TY - JOUR
T1 - SDSS-IV MaNGA
T2 - Evidence for Enriched Accretion onto Satellite Galaxies in Dense Environments
AU - Schaefer, Adam L.
AU - Tremonti, Christy
AU - Pace, Zachary
AU - Belfiore, Francesco
AU - Argudo-Fernandez, Maria
AU - Bershady, Matthew A.
AU - Drory, Niv
AU - Jones, Amy
AU - Maiolino, Roberto
AU - Stark, David
AU - Wake, David
AU - Yan, Renbin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
PY - 2019/10/20
Y1 - 2019/10/20
N2 - We investigate the environmental dependence of the local gas-phase metallicity in a sample of star-forming galaxies from the MaNGA survey. Satellite galaxies with stellar masses in the range are found to be ∼0.05 dex higher in metallicity than centrals of similar stellar mass. Within the low-mass satellite population, we find that the interstellar medium (ISM) metallicity depends most strongly on the stellar mass of the galaxy that is central to the halo, though there is no obvious difference in the metallicity gradients. At fixed total stellar mass, the satellites of high-mass (M ∗ > 1010.5 M o) centrals are ∼0.1 dex more metal-rich than the satellites of low-mass (M ∗ < 1010 M o) centrals, controlling for local stellar mass surface density and gas fraction. Fitting a gas regulator model to the spaxel data, we are able to account for variations in the local gas fraction, stellar mass surface density, and local escape velocity-dependent outflows. We find that the best explanation for the metallicity differences is the variation in the average metallicity of accreted gas between different environments that depends on the stellar mass of the dominant galaxies in each halo. This is interpreted as evidence for the exchange of enriched gas between galaxies in dense environments that is predicted by recent simulations.
AB - We investigate the environmental dependence of the local gas-phase metallicity in a sample of star-forming galaxies from the MaNGA survey. Satellite galaxies with stellar masses in the range are found to be ∼0.05 dex higher in metallicity than centrals of similar stellar mass. Within the low-mass satellite population, we find that the interstellar medium (ISM) metallicity depends most strongly on the stellar mass of the galaxy that is central to the halo, though there is no obvious difference in the metallicity gradients. At fixed total stellar mass, the satellites of high-mass (M ∗ > 1010.5 M o) centrals are ∼0.1 dex more metal-rich than the satellites of low-mass (M ∗ < 1010 M o) centrals, controlling for local stellar mass surface density and gas fraction. Fitting a gas regulator model to the spaxel data, we are able to account for variations in the local gas fraction, stellar mass surface density, and local escape velocity-dependent outflows. We find that the best explanation for the metallicity differences is the variation in the average metallicity of accreted gas between different environments that depends on the stellar mass of the dominant galaxies in each halo. This is interpreted as evidence for the exchange of enriched gas between galaxies in dense environments that is predicted by recent simulations.
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U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ab43ca
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ab43ca
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075125967
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 884
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 156
ER -