arXiv subjects

Sara L. Ellison

Publications and source records attributed to Sara L. Ellison.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

On the relationship between gas content, star-formation, and global HI asymmetry of galaxies on the star-forming main-sequence

Observations have revealed that disturbances in the cold neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in galaxies are ubiquitous, but the reasons for these disturbances remain unclear. While some studies suggest that asymmetries in integrated HI spectra (global HI asymmetry) are higher in HI-rich systems, others claim that they are preferentially found in HI-poor galaxies. In this work, we utilise the ALFALFA and xGASS surveys, plus a sample of post-merger galaxies, to clarify the link between global HI asymmetry and the gas properties of galaxies. Focusing on star-forming galaxies in ALFALFA, we find that elevated global HI asymmetry is not associated with a change in the HI content of a galaxy, and that only the galaxies with the highest global HI asymmetry show a small increase in specific star-formation rate (sSFR). However, we show that the lack of a trend with HI content is because ALFALFA misses the gas-poor tail of the star-forming main-sequence. Using xGASS to obtain a sample of star-forming galaxies that is representative in both sSFR and HI content, we find that global HI asymmetric galaxies are typically more gas-poor than symmetric ones at fixed stellar mass, with no change in sSFR. Our results highlight the complexity of the connection between galaxy properties and global HI asymmetry. This is further confirmed by the fact that even post-merger galaxies show both symmetric and asymmetric HI spectra, demonstrating that merger activity does not always lead to an asymmetric global HI spectrum.

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arXiv2021

Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- III: (the rarity of) quenching in post-merger galaxies

Galaxy mergers are traditionally one of the favoured mechanisms for quenching star formation. To test this paradigm in the context of modern cosmological simulations, we use the IllustrisTNG simulation to investigate the impact of individual merger events on quenching (i.e. star formation rate at least 3sig below the star-forming main sequence) within 500Myr after the coalescence phase.The rate of quenching amongst recently merged galaxies is compared with a control sample that is matched in redshift, stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), black hole mass and environment.We find quenching to be uncommon among the descendants of post-merger galaxies, with only 5% of galaxies quenching within 500 Myr after the merger.Despite this low absolute rate, we find that quenching occurs in post-mergers at twice the rate of the control galaxies.The fraction of quenched post-merger descendants 1.5 Gyr after the merger becomes statistically indistinguishable from that of non-post-mergers, suggesting that mergers could speed up the quenching process in those post-mergers whose progenitors had physical conditions able to sustain effective active galactic nuclei (AGN) kinetic feedback, thus capable of removing gas from galaxies.Our results indicate that although quenching does not commonly occur promptly after coalescence, mergers nonetheless do promote the cessation of star formation in some post-mergers. We find that, in IllustrisTNG, it is the implementation of the AGN kinetic feedback that is responsible for quenching post-mergers, as well as non-post-merger controls.As a result of the released kinetic energy, galaxies experience gas loss and eventually, they will quench.Galaxies with an initially low gas fraction show a preferable pre-disposition towards quenching.The primary distinguishing factor between quenched and star-forming galaxies is gas fraction, with a sharp boundary at fgas=0.1 in TNG.

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arXiv2021

The Structural Evolution of Isolated Galaxies at Low Redshift in the IllustrisTNG Simulation

We study the structural evolution of isolated star-forming galaxies in the Illustris TNG100-1 hydrodynamical simulation, with a focus on investigating the growth of the central core density within 2 kpc ($Σ_{*,2kpc}$) in relation to total stellar mass ($M_*$) at z < 0.5. First, we show that several observational trends in the $Σ_{*,2kpc}$-$M_*$ plane are qualitatively reproduced in IllustrisTNG, including the distributions of AGN, star forming galaxies, quiescent galaxies, and radial profiles of stellar age, sSFR, and metallicity. We find that galaxies with dense cores evolve parallel to the $Σ_{*,2kpc}$-$M_*$ relation, while galaxies with diffuse cores evolve along shallower trajectories. We investigate possible drivers of rapid growth in $Σ_{*,2kpc}$ compared to $M_*$. Both the current sSFR gradient and the BH accretion rate are indicators of past core growth, but are not predictors of future core growth. Major mergers (although rare in our sample; $\sim$10%) cause steeper core growth, except for high mass ($M_*$ >$\sim$ $10^{10} M_{\odot}$) mergers, which are mostly dry. Disc instabilities, as measured by the fraction of mass with Toomre Q < 2, are not predictive of rapid core growth. Instead, rapid core growth results in more stable discs. The cumulative black hole feedback history sets the maximum rate of core growth, preventing rapid growth in high-mass galaxies ($M_*$ >$\sim$ $10^{9.5} M_{\odot}$). For massive galaxies the total specific angular momentum of accreting gas is the most important predictor of future core growth. Our results suggest that the angular momentum of accreting gas controls the slope, width and zero-point evolution of the $Σ_{*,2kpc}$-$M_*$ relation.

