The ALMaQUEST Survey. VII. Star Formation Scaling Relations of Green Valley Galaxies

Journal Article · 23 February 2022 · The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4ccc · OSTI ID:1983232

Lin, Lihwai  ^[1]; Ellison, Sara L.  ^[2]; Pan, Hsi-An  ^[3]; Thorp, Mallory D. ^[2]; Yu, Po-Chieh ^[4]; Belfiore, Francesco  ^[5]; Hsieh, Bau-Ching  ^[1]; Maiolino, Roberto  ^[6]; Ramya, S. ^[7]; Sánchez, Sebastián F.  ^[8]; Su, Yung-Chau  ^[9]

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1. Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
2. Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada)
3. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg (Germany); Tamkang Univ., Taipei (Taiwan)
4. Yuan-Ze University, Taoyuan (Taiwan)
5. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Firenze (Italy). Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
6. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab. and Kavli Institute for Cosmology
7. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, Bengaluru (India)
8. Univ. Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City (Mexico)
9. Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan); National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan)

We utilize the ALMA-MaNGA QUEnch and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) survey to investigate the kpc-scale scaling relations, presented as the resolved star-forming MS (rSFMS: Σ_SFR versus Σ_*), the resolved Schmidt–Kennicutt relation (rSK: Σ_SFR versus $${{\rm{\Sigma }}}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$$), and the resolved molecular gas MS (rMGMS: $${{\rm{\Sigma }}}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$$ versus Σ_*), for 11,478 star-forming and 1414 retired spaxels (oversampled by a factor of ~20) located in 22 GV and 12 MS galaxies. For a given galaxy type (MS or GV), the retired spaxels are found to be offset from the sequences formed by the star-forming spaxels on the rSFMS, rSK, and rMGMS planes, toward lower absolute values of sSFR, SFE, and $${f}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$$ by ~1.1, 0.6, and 0.5 dex. The scaling relations for GV galaxies are found to be distinct from that of the MS galaxies, even if the analyses are restricted to the star-forming spaxels only. It is found that, for star-forming spaxels, sSFR, SFE, and $${f}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$$ in GV galaxies are reduced by ~0.36, 0.14, and 0.21 dex, respectively, compared to those in MS galaxies. Therefore, the suppressed sSFR/SFE/f_gas in GV galaxies is associated with not only an increased proportion of retired regions in GV galaxies but also a depletion of these quantities in star-forming regions. Finally, the reduction of SFE and $${f}_{{{\rm{H}}}_{2}}$$ in GV galaxies relative to MS galaxies is seen in both bulge and disk regions (albeit with larger uncertainties), suggesting that, statistically, quenching in the GV population may persist from the inner to the outer regions.

• Research Organization: US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
• Sponsoring Organization: Academia Sinica; European Research Council (ERC); Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• OSTI ID: 1983232
• Journal Information: The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 926; ISSN 0004-637X
• Publisher: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English