaging survey aimed at addressing some of the most outstanding questions in astronomy today, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The survey has been awarded 300 nights of observing time at the Subaru Telescope and it started in March 2014. This paper presents the first public data release of HSC-SSP. This release includes data taken in the first 1.7 years of observations (61.5 nights) and each of the Wide, Deep, and UltraDeep layers covers about 108, 26, and 4 square degrees down to depths of i~26.4, ~26.5, and ~27.0 mag, respectively (5sigma for point sources). All the layers are observed in five broad bands (grizy), and the Deep and UltraDeep layers are observed in narrow bands as well. We achieve an impressive image quality of 0.6 arcsec in the i-band in the Wide layer. We show that we achieve 1-2 per cent PSF photometry (rms) both internally and externally (against Pan-STARRS1), and ~10 mas and 40 mas internal and external astrometric accuracy, respectively. Both the calibrated images and catalogs are made available to the community through dedicated user interfaces and database servers. In addition to the pipeline products, we also provide value-added products such as photometric redshifts and a collection of public spectroscopic redshifts. Detailed descriptions of all the data can be found online. The data release website is https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/.

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arXiv2017

An optically-selected cluster catalog at redshift 0.1<z<1.1 from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program S16A data

We present an optically-selected cluster catalog from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program. The HSC images are sufficiently deep to detect cluster member galaxies down to $M_*\sim 10^{10.2}M_\odot$ even at $z\sim 1$, allowing a reliable cluster detection at such high redshifts. We apply the CAMIRA algorithm to the HSC Wide S16A dataset covering $\sim 232$ deg$^2$ to construct a catalog of 1921 clusters at redshift $0.1 15$ that roughly corresponds to $M_{\rm 200m}\gtrsim 10^{14}h^{-1}M_\odot$. We confirm good cluster photometric redshift performance, with the bias and scatter in $Δz/(1+z)$ being better than 0.005 and 0.01 over most of the redshift range, respectively. We compare our cluster catalog with large X-ray cluster catalogs from XXL and XMM-LSS surveys and find good correlation between richness and X-ray properties. We also study the miscentering effect from the distribution of offsets between optical and X-ray cluster centers. We confirm the high ($>0.9$) completeness and purity for high mass clusters by analyzing mock galaxy catalogs.

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arXiv2017

First results on the cluster galaxy population from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. I. The role of group or cluster environment in star formation quenching from z = 0.2 to 1.1

We utilize the HSC CAMIRA cluster catalog and the photo-$z$ galaxy catalog constructed in the HSC wide field (S16A), covering $\sim$ 174 deg$^{2}$, to study the star formation activity of galaxies in different environments over 0.2 $<$ $z$ $<$ 1.1. We probe galaxies down to $i \sim$ 26, corresponding to a stellar mass limit of log$_{10}$(M$_*$/M$_{\odot}$) $\sim$ 8.2 and $\sim$ 8.6 for star-forming and quiescent populations, respectively, at $z$ $\sim$ 0.2. The existence of the red sequence for low stellar mass galaxies in clusters suggests that the environmental quenching persists to halt the star formation in the low-mass regime. In addition, star-forming galaxies in groups or clusters are systematically biased toward lower values of specific star formation rate by 0.1 -- 0.3 dex with respect to those in the field and the offsets shows no strong redshift evolution over our redshift range, implying a universal slow quenching mechanism acting in the dense environments since $z$ $\sim$ 1.1. Moreover, the environmental quenching dominates the mass quenching in low mass galaxies, and the quenching dominance reverses in high mass ones. The transition mass is greater in clusters than in groups, indicating that the environmental quenching is more effective for massive galaxies in clusters compared to groups.

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arXiv2017

SDSS IV MaNGA - Metallicity and nitrogen abundance gradients in local galaxies

We study the gas phase metallicity (O/H) and nitrogen abundance gradients traced by star forming regions in a representative sample of 550 nearby galaxies in the stellar mass range $\rm 10^9-10^{11.5} M_\odot$ with resolved spectroscopic data from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. Using strong-line ratio diagnostics (R23 and O3N2 for metallicity and N2O2 for N/O) and referencing to the effective (half-light) radius ($\rm R_e$), we find that the metallicity gradient steepens with stellar mass, lying roughly flat among galaxies with $\rm log(M_\star/M_\odot) = 9.0$ but exhibiting slopes as steep as -0.14 dex $\rm R_e^{-1}$ at $\rm log(M_\star/M_\odot) = 10.5$ (using R23, but equivalent results are obtained using O3N2). At higher masses, these slopes remain typical in the outer regions of our sample ($\rm R > 1.5 ~R_e$), but a flattening is observed in the central regions ($\rm R < 1~ R_e$). In the outer regions ($\rm R > 2.0 ~R_e$) we detect a mild flattening of the metallicity gradient in stacked profiles, although with low significance. The N/O ratio gradient provides complementary constraints on the average chemical enrichment history. Unlike the oxygen abundance, the average N/O profiles do not flatten out in the central regions of massive galaxies. The metallicity and N/O profiles both depart significantly from an exponential form, suggesting a disconnect between chemical enrichment and stellar mass surface density on local scales. In the context of inside-out growth of discs, our findings suggest that central regions of massive galaxies today have evolved to an equilibrium metallicity, while the nitrogen abundance continues to increase as a consequence of delayed secondary nucleosynthetic production.

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