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arXiv2021

Convolutional neural network identification of galaxy post-mergers in UNIONS using IllustrisTNG

The Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) will consist of deep, high-resolution r-band imaging over ~5000 square degrees of the sky, representing a first-rate opportunity to identify recently-merged galaxies. Due to the large number of galaxies in CFIS, we investigate the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for automated merger classification. Training samples of post-merger and isolated galaxy images are generated from the IllustrisTNG simulation processed with the observational realism code RealSim. The CNN's overall classification accuracy is 88 percent, remaining stable over a wide range of intrinsic and environmental parameters. We generate a mock galaxy survey from IllustrisTNG in order to explore the expected purity of post-merger samples identified by the CNN. Despite the CNN's good performance in training, the intrinsic rarity of post-mergers leads to a sample that is only ~6 percent pure when the default decision threshold is used. We investigate trade-offs in purity and completeness with a variable decision threshold and find that we recover the statistical distribution of merger-induced star formation rate enhancements. Finally, the performance of the CNN is compared with both traditional automated methods and human classifiers. The CNN is shown to outperform Gini-M20 and asymmetry methods by an order of magnitude in post-merger sample purity on the mock survey data. Although the CNN outperforms the human classifiers on sample completeness, the purity of the post-merger sample identified by humans is frequently higher, indicating that a hybrid approach to classifications may be an effective solution to merger classifications in large surveys.

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arXiv2021

A re-assessment of strong line metallicity conversions in the machine learning era

Strong line metallicity calibrations are widely used to determine the gas phase metallicities of individual HII regions and entire galaxies. Over a decade ago, based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4), Kewley \& Ellison published the coefficients of third-order polynomials that can be used to convert between different strong line metallicity calibrations for global galaxy spectra. Here, we update the work of Kewley \& Ellison in three ways. First, by using a newer data release (DR7), we approximately double the number of galaxies used in polynomial fits, providing statistically improved polynomial coefficients. Second, we include in the calibration suite five additional metallicity diagnostics that have been proposed in the last decade and were not included by Kewley \& Ellison. Finally, we develop a new machine learning approach for converting between metallicity calibrations. The random forest algorithm is non-parametric and therefore more flexible than polynomial conversions, due to its ability to capture non-linear behaviour in the data. The random forest method yields the same accuracy as the (updated) polynomial conversions, but has the significant advantage that a single model can be applied over a wide range of metallicities, without the need to distinguish upper and lower branches in $R_{23}$ calibrations. The trained random forest is made publicly available for use in the community.

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arXiv2021

Sub-damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey II -- Chemical evolution at 2.4<z<4.3

We present the measured gas-phase metal column densities in 155 sub-damped Lyman alpha systems (subDLAs) with the aim to investigate the contribution of subDLAs to the chemical evolution of the Universe. The sample was identified within the absorber-blind XQ-100 quasar spectroscopic survey over the redshift range 2.4<=z<=4.3. Using all available column densities of the ionic species investigated (mainly CIV, SiII, MgII, SiIV, AlII, FeII, CII, and OI; in order of decreasing detection frequency), we estimate the ionization-corrected gas-phase metallicity of each system using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to explore a large grid of Cloudy ionization models. Without accounting for ionization and dust depletion effects, we find that the HI-weighted gas-phase metallicity evolution of subDLAs are consistent with damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs). When ionization corrections are included, subDLAs are systematically more metal-poor than DLAs (between ~0.5 sigma and ~3 sigma significance) by up to ~1.0 dex over the redshift range 3<=z<=4.3. The correlation of gas-phase [Si/Fe] with metallicity in subDLAs appears to be consistent with that of DLAs, suggesting that the two classes of absorbers have a similar relative dust depletion pattern. As previously seen for Lyman limit systems, the gas-phase [C/O] in subDLAs remains constantly solar for all metallicities indicating that both subDLAs and Lyman limit systems could trace carbon-rich ejecta, potentially in circumgalactic environments.

