The many faces of galaxies in transition in the local universe

Mon 25th March, 2019 @14:15 PM, level 7, David Caro Building
Dr Benedetta Vulcani, INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova

Email:  benedetta.vulcani[at]inaf.it

Abstract

Studying galaxies in transition in the different environments give important clues on galaxy evolution. I will present different methods to select galaxies in transition, showing how different approaches can reveal different pathways to quenching.

– Transition galaxies can be identified as outliers in the SFR-mass plane. I will focus on the cluster SFR-mass relation at z=0 and show that in some galaxies the star formation is enhanced, while in some others it is suppressed with respect to the field. The triggering of the star formation is due to fast gas removal processes, such as ram pressure stripping (Vulcani+2018c), while its suppression is due to slow processes, such as strangulation (Paccagnella, Vulcani+2016).

– Transition galaxies can be selected according to their spectral information. I will show how the incidence and the properties of post starburst galaxies, tracers of fast quenching processes, depend on environment (Paccagnella, Vulcani+2017, 2018).

– Transition galaxies can be selected using photometric information. I will also present an analysis of those galaxies that show signs of an ongoing or recent transformation of their star formation activity and/or morphology discussing an evolutionary scenario that links all the different populations at z=0 (Vulcani+15).

These analyses are based on the GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE (GASP) survey, the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS), its recent extension OmegaWINGS and the Padova Millennium Galaxy Group Catalog (PM2GC).