SEEDisCS: I. Molecular gas in galaxy clusters and their large-scale structure: The case of CL1411.1-1148 at z similar to 0.5

We investigate how the galaxy reservoirs of molecular gas fuelling star formation are transformed while the host galaxies infall onto galaxy cluster cores. As part of the Spatially Extended ESO Distant Cluster Survey (SEEDisCS), we present CO(3-2) observations of 27 star-forming galaxies obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. These sources are located inside and around CL1411.1-1148 at z=0.5195, within five times the cluster virial radius. These targets were selected to have stellar masses (Mstar), colours, and magnitudes similar to those of a field comparison sample at similar redshift drawn from the Plateau de Bure high-z Blue Sequence Survey (PHIBSS2). We compare the cold gas fraction (mu H2=MH2/Mstar), specific star formation rates (SFR/Mstar) and depletion timescales (tdepl=MH2/SFR) of our main-sequence galaxies to the PHIBSS2 subsample. While the most of our galaxies (63%) are consistent with PHIBSS2, the remainder fall below the relation between mu H2 and Mstar of the PHIBSS2 galaxies at z similar to 0.5. These low-mu H2 galaxies are not compatible with the tail of a Gaussian distribution, hence they correspond to a new population of galaxies with normal SFRs but low gas content and low depletion times (less than or similar to 1 Gyr), absent from previous surveys. We suggest that the star formation activity of these galaxies has not yet been diminished by their low fraction of cold molecular gas.

Virgo filaments I. Processing of gas in cosmological filaments around the Virgo cluster

Gianluca Castignani, Pascale Jablonka

It is now well established that galaxies have different morphologies, gas contents, and star formation rates (SFR) in dense environments like galaxy clusters. The impact of environmental density extends to several virial radii, and galaxies appear to be pre-processed in filaments and groups before falling into the cluster. Our goal is to quantify this pre-processing in terms of gas content and SFR, as a function of density in cosmic filaments. We have observed the two first CO transitions in 163 galaxies with the IRAM-30 m telescope, and added 82 more measurements from the literature, thus forming a sample of 245 galaxies in the filaments around the Virgo cluster. We gathered HI-21cm measurements from the literature and observed 69 galaxies with the Nancay telescope to complete our sample. We compare our filament galaxies with comparable samples from the Virgo cluster and with the isolated galaxies of the AMIGA sample. We find a clear progression from field galaxies to filament and cluster galaxies for decreasing SFR, increasing fraction of galaxies in the quenching phase, an increasing proportion of early-type galaxies, and decreasing gas content. Galaxies in the quenching phase, defined as having a SFR below one-third of that of the main sequence (MS), are only between 0% and 20% in the isolated sample, according to local galaxy density, while they are 20%-60% in the filaments and 30%-80% in the Virgo cluster. Processes that lead to star formation quenching are already at play in filaments; they depend mostly on the local galaxy density, while the distance to the filament spine is a secondary parameter. While the HI-to-stellar-mass ratio decreases with local density by an order of magnitude in the filaments, and two orders of magnitude in the Virgo cluster with respect to the field, the decrease is much less for the H-2-to-stellar-mass ratio. As the environmental density increases, the gas depletion time decreases, because the gas content decreases faster than the SFR. This suggests that gas depletion precedes star formation quenching.