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arXiv2020

The ALMaQUEST Survey: V. The non-universality of kpc-scale star formation relations and the factors that drive them

Using a sample of ~15,000 kpc-scale star-forming spaxels in 28 galaxies drawn from the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey, we investigate the galaxy-to-galaxy variation of the `resolved' Schmidt-Kennicutt relation (rSK; Sigma_H2 - Sigma_SFR), the `resolved' star forming main sequence (rSFMS; Sigma_* - Sigma_SFR) and the `resolved' molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS; Sigma_* - Sigma_H2). The rSK relation, rSFMS and rMGMS all show significant galaxy-to-galaxy variation in both shape and normalization, indicating that none of these relations is universal between galaxies. The rSFMS shows the largest galaxy-to-galaxy variation and the rMGMS the least. By defining an `offset' from the average relations, we compute a Delta_rSK, Delta_rSFMS, Delta_rMGMS for each galaxy, to investigate correlations with global properties. We find the following correlations with at least 2 sigma significance: the rSK is lower (i.e. lower star formation efficiency) in galaxies with higher M_*, larger Sersic index and lower specific SFR (sSFR); the rSFMS is lower (i.e. lower sSFR) in galaxies with higher M_* and larger Sersic index; the rMGMS is lower (i.e. lower gas fraction) in galaxies with lower sSFR. In the ensemble of all 15,000 data points, the rSK relation and rMGMS show equally tight scatters and strong correlation coefficients, compared with a larger scatter and weaker correlation in the rSFMS. Moreover, whilst there is no correlation between Delta_rSK and Delta_rMGMS in the sample, the offset of a galaxy's rSFMS does correlate with both of the other two offsets. Our results therefore indicate that the rSK and rMGMS are independent relations, whereas the rSFMS is a result of their combination.

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arXiv2020

The ALMaQUEST Survey: VI. The molecular gas main sequence of `retired' regions in galaxies

In order to investigate the role of gas in the demise of star formation on kpc-scales, we compare the resolved molecular gas main sequence (rMGMS: Sigma_* vs Sigma_H2) of star-forming regions to the sequence of `retired' regions that have ceased to form new stars. Using data from the ALMaQUEST survey, we find that retired spaxels form a rMGMS that is distinct from that of star-forming spaxels, offset to lower Sigma_H2 at fixed Sigma_* by a factor of ~5. We study the rMGMS of star-forming and retired spaxels on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis for eight individual ALMaQUEST galaxies. Six of these galaxies have their retired spaxels concentrated within the central few kpc. Molecular gas is detected in 40-100% of retired spaxels in the eight galaxies in our sample. Both the star-forming and retired rMGMS show a diversity in normalization from galaxy-to-galaxy. However, in any given galaxy, the rMGMS for retired regions is found to be distinct from the star-forming sequence and gas fractions of retired spaxels are up to an order of magnitude lower than the star-forming spaxels. We conclude that quenching is associated with a depletion (but not absence) of molecular gas via a mechanism that typically begins in the centre of the galaxy.

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arXiv2020

ALMaQUEST -- IV. The ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) Survey

The ALMaQUEST (ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation) survey is a program with spatially-resolved $^{12}$CO(1-0) measurements obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) for 46 galaxies selected from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) DR15 optical integral-field spectroscopic survey. The aim of the ALMaQUEST survey is to investigate the dependence of star formation activity on the cold molecular gas content at kpc scales in nearby galaxies. The sample consists of galaxies spanning a wide range in specific star formation rate (sSFR), including starburst (SB), main-sequence (MS), and green valley (GV) galaxies. In this paper, we present the sample selection and characteristics of the ALMA observations, and showcase some of the key results enabled by the combination of spatially-matched stellar populations and gas measurements. Considering the global (aperture-matched) stellar mass, molecular gas mass, and star formation rate of the sample, we find that the sSFR depends on both the star formation efficiency (SFE) and the molecular gas fraction ($f_{\rm H_{2}}$), although the correlation with the latter is slightly weaker. Furthermore, the dependence of sSFR on the molecular gas content (SFE or $f_{\rm H_{2}}$) is stronger than that on either the atomic gas fraction or the molecular-to-atomic gas fraction, albeit with the small HI sample size. On kpc scales, the variations in both SFE and $f_{\rm H_{2}}$ within individual galaxies can be as large as 1-2 dex thereby demonstrating that the availability of spatially-resolved observations is essential to understand the details of both star formation and quenching processes.

