Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The Effect of Environment on Galaxy Spiral Arms, Bars, Concentration, and Quenching

Journal Article · · The Astronomical Journal

For a sample of 4378 nearby spiral and S0 galaxies, Yu & Ho used Fourier analysis of Sloan Digital Sky Survey images to show that the strengths of the spiral arms and the pitch angles of the arms are inversely correlated with central concentration. In the current study, we search for trends in the Yu & Ho spiral arm parameters with environment and specific star formation rate (sSFR). When comparing galaxies with similar concentrations, we do not find a significant difference in the arm strengths or pitch angles of spiral galaxies in clusters compared to field galaxies. When differences in concentration are taken into account, we also find no significant difference in the parameter f3 for cluster spirals compared to field spirals, where f3 is the normalized m = 3 Fourier amplitude. When concentration is held fixed, both arm strength and pitch angle are correlated with sSFR, but f3 is not. These relations support the suggestion by Davis et al. of a "fundamental plane" of spiral structure involving pitch angle, bulge stellar mass, and gas surface density. We discuss these results in terms of theories of spiral arm production and quenching in galaxies. To aid comparison with earlier studies based on Galaxy Zoo, we explore how the Yu & Ho parameters relate to similar parameters measured by Galaxy Zoo (i.e., f3 versus the number of arms, pitch angle versus winding parameter, and concentration versus bulge class).

Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
2425328
Journal Information:
The Astronomical Journal, Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 164; ISSN 0004-6256
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (215)

Ram pressure stripping in high-density environments journal May 2022
Dawes Review 4: Spiral Structures in Disc Galaxies journal January 2014
The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies journal January 2021
Thermal evaporation of gas within galaxies by a hot intergalactic medium journal April 1977
Galaxy harassment and the evolution of clusters of galaxies journal February 1996
Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies journal May 2015
Suppressing star formation in quiescent galaxies with supermassive black hole winds journal May 2016
Ram-pressure feeding of supermassive black holes journal August 2017
The morphology-density relation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Morphology-density relation in the SDSS journal November 2003
The structure of spiral galaxies — II. Near-infrared properties of spiral arms journal September 1998
On the survival and destruction of spiral galaxies in clusters journal April 1999
Ram pressure stripping of spiral galaxies in clusters journal October 1999
An H  survey of eight Abell clusters: the dependence of tidally induced star formation on cluster density journal September 2000
H α photometry of Abell 2390 journal November 2000
Multi stage three-dimensional sweeping and annealing of disc galaxies in clusters journal November 2001
Radial mixing in galactic discs journal November 2002
Frequency and properties of bars in cluster and field galaxies at intermediate redshifts journal February 2009
Analysis of galaxy spectral energy distributions from far-UV to far-IR with CIGALE: studying a SINGS test sample journal September 2009
A catalogue of quasars and active nuclei: 13th edition journal July 2010
Radial migration does little for Galactic disc thickening journal December 2012
Spiral arm pitch angle and galactic shear rate in N -body simulations of disc galaxies journal May 2013
The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS) journal October 2014
Star formation along the Hubble sequence: Radial structure of the star formation of CALIFA galaxies journal May 2016
Spatially-resolved star formation histories of CALIFA galaxies: Implications for galaxy formation journal November 2017
CIGALE: a python Code Investigating GALaxy Emission journal February 2019
Slow-then-rapid quenching as traced by tentative evidence for enhanced metallicities of cluster galaxies at z ∼ 0.2 in the slow quenching phase journal January 2019
The shapes of spiral arms in the S 4 G survey and their connection with stellar bars journal October 2019
Tidal evolution of galaxies in the most massive cluster of IllustrisTNG-100 journal June 2020
Strong spiral arms drive secular growth of pseudo bulges in disk galaxies journal May 2022
The quenching of galaxies, bulges, and disks since cosmic noon: A machine learning approach for identifying causality in astronomical data journal March 2022
Growth of galactic bulges by mergers: I. Dense satellites journal February 2001
Density waves in the shearing sheet journal March 2001
Properties of disks and spiral arms along the Hubble sequence journal May 2002
