Spectroscopic study of star-forming galaxies in filaments and the field at $z\sim$0.5 : evidence for environmental dependence of electron density

Darvish, Behnam and Mobasher, Bahram and Sobral, David and Hemmati, Shoubaneh and Nayyeri, Hooshang and Shivaei, Irene (2015) Spectroscopic study of star-forming galaxies in filaments and the field at $z\sim$0.5 : evidence for environmental dependence of electron density. The Astrophysical Journal, 814 (2): 84. ISSN 0004-637X

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Abstract

We study the physical properties of a spectroscopic sample of 28 star-forming galaxies in a large filamentary structure in the COSMOS field at $z\sim$0.53, with spectroscopic data taken with the Keck/DEIMOS spectrograph, and compare them with a control sample of 30 field galaxies. We spectroscopically confirm the presence of a large galaxy filament ($\sim$ 8 Mpc), along which five confirmed X-ray groups exist. We show that within the uncertainties, the ionization parameter, equivalent width (EW), EW versus specific star-formation rate (sSFR) relation, EW versus stellar mass relation, line-of-sight velocity dispersion, dynamical mass, and stellar-to-dynamical mass ratio are similar for filament and field star-forming galaxies. However, we show that on average, filament star-forming galaxies are more metal-enriched ($\sim$ 0.1$-$0.15 dex), possibly due to the inflow of the already enriched intrafilamentary gas into filament galaxies. Moreover, we show that electron densities are significantly lower (a factor of $\sim$17) in filament star-forming systems compared to those in the field, possibly because of a longer star-formation timescale for filament star-forming galaxies. Our results highlight the potential pre-processing role of galaxy filaments and intermediate-density environments on the evolution of galaxies, which has been highly underestimated.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
The Astrophysical Journal
Additional Information:
main figs. 1,7,8,9,10 and 13.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100/3103
Subjects:
?? galaxies: abundancesgalaxies: evolutiongalaxies: fundamental parametersgalaxies: starburstlarge-scale structure of universemass-metallicity relationdigital sky surveyemission-line galaxiestully-fisher relationlarge-scale structurenear-infrared spectroscop ??
ID Code:
77491
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Jan 2016 15:10
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 00:37