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arXiv2020

Spatially resolved star formation and fuelling in galaxy interactions

We investigate the spatial structure and evolution of star formation and the interstellar medium (ISM) in interacting galaxies. We use an extensive suite of parsec-scale galaxy merger simulations (stellar mass ratio = 2.5:1), which employs the "Feedback In Realistic Environments-" model (fire-2). This framework resolves star formation, feedback processes, and the multi-phase structure of the ISM. We focus on the galaxy-pair stages of interaction. We find that close encounters substantially augment cool (HI) and cold-dense (H2) gas budgets, elevating the formation of new stars as a result. This enhancement is centrally-concentrated for the secondary galaxy, and more radially extended for the primary. This behaviour is weakly dependent on orbital geometry. We also find that galaxies with elevated global star formation rate (SFR) experience intense nuclear SFR enhancement, driven by high levels of either star formation efficiency (SFE) or available cold-dense gas fuel. Galaxies with suppressed global SFR also contain a nuclear cold-dense gas reservoir, but low SFE levels diminish SFR in the central region. Concretely, in the majority of cases, SFR-enhancement in the central kiloparsec is fuel-driven (55% for the secondary, 71% for the primary) -- whilst central SFR-suppression is efficiency-driven (91% for the secondary, 97% for the primary). Our numerical predictions underscore the need of substantially larger, and/or merger-dedicated, spatially-resolved galaxy surveys -- capable of examining vast and diverse samples of interacting systems -- coupled with multi-wavelength campaigns aimed to capture their internal ISM structure.

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arXiv2020

How do central and satellite galaxies quench? -- Insights from spatially resolved spectroscopy in the MaNGA survey

We investigate how star formation quenching proceeds within central and satellite galaxies using spatially resolved spectroscopy from the SDSS-IV MaNGA DR15. We adopt a complete sample of star formation rate surface densities ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$), derived in Bluck et al. (2020), to compute the distance at which each spaxel resides from the resolved star forming main sequence ($Σ_{\rm SFR} - Σ_*$ relation): $ΔΣ_{\rm SFR}$. We study galaxy radial profiles in $ΔΣ_{\rm SFR}$, and luminosity weighted stellar age (${\rm Age_L}$), split by a variety of intrinsic and environmental parameters. Via several statistical analyses, we establish that the quenching of central galaxies is governed by intrinsic parameters, with central velocity dispersion ($σ_c$) being the most important single parameter. High mass satellites quench in a very similar manner to centrals. Conversely, low mass satellite quenching is governed primarily by environmental parameters, with local galaxy over-density ($δ_5$) being the most important single parameter. Utilising the empirical $M_{BH}$ - $σ_c$ relation, we estimate that quenching via AGN feedback must occur at $M_{BH} \geq 10^{6.5-7.5} M_{\odot}$, and is marked by steeply rising $ΔΣ_{\rm SFR}$ radial profiles in the green valley, indicating `inside-out' quenching. On the other hand, environmental quenching occurs at over-densities of 10 - 30 times the average galaxy density at z$\sim$0.1, and is marked by steeply declining $ΔΣ_{\rm SFR}$ profiles, indicating `outside-in' quenching. Finally, through an analysis of stellar metallicities, we conclude that both intrinsic and environmental quenching must incorporate significant starvation of gas supply.

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arXiv2020

A successful search for intervening 21 cm HI absorption in galaxies at 0.4 < z <1.0 with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)

We have used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope to search for intervening 21 cm neutral hydrogen (HI) absorption along the line of sight to 53 bright radio continuum sources. Our observations are sensitive to HI column densities typical of Damped Lyman Alpha absorbers (DLAs) in cool gas with an HI spin temperature below about 300-500 K. The six-dish Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) and twelve-antenna Early Science array (ASKAP-12) covered a frequency range corresponding to redshift $0.4<z<1.0$ and $0.37<z<0.77$ respectively for the HI line. Fifty of the 53 radio sources observed have reliable optical redshifts, giving a total redshift path $Δz$ = 21.37. This was a spectroscopically-untargeted survey, with no prior assumptions about the location of the lines in redshift space. Four intervening HI lines were detected, two of them new. In each case, the estimated HI column density lies above the DLA limit for HI spin temperatures above 50-80 K, and we estimate a DLA number density at redshift $z\sim0.6$ of $n(z)=0.19\substack{+0.15 \\ -0.09}$. This value lies somewhat above the general trend of $n(z)$ with redshift seen in optical DLA studies. Although the current sample is small, it represents an important proof of concept for the much larger 21cm First Large Absorption Survey in HI (FLASH) project to be carried out with the full 36-antenna ASKAP telescope, probing a total redshift path $Δz\sim\,50,000$.

