Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 448, Issue 2, Pages 1715-1728Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv100
Keywords
galaxies: clusters: general; galaxies: clusters: invidivual: Abell 963; galaxies: clusters: intracluster medium; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: general
Categories
Funding
- FONDECYT [3130476, 3120135, 3130480, 3130470]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Science Foundation
- US Department of Energy
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- University of Chicago
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA)
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
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We investigate the effect of ram-pressure from the intracluster medium on the stripping of HI gas in galaxies in a massive, relaxed, X-ray bright, galaxy cluster at z = 0.2 from the Blind Ultra Deep H I Environmental Survey (BUDHIES). We use cosmological simulations, and velocity versus position phase-space diagrams to infer the orbital histories of the cluster galaxies. In particular, we embed a simple analytical description of ram-pressure stripping in the simulations to identify the regions in phase-space where galaxies are more likely to have been sufficiently stripped of their HI gas to fall below the detection limit of our survey. We find a striking agreement between the model predictions and the observed location of H I-detected and non-detected blue (late-type) galaxies in phase-space, strongly implying that ram-pressure plays a key role in the gas removal from galaxies, and that this can happen during their first infall into the cluster. However, we also find a significant number of gas-poor, red (early-type) galaxies in the infall region of the cluster that cannot easily be explained with our model of ram-pressure stripping alone. We discuss different possible additional mechanisms that could be at play, including the pre-processing of galaxies in their previous environment. Our results are strengthened by the distribution of galaxy colours (optical and UV) in phase-space, that suggests that after a (gas-rich) field galaxy falls into the cluster, it will lose its gas via ram-pressure stripping, and as it settles into the cluster, its star formation will decay until it is completely quenched. Finally, this work demonstrates the utility of phase-space diagrams to analyse the physical processes driving the evolution of cluster galaxies, in particular HI gas stripping.
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