Galaxy mergers with various mass ratios: Properties of remnants journal June 2005
The population of barred galaxies in the local universe: I. Detection and characterisation of bars journal January 2009
The shapes of spiral arms along the Hubble sequence journal December 1981
Tidal arms are ubiquitous in spiral galaxies journal April 1992
Extragalactic nebulae. journal October 1926
The Rate of Star Formation. journal January 1959
On the Spiral Structure of Disk Galaxies. journal August 1964
Non-Axisymmetric Responses of Differentially Rotating Disks of Stars journal December 1966
Group Velocity of Spiral Waves in Galactic Disks journal December 1969
Galactic Bridges and Tails journal December 1972
The Systematic Properties of Clusters of Galaxies. Photometry of 15 Clusters journal November 1974
Density wave theory and the classification of spiral galaxies journal March 1975
Gas response to oval distortions in disk galaxies journal October 1976
Observational constraints on driving mechanisms for spiral density waves journal October 1979
Galaxy morphology in rich clusters - Implications for the formation and evolution of galaxies journal March 1980
The evolution of disk galaxies and the origin of S0 galaxies journal April 1980
A comparison of measured spiral arm properties with model predictions journal February 1982
Relaxation and tidal stripping in rich clusters of galaxies. II - Evolution of the luminosity distribution journal January 1984
Arm classifications for spiral galaxies journal March 1987
Modal Approach to the Morphology of Spiral Galaxies. II. Dynamical Mechanisms journal March 1989
The star formation law in galactic disks journal September 1989
Tidal generation of active spirals and S0 galaxies by rich clusters journal February 1990
Dissipation in barred galaxies - The growth of bulges and central mass concentrations journal November 1990
Compressive tidal heating of a disk galaxy in a rich cluster journal May 1993
Bar instabilities in Coma cluster galaxies journal March 1981
A near-infrared atlas of spiral galaxies journal November 1981
Morphological Transformation from Galaxy Harassment journal March 1998
The Global Schmidt Law in Star‐forming Galaxies journal May 1998
The Origin of Star Formation Gradients in Rich Galaxy Clusters journal September 2000
Unequal-Mass Galaxy Mergers and the Creation of Cluster S0 Galaxies journal August 1998
A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies journal August 2000
Tidal Effects in Clusters of Galaxies journal January 2003
Environmental Effects in the Structural Parameters of Galaxies in the Coma Cluster journal March 2004
Gravitational Bar and Spiral Arm Torques fromKs-band Observations and Implications for the Pattern Speeds journal July 2004
Formation of a Spiral Galaxy in a Major Merger journal February 2005
The Distribution of Bar and Spiral Arm Strengths in Disk Galaxies journal August 2005
A Merger‐driven Scenario for Cosmological Disk Galaxy Formation journal July 2006
Constraining Dark Matter Halo Profiles and Galaxy Formation Models Using Spiral Arm Morphology. I. Method Outline journal July 2006
The Spitzer Spirals, Bridges, and Tails Interacting Galaxy Survey: Interaction-Induced Star Formation in the Mid-Infrared journal January 2007
Characterizing Bars at z ∼ 0 in the Optical and NIR: Implications for the Evolution of Barred Disks with Redshift journal April 2007
The UV‐Optical Galaxy Color‐Magnitude Diagram. III. Constraints on Evolution from the Blue to the Red Sequence
  • Martin, D. Christopher; Wyder, Ted K.; Schiminovich, David
  • The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 173, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/516639
journal December 2007
Rapid Formation of Exponential Disks and Bulges at High Redshift from the Dynamical Evolution of Clump‐Cluster and Chain Galaxies journal November 2007
The UV‐Optical Color Magnitude Diagram. II. Physical Properties and Morphological Evolution On and Off of a Star‐forming Sequence
  • Schiminovich, David; Wyder, Ted K.; Martin, D. Christopher
  • The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 173, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/524659
journal December 2007
Bars in Disk‐dominated and Bulge‐dominated Galaxies at z ∼ 0: New Insights from ∼3600 SDSS Galaxies journal March 2008
Strangulation in Galaxy Groups journal December 2007
Physical Properties of Tidal Features in Interacting Disk Galaxies journal August 2008
Discovery of a Relationship between Spiral Arm Morphology and Supermassive Black Hole Mass in Disk Galaxies journal April 2008
Bulge Formation by the Coalescence of Giant Clumps in Primordial Disk Galaxies journal November 2008
A Pilot Survey of H i in Field Galaxies at Redshift z ~ 0.2 journal September 2008
Improved Background Subtraction for the Sloan Digital sky Survey Images journal June 2011
How do Disks Survive Mergers? journal February 2009