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arXiv2020

Galaxy mergers in EAGLE do not induce a significant amount of black hole growth yet do increase the rate of luminous AGN

We investigate the connection between galaxy--galaxy mergers and enhanced black hole (BH) growth using the cosmological hydrodynamical EAGLE simulation. We do this via three methods of analysis, investigating: the merger fraction of AGN, the AGN fraction of merging systems and the AGN fraction of galaxies with close companions. In each case, we find an increased abundance of AGN within merging systems relative to control samples of inactive or isolated galaxies (by up to a factor of $\approx 3$ depending on the analysis method used), confirming that mergers are enhancing BH accretion rates for at least a subset of the galaxy population. The greatest excess of AGN triggered via a merger are found in lower mass ($M_* \sim 10^{10}$~\Msol) gas rich ($f_{\mathrm{gas}} > 0.2$) central galaxies with lower mass BHs ($M_{\mathrm{BH}} \sim 10^{7}$~\Msol) at lower redshifts ($z<1$). We find no enhancement of AGN triggered via mergers in more massive galaxies ($M_* \gtrsim 10^{11}$~\Msol). The enhancement of AGN is not uniform throughout the phases of a merger, and instead peaks within the early \emph{remnants} of merging systems (typically lagging $\approx 300$~Myr post-coalescence of the two galaxies at $z=0.5$). We argue that neither major ($M_{\mathrm{*,1}} / M_{\mathrm{*,2}} \geq \frac{1}{4}$) nor minor mergers ($\frac{1}{10} < M_{\mathrm{*,1}} / M_{\mathrm{*,2}} < \frac{1}{4}$) are statistically relevant for enhancing BH masses globally. Whilst at all redshifts the galaxies experiencing a merger have accretion rates that are on average 2--3 times that of isolated galaxies, the majority of mass that is accreted onto BHs occurs outside the periods of a merger. We compute that on average no more than 15\% of a BHs final day mass comes from the enhanced accretion rates triggered via a merger

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arXiv2020

Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- XIV. Galaxy mergers do not lie on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation

In recent observational studies, star-forming galaxies have been shown to follow a relation often dubbed the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). This relation links the stellar mass of a galaxy with its star formation rate (SFR) and its gas-phase metallicity. Specifically, the FMR predicts that galaxies, at a given stellar mass, exhibit lower metallicities for higher SFRs. This trend is qualitatively consistent with observations of galaxy pairs, which have been robustly shown to experience increasing gas-phase metallicity dilution and enhanced star formation activity with decreasing projected separation. In this work, we show that, despite the qualitative consistency with FMR expectations, the observed O/H dilution in galaxy pairs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is stronger than what is predicted by the FMR. We conclude that the evolutionary phase of galaxies interacting with companions is not encoded in the FMR, and thus, mergers constitute a clearly defined population of outliers. We find that galaxies in pairs are consistent with the FMR only when their separation is larger than 110 kpc. Finally, we also quantify the local environment of the pairs using the number of galaxy neighbours within $2\, \mathrm{Mpc}$, $N_2$, and the projected separation to the second closest galaxy, $r_2$. We find that pairs are more sensitive to a second companion than to the local galaxy density, displaying less elevated SFRs with smaller values of $r_2$.

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arXiv2020

Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- I: Triggered star formation in a cosmological context

We use the IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to investigate how the specific star formation rates (sSFRs) of massive galaxies $(M_* > 10^{10} M_\odot)$ depend on the distance to their closest companions. We estimate sSFR enhancements by comparing with control samples that are matched in redshift, stellar mass, local density and isolation, and we restrict our analysis to pairs with stellar mass ratios of 0.1 to 10. At small separations (~15 kpc), the mean sSFR is enhanced by a factor of 2.0 $\pm$ 0.1 in the flagship (110.7 Mpc)$^3$ simulation (TNG100-1). Statistically significant enhancements extend out to 3D separations of 280 kpc in the (302.6 Mpc)$^3$ simulation (TNG300-1). We find similar trends in the EAGLE and Illustris simulations, although their sSFR enhancements are lower than those in TNG100-1 by about a factor of two. Enhancements in IllustrisTNG galaxies are seen throughout the redshift range explored ($0 \leq z < 1$), with the strength of the enhancements decreasing with increasing redshift for galaxies with close companions. In order to more closely compare with observational results, we separately consider 2D projected distances between galaxies in IllustrisTNG. We detect significant sSFR enhancements out to projected separations of 260 kpc in TNG300-1, with projection effects diluting the size of the enhancements by about 20 per cent below 50 kpc. We find similar sSFR enhancements in TNG100-1 and Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies, with enhancements extending out to projected separations of about 150 kpc for star-forming galaxies at $z < 0.2$. Finally, by summing over all separations, we estimate that the presence of closest companions boosts the average sSFR of massive galaxies in TNG100-1 by 14.5 per cent.

