Study of Environmental Impact on the Galaxy Evolution in the Virgo Cluster

  • Lee, Woong (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Rey, Soo-Chang (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Kim, Suk (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Chung, Jiwon (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Lee, Youngdae (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Chung, Aeree (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University) ;
  • Yoon, Hyein (Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University)
  • Published : 2015.10.15

Abstract

We present environmental effects on the galaxy evolution in the Virgo cluster focusing on intracluster medium - interstellar medium (ICM-ISM) interactions and gravitational interactions. We identify signatures of these environmental effects for 21 massive late-type galaxies based on the visual inspection of high resolution HI data from VLA Imaging of Virgo spirals in Atomic gas (VIVA) survey comparing with multi-wavelength data. We classify galaxies into three subgroups showing different environmental effects. First and second groups includes galaxies influenced by ongoing/active and past ram pressure stripping effect, respectively. Third group consists of galaxies undergoing gravitational interactions. Additionally, we define neighbor galaxies for each VIVA galaxies utilizing kinematic data from Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog. Assuming that neighbor galaxies share similar levels of environmental effects with host VIVA galaxies, we investigate environmental effects on galaxy properties in different subgroups using SDSS optical and GALEX ultraviolet photometric data. We find that dwarf neighbor galaxies in first and second groups show rapid quenching of their star formation (SF), while massive counterparts are still in SF activity. On the other hand, most third group galaxies show hints of SF activity regardless of their mass. We conclude that SF and evolution of galaxy in the cluster environment is closely linked to ICM-ISM interactions and dwarf galaxies seem to be more sensitive to this effect compared to massive counterparts.

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