Do Moderate-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei Suppress star Formation? journal January 2009
Morphological Quenching of star Formation: Making Early-Type Galaxies red journal November 2009
Mergers and Bulge Formation in ΛCdm: Which Mergers Matter? journal April 2010
The rise and fall of Passive disk Galaxies: Morphological Evolution Along the red Sequence Revealed by Cosmos journal August 2010
The Dynamics of Spiral arms in pure Stellar Disks journal March 2011
GRAND DESIGN AND FLOCCULENT SPIRALS IN THE SPITZER SURVEY OF STELLAR STRUCTURE IN GALAXIES (S 4 G) journal July 2011
Dust-Corrected star Formation Rates of Galaxies. ii. Combinations of Ultraviolet and Infrared Tracers journal October 2011
SPIRAL INSTABILITIES IN N -BODY SIMULATIONS. I. EMERGENCE FROM NOISE journal May 2012
Dynamics of Non-Steady Spiral arms in disk Galaxies journal January 2013
Revisiting the Scaling Relations of Black hole Masses and host Galaxy Properties journal February 2013
Self-Perpetuating Spiral arms in disk Galaxies journal March 2013
Further Evidence for a Supermassive Black hole Mass-Pitch Angle Relation journal May 2013
A link Between star Formation Quenching and Inner Stellar mass Density in Sloan Digital sky Survey Central Galaxies journal September 2013
Pitch Angle of Galactic Spiral arms journal May 2014
Constraining dark Matter halo Profiles and Galaxy Formation Models Using Spiral arm Morphology. ii. dark and Stellar mass Concentrations for 13 Nearby Face-On Galaxies journal October 2014
On the origin of red spirals: does assembly bias play a role? journal March 2022
Which Galaxies host bars and Disks? a Study of the coma Cluster journal February 2010
Bars do Drive Spiral Density Waves journal May 2010
The Evolution of Galaxies Resolved in Space and Time: a view of Inside-Out Growth from the Califa Survey journal January 2013
A Fundamental Plane of Spiral Structure in disk Galaxies journal March 2015
Disk-Stability Constraints on the Number of arms in Spiral Galaxies journal July 2015
II. Spiral Arms as Sheared Gravitational Instabilities journal August 1965
Transport processes and the stripping of cluster galaxies journal April 1982
Flocculent and grand design spiral structure in field, binary and group galaxies journal December 1982
Flocculent and grand design spiral arm structure in cluster galaxies journal December 1982
Disc galaxies and their environments; the relative populations of subclasses of ordinary and barred spiral galaxies in the various environments journal November 1986
Heart of darkness: the influence of galactic dynamics on quenching star formation in galaxy spheroids journal May 2020
The fate of disc galaxies in IllustrisTNG clusters journal June 2020
The influence of environment on satellite galaxies in the GAEA semi-analytic model journal August 2020
A multiwavelength study of spiral structure in galaxies. I. General characteristics in the optical journal January 2020
Accretion of galaxy groups into galaxy clusters journal September 2020
Stellar scattering and the formation of exponential discs in self-gravitating systems journal September 2020
How do central and satellite galaxies quench? – Insights from spatially resolved spectroscopy in the MaNGA survey journal September 2020
Structural and stellar-population properties versus bulge types in Sloan Digital Sky Survey central galaxies journal February 2020
GASP XXIX – unwinding the arms of spiral galaxies via ram-pressure stripping journal October 2020
A homogeneous measurement of the delay between the onsets of gas stripping and star formation quenching in satellite galaxies of groups and clusters journal December 2020
Comparing galaxy formation in the L-GALAXIES semi-analytical model and the IllustrisTNG simulations journal January 2021
The origin of bulges and discs in the CALIFA survey – I. Morphological evolution journal April 2021
Galaxy zoo builder: Morphological dependence of spiral galaxy pitch angle journal April 2021
Galaxy Zoo DECaLS: Detailed visual morphology measurements from volunteers and deep learning for 314 000 galaxies journal September 2021
From blue cloud to red sequence: evidence of morphological transition prior to star formation quenching journal October 2021
Quantifying radial migration in the Milky Way: inefficient over short time-scales but essential to the very outer disc beyond ∼15 kpc journal February 2022
The ATLAS3D project – XXII. Low-efficiency star formation in early-type galaxies: hydrodynamic models and observations journal May 2013
Why does the environmental influence on group and cluster galaxies extend beyond the virial radius? journal February 2013
The GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey – VIII. Final data release. The effect of group environment on the gas content of massive galaxies journal September 2013
Galaxy Zoo 2: detailed morphological classifications for 304 122 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey journal September 2013