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arXiv2020

Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- II: Star formation in the post-merger stage

Galaxy mergers are a major evolutionary transformation whose effects are borne out by a plethora of observations and numerical simulations. However, most previous simulations have used idealised, isolated, binary mergers and there has not been significant progress on studying statistical samples of galaxy mergers in large cosmological simulations. We present a sample of 27,691 post-merger (PM) galaxies ($0\le z \le 1$) identified from IllustrisTNG: a cosmological, large box, magneto-hydrodynamical simulation suite. The PM sample spans a wide range of merger and galaxy properties ($M_\star$, $μ$, $f_\mathrm{gas}$). We demonstrate that star forming (SF) PMs exhibit enhanced star formation rates (SFRs) on average by a factor of $\sim 2$, while the passive PMs show no statistical enhancement. We find that the SFR enhancements: (1) show no dependence on redshift, (2) anti-correlate with the PM's stellar mass, and (3) correlate with the gas fraction of the PM's progenitors. However, SF PMs show stronger enhancements which may indicate other processes being at play (e.g., gas phase, feedback efficiency). Although the SFR enhancement correlates mildly with the merger mass ratio, the more abundant minor mergers ($0.1 \le μ< 0.3 $) still contribute $\sim 50\%$ of the total SFR enhancement. By tracing the PM sample forward in time, we find that galaxy mergers can drive significant SFR enhancements which decay over $\sim 0.5$ Gyr independent of the merger mass ratio, although the decay timescale is dependent on the simulation resolution. The strongest merger-driven starburst galaxies evolve to be passive/quenched on faster timescales than their controls.

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arXiv2020

Variations in the slope of the resolved star-forming main sequence: a tool for constraining the mass of star-forming regions

The correlation between galaxies' integrated stellar masses and star formation rates (the `star formation main sequence'; SFMS) is a well-established scaling relation. Recently, surveys have found a relationship between the star formation rate and stellar mass surface densities on kpc and sub-kpc scales (the `resolved SFMS'; rSFMS). In this work, we demonstrate that the rSFMS emerges naturally in FIRE-2 zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies. We make SFR and stellar mass maps of the simulated galaxies at a variety of spatial resolutions and star formation averaging time-scales and fit the rSFMS using multiple methods from the literature. While the absolute value of the SFMS slope depends on the fitting method, the slope is steeper for longer star formation time-scales and lower spatial resolutions regardless of the fitting method employed. We present a toy model that quantitatively captures the dependence of the simulated galaxies' rSFMS slope on spatial resolution and use it to illustrate how this dependence can be used to constrain the characteristic mass of star-forming clumps.

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arXiv2020

The ALMaQUEST Survey: II. What drives central starbursts at z~0?

Starburst galaxies have elevated star formation rates (SFRs) for their stellar mass. In Ellison et al. (2018) we used integral field unit (IFU) maps of star formation rate surface density (Sigma_SFR) and stellar mass surface density (Sigma_*) to show that starburst galaxies in the local universe are driven by SFRs that are preferentially boosted in their central regions. Here, we present molecular gas maps obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory for 12 central starburst galaxies at z~0 drawn from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. The ALMA and MaNGA data are well matched in spatial resolution, such that the ALMA maps of molecular gas surface density (Sigma_H2) can be directly compared with MaNGA maps at kpc-scale resolution. The combination of Sigma_H2, Sigma_* and Sigma_SFR at the same resolution allow us to investigate whether central starbursts are driven primarily by enhancements in star formation efficiency (SFE) or by increased gas fractions. By computing offsets from the resolved Kennicutt-Schmidt relation (Sigma_H2 vs. Sigma_SFR) and the molecular gas main sequence (Sigma_* vs. Sigma_H2), we conclude that the primary driver of the central starburst is an elevated SFE. We also show that the enhancement in Sigma_SFR is accompanied by a dilution in O/H, consistent with a triggering that is induced by metal poor gas inflow. These observational signatures are found in both undisturbed (9/12 galaxies in our sample) and recently merged galaxies, indicating that both interactions and secular mechanisms contribute to central starbursts.

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