Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21932202p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #322.02
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The galaxy population appears to be composed of infinitely complex different types and properties at first sight, however, when large samples of galaxies are studied, it appears that the vast majority of galaxies just follow simple scaling relations and similar evolutional modes while the outliers represent some minority. The underlying simplicities of the interrelationships among stellar mass, star formation rate and environment are seen in SDSS and zCOSMOS. We demonstrate that the differential effects of mass and environment are completely separable to z 1, indicating that two distinct physical processes are operating, namely the "mass quenching" and "environment quenching". These two simple quenching processes, plus some additional quenching due to merging, then naturally produce the Schechter form of the galaxy stellar mass functions and make quantitative predictions for the inter-relationships between the Schechter parameters of star-forming and passive galaxies in different environments. All of these detailed quantitative relationships are indeed seen, to very high precision, in SDSS, lending strong support to our simple empirically-based model. The model also offers qualitative explanations for the "anti-hierarchical" age-mass relation and the alpha-enrichment patterns for passive galaxies and makes some other testable predictions such as the mass function of the population of transitory objects that are in the process of being quenched, the galaxy major- and minor-merger rates, the galaxy stellar mass assembly history, star formation history and etc. Although still purely phenomenological, the model makes clear what the evolutionary characteristics of the relevant physical processes must in fact be.
No associations
LandOfFree
Mass and Environment as Drivers of Galaxy Evolution: Simplicity and its Consequences does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Mass and Environment as Drivers of Galaxy Evolution: Simplicity and its Consequences, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Mass and Environment as Drivers of Galaxy Evolution: Simplicity and its Consequences will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1580005