EDP SCIENCES S A2021

Cold gas in the cosmic web around galaxy clusters

Damien Louis Alexandre Spérone-Longin

Galaxies live in very different types of environment. Those different environments are relics from the evolution of the Universe since the Big Bang. This network of structures observed via large scale surveys is called Cosmic Web. Within this web, galaxies can be isolated, in a filament, in a group, or in a cluster. When part of a cluster of galaxies, their morphologies, gas content (cold and hot), and star formation activities is seen to be affected by other galaxies, or by the gas inside the cluster. However, the long-term effects of the local environment on galaxy evolution remain unclear. Also, it has been observed that a pre-processing is happening long before the galaxies enter the cluster cores, which could explain the build-up of the passive galaxy sequence, where galaxies have quenched star formation. The aim of this thesis is to see if and how the cold molecular gas reservoir of galaxies is modified when star formation activity is decreasing and if there is a link with the position of the galaxy in the CW around the cluster. We gathered unprecedented observations: the first and largest survey of the molecular gas content of galaxies in and around the same cluster environment at intermediate redshifts. These Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations are part of a larger survey called Spatially Extended ESO Distant Cluster Survey. We are focusing on two clusters at a redshift of 0.5, which benefit from previous deep photometric and spectroscopic observations. This will allow us to derive accurate stellar masses and star formation rates, in order to compare those galaxies to other surveys of the cold gas content of galaxies, either in the field or inside different clusters. We unveiled a new population of galaxies with normal star formation rates but less cold molecular gas than other galaxies at the same stellar mass. This could be an indication that the gas reservoir responsible for the star formation changes either in mass or properties, before the star formation is affected. We also noticed that galaxies with the lowest cold-molecular-gas-to-stellar-mass ratios are preferentially either in the cluster core or in overdensities away from the cluster, confirming the existence of a pre-processing in overdensities surrounding the cluster. But active galaxies inside or close to the cluster, do not always have depleted CO reservoir. This thesis opens up new prospects on the study of the cold gas content of galaxies at intermediate redshift. It showed the necessity to observe galaxies that are in a transition regime between star forming and passive, in order to understand how star formation is suppressed around clusters. Those results could be extended to much larger samples, with the help of the upcoming new generation of instruments such as the Square Kilometer Array.

EPFL2021

Molecular gas in two companion cluster galaxies at z=1.2

Gianluca Castignani, Anand Stéphane Raichoor

Context. Probing both star formation history and evolution of distant cluster galaxies is essential to evaluate the effect of dense environment on shaping the galaxy properties we observe today. Aims. We investigate the effect of cluster environment on the processing of the molecular gas in distant cluster galaxies. We study the molecular gas properties of two star-forming galaxies separated by 6 kpc in the projected space and belonging to a galaxy cluster selected from the frac Shallow Cluster Survey, at a redshift z = 1.2, that is,similar to 2 Gyr after the cosmic star formation density peak. This work describes the first CO detection from 1 < z < 1.4 star-forming cluster galaxies with no clear reported evidence of active galactic nuclei. Methods. We exploit observations taken with the NOEMA interferometer at similar to 3 mm to detect CO(2-1) line emission from the two selected galaxies, unresolved by our observations. Results. Based on the CO(2-1) spectrum, we estimate a total molecular gas mass M(H-2) = (2.2(-0.4)(+0.5)) x 10(10) M-circle dot, where fully excited gas is assumed, and a dust mass M-dust < 4.2 x 10(8) M(circle dot )for the two blended sources. The two galaxies have similar stellar masses and H alpha-based star formation rates (SFRs) found in previous work, as well as a large relative velocity of similar to 400 km s(-1) estimated from the CO(2-1) line width. These findings tend to privilege a scenario where both sources contribute to the observed CO(2-1). Using the archival Spitzer MIPS flux at 24 mu m we estimate an SFR (24 mu m) = (24(-8)(+12)) M-circle dot/yr for each of the two galaxies. Assuming that the two sources contribute equally to the observed CO(2-1), our analysis yields a depletion timescale of tau(dep) = (3.9(-1.8)(+1.4)) x 10(8) yr, and a molecular gas to stellar mass ratio of 0.17 +/- 0.13 for each of two sources, separately. We also provide a new, more precise measurement of an unknown weighted mean of the redshifts of the two galaxies, z = 1.163 +/- 0.001. Conclusions. Our results are in overall agreement with those of other distant cluster galaxies and with model predictions for main sequence (MS) field galaxies at similar redshifts. The two target galaxies have molecular gas mass and depletion times that are marginally compatible with, but smaller than those of MS field galaxies, suggesting that the molecular gas has not been sufficiently refueled. We speculate that the cluster environment might have played a role in preventing the refueling via environmental mechanisms such as galaxy harassment, strangulation, ram-pressure, or tidal stripping. Higher-resolution and higher-frequency observations will enable us to spatially resolve the two sources and possibly distinguish between different gas processing mechanisms.

EDP SCIENCES S A2018