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arXiv 2209.07613astro-ph.GA
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星系合并可以迅速关闭恒星形成

Galaxy mergers can rapidly shut down star formation

Sara L. Ellison, Scott Wilkinson, Joanna Woo, Ho-Hin Leung, Vivienne Wild, Robert W. Bickley, David R. Patton, Salvatore Quai, Stephen Gwyn

摘要:

星系的合并同时触发了恒星的形成和对中心超大质量黑洞的吸积。由于随后的能量反馈过程,长期以来一直有人提出,恒星的形成可能会在星系合并残留物中迅速消失。然而,这一预测的广泛,快速淬火在后期阶段的合并最近被质疑与现代模拟和从未被测试的观测。在这里,我们进行了第一次经验评估的长期预测的结束阶段的合并序列。基于从紫外近红外光学北方巡天(UNIONS)中确定的约500个合并后星系的样本,我们表明,合并后星系在之前的恒星爆发后迅速关闭恒星形成的频率比非合并星系的对照样本高出30-60倍。在一个紧密星系对的样本中没有发现这样的过量,这表明合并确实会导致恒星形成的快速停止,但这一过程只有在合并后才表现出来。

英文摘要:

Galaxy mergers trigger both star formation and accretion onto the central supermassive black hole. As a result of subsequent energetic feedback processes, it has long been proposed that star formation may be promptly extinguished in galaxy merger remnants. However, this prediction of widespread, rapid quenching in late stage mergers has been recently called into question with modern simulations and has never been tested observationally. Here we perform the first empirical assessment of the long-predicted end phase in the merger sequence. Based on a sample of ~500 post-mergers identified from the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS), we show that the frequency of post-merger galaxies that have rapidly shutdown their star formation following a previous starburst is 30-60 times higher than expected from a control sample of non-merging galaxies. No such excess is found in a sample of close galaxy pairs, demonstrating that mergers can indeed lead to a rapid halt to star formation, but that this process only manifests after coalescence.

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