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VIS3COS. I. Survey overview and the role of environment and stellar mass on star formation

A. Paulino-Afonso, D. Sobral, B. Darvish, B. Ribeiro, A. Stroe, P. Best, J. Afonso, Y. Matsuda

Abstract

We present the VIMOS Spectroscopic Survey of