Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21811905c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #119.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Recent studies show that compact groups appear to follow an evolutionary sequence, linked to gas depletion, caused by interactions in the dense environment. In mid-infrared color-color space, galaxies in Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) show a roughly bimodal separation into dusty, star forming and dust-free, evolved systems. This appears to correlate with HI-depletion, but not the presence of hot X-ray gas. We present results from our Spitzer spectroscopy study of a sample of 23 HCGs, where we find that galaxies with intermediate mid-infrared colors preferentially show enhanced warm H2 emission (i.e. not associated with star formation). We propose a hypothesis where group galaxies collide with previously stripped tidal material, thus producing shock-heated H2 emission. The evolution from gas-rich to gas-poor is accelerated due to galaxies experiencing stochastic heating and/or viscous stripping, which effectively shuts down star formation, causing them to move rapidly from actively star forming to passively evolving systems (i.e. dominated by an old stellar population).
Appleton Ph.
Bitsakis T.
Cluver Michelle E.
Guillard Pierre
Jarrett Thomas
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