Isolating Triggered Star Formation
Galaxy pairs provide a potentially powerful means of studying triggered star formation from galaxy interactions. We use a large cosmological N-body simulation coupled with a well-tested semi-analytic substructure model to demonstrate that the majority of galaxies in close pairs reside within cluster or group-size halos and therefore represent a biased population, poorly suited for direct comparison to 'field' galaxies. Thus, the frequent observation that some types of galaxies in pairs have redder colors than 'field' galaxies is primarily a selection effect. We use our simulations to devise a means to select galaxy pairs that are isolated in their dark matter halos with respect to other massive subhalos (N= 2 halos) and to select a control sample of isolated galaxies (N= 1 halos) for comparison. We then apply these selection criteria to a volume-limited subset of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey with M{sub B,j} {le} -19 and obtain the first clean measure of the typical fraction of galaxies affected by triggered star formation and the average elevation in the star formation rate. We find that 24% (30.5 %) of these L* and sub-L* galaxies in isolated 50 (30) h{sup -1} kpc pairs exhibit star formation that is boosted by a factor of {approx}> 5 above their average past value, while only 10% of isolated galaxies in the control sample show this level of enhancement. Thus, 14% (20 %) of the galaxies in these close pairs show clear triggered star formation. Our orbit models suggest that 12% (16%) of 50 (30) h{sup -1} kpc close pairs that are isolated according to our definition have had a close ({le} 30 h{sup -1} kpc) pass within the last Gyr. Thus, the data are broadly consistent with a scenario in which most or all close passes of isolated pairs result in triggered star formation. The isolation criteria we develop provide a means to constrain star formation and feedback prescriptions in hydrodynamic simulations and a very general method of understanding the importance of triggered star formation in a cosmological context.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 915374
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-12808; ASJOAB; arXiv:0708.2912; TRN: US200817%%489
- Journal Information:
- Submitted to Astrophys.J., Journal Name: Submitted to Astrophys.J.; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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