Pre-processing and post-processing in group–cluster mergers journal September 2013
Pitch angle variations in spiral galaxies journal September 2013
Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: satellite star formation histories and quenching time-scales in a hierarchical Universe journal April 2013
From voids to Coma: the prevalence of pre-processing in the local Universe journal March 2014
Spiral structure in nearby galaxies – II. Comparative analysis and conclusions journal December 2014
Gaseous spiral structure and mass drift in spiral galaxies journal March 2014
The green valley is a red herring: Galaxy Zoo reveals two evolutionary pathways towards quenching of star formation in early- and late-type galaxies★ journal March 2014
Bulge mass is king: the dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey journal April 2014
Galaxy Zoo: comparing the demographics of spiral arm number and a new method for correcting redshift bias journal July 2016
The impact of galactic properties and environment on the quenching of central and satellite galaxies: a comparison between SDSS, Illustris and L-Galaxies journal July 2016
Molecular and atomic gas along and across the main sequence of star-forming galaxies journal July 2016
Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters journal November 2016
Active galactic nuclei from He ii: a more complete census of AGN in SDSS galaxies yields a new population of low-luminosity AGN in highly star-forming galaxies journal December 2016
Galaxy groups in the low-redshift Universe journal June 2017
The unorthodox evolution of major merger remnants into star-forming spiral galaxies journal June 2017
How do spiral arm contrasts relate to bars, disc breaks and other fundamental galaxy properties? journal July 2017
On the interdependence of galaxy morphology, star formation and environment in massive galaxies in the nearby Universe journal July 2017
Updating the (supermassive black hole mass)–(spiral arm pitch angle) relation: a strong correlation for galaxies with pseudobulges journal July 2017
Galaxy Zoo and sparcfire: constraints on spiral arm formation mechanisms from spiral arm number and pitch angles journal August 2017
Star formation is boosted (and quenched) from the inside-out: radial star formation profiles from MaNGA journal November 2017
The dependence of bar frequency on galaxy mass, colour, and gas content – and angular resolution – in the local universe journal December 2017
Evidence of pre-processing and a dependence on dynamical state for low-mass satellite galaxies journal February 2017
Quenching of satellite galaxies at the outskirts of galaxy clusters journal January 2018
Simulations of the flocculent spiral M33: what drives the spiral structure? journal May 2018
Galaxy Zoo: unwinding the winding problem – observations of spiral bulge prominence and arm pitch angles suggest local spiral galaxies are winding journal April 2019
The evolution of pitch angles of spiral arms journal October 2019
Both starvation and outflows drive galaxy quenching journal November 2019
The ALMaQUEST survey – VI. The molecular gas main sequence of ‘retired’ regions in galaxies journal December 2020
Pre-Processing of Galaxies before Entering a Cluster journal February 2004
Local supermassive black holes, relics of active galactic nuclei and the X-ray background journal June 2004
The environmental dependence of the relations between stellar mass, structure, star formation and nuclear activity in galaxies: Galaxy structure, star formation and nuclear activity journal August 2004
A halo-based galaxy group finder: calibration and application to the 2dFGRS journal February 2005
Dust-penetrated arm classes: insights from rising and falling rotation curves journal May 2005
Morphological evolution of discs in clusters journal December 2005
Gas infall and stochastic star formation in galaxies in the local universe journal April 2006
Enhanced mergers of galaxies in low-redshift clusters journal November 2006
Properties of bars and bulges in the Hubble sequence journal September 2007
Ram pressure stripping the hot gaseous haloes of galaxies in groups and clusters journal December 2007
Interaction-induced star formation in a complete sample of 10 5 nearby star-forming galaxies journal April 2008
The STAGES view of red spirals and dusty red galaxies: mass-dependent quenching of star formation in cluster infall journal March 2009
Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment journal March 2009
Environmental effects on satellite galaxies: the link between concentration, size and colour profile journal April 2009
Galaxy morphology in the ΛCDM cosmology journal July 2009
Galaxy Zoo: disentangling the environmental dependence of morphology and colour journal October 2009
Ram-pressure stripping of halo gas in disc galaxies: implications for galactic star formation in different environments journal November 2009
Southern GEMS groups – II. H i distribution, mass functions and H i deficient galaxies★: H iin groups journal December 2009
Simulations of the grand design galaxy M51: a case study for analysing tidally induced spiral structure: Simulations of tidally induced structure in M51 journal February 2010
High-redshift clumpy discs and bulges in cosmological simulations journal March 2010
Galaxy Zoo: passive red spirals journal March 2010
The Dawn of the Red: star formation histories of group galaxies over the past 5 billion years: Star formation histories of group galaxies journal February 2011
Slowly breaking waves: the longevity of tidally induced spiral structure journal April 2011
The velocity modulation of galaxy properties in and near clusters: quantifying the decrease in star formation in backsplash galaxies: Velocity modulation of galaxy properties journal August 2011
CFHT Legacy Ultraviolet Extension (CLUE): witnessing galaxy transformations up to 7 Mpc from rich cluster cores journal November 2011
Natures of a clump-origin bulge: a pseudo-bulge like but old metal-rich bulge: Natures of a clump-origin bulge journal April 2012
The dynamics of stars around spiral arms: Dynamics of stars around spiral arms journal February 2012
On the fundamental dichotomy in the local radio-AGN population: accretion, evolution and host galaxy properties journal February 2012
Galaxy Zoo: the environmental dependence of bars and bulges in disc galaxies: Environmental dependence of bars and bulges journal April 2012
Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters: star formation rates, red sequence fractions and the persistent bimodality: Galaxy evolution in groups and clusters journal May 2012
ALFALFA H I data stacking - III. Comparison of environmental trends in H I gas mass fraction and specific star formation rate journal December 2012
Triggering of merger-induced starbursts by the tidal field of galaxy groups and clusters journal March 2008
Spirals in Galaxies journal August 2022
Observational Evidence of Active Galactic Nuclei Feedback journal September 2012
Physical Parameters Along the Hubble Sequence journal September 1994
Galactic Dynamics (Second Edition) book December 2008
The Sinfoni Black hole Survey: the Black hole Fundamental Plane Revisited and the Paths of (Co)Evolution of Supermassive Black Holes and Bulges journal February 2016
Zens. iv. Similar Morphological Changes Associated with mass Quenching and Environment Quenching and the Relative Importance of Bulge Growth Versus the Fading of Disks journal February 2016
Galactic Spiral arms by Swing Amplification journal April 2016
Forming disk Galaxies in wet Major Mergers. i. Three Fiducial Examples journal April 2016
Tidally Induced bars of Galaxies in Clusters journal August 2016
GALEX –SDSS –WISE LEGACY CATALOG (GSWLC): STAR FORMATION RATES, STELLAR MASSES, AND DUST ATTENUATIONS OF 700,000 LOW-REDSHIFT GALAXIES journal November 2016
The Preferential Tidal Stripping of dark Matter Versus Stars in Galaxies journal December 2016
Tidal Origin of Spiral arms in Galaxies Orbiting a Cluster journal December 2016
Growth of Bulges in Disk Galaxies Since z ∼ 1 journal May 2017
Dust Attenuation Curves in the Local Universe: Demographics and New Laws for Star-forming Galaxies and High-redshift Analogs journal May 2018
The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. VI. Quantifying Spiral Structure journal July 2018
On the Connection between Spiral Arm Pitch Angle and Galaxy Properties journal January 2019
Bar Fraction in Early- and Late-type Spirals journal February 2019
A Consistent Set of Empirical Scaling Relations for Spiral Galaxies: The ( v max , M oM )–( σ 0 , M BH , ϕ ) Relations journal May 2019
The Statistical Properties of Spiral Arms in Nearby Disk Galaxies journal September 2020
Spiral Structure Boosts Star Formation in Disk Galaxies journal August 2021
Exploring the AGN–Ram Pressure Stripping Connection in Local Clusters journal March 2022
Stellar Population Synthesis of Star-forming Clumps in Galaxy Pairs and Non-interacting Spiral Galaxies journal February 2018
Long-Lived Spiral Structure for Galaxies with Intermediate-Size Bulges journal July 2016
Spiral arm Morphology in Cluster Environment journal October 2011
Environment Dependence of disk Morphology of Spiral Galaxies journal February 2014

Similar Records

Galaxy zoo builder: Morphological dependence of spiral galaxy pitch angle
Journal Article · Thu Apr 22 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · OSTI ID:1782000

A FUNDAMENTAL PLANE OF SPIRAL STRUCTURE IN DISK GALAXIES
Journal Article · Fri Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astrophysical Journal Letters · OSTI ID:22518819

A new method to estimate local pitch angles in spiral galaxies: Application to spiral arms and feathers in M81 and M51
Journal Article · Sun Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 2014 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) · OSTI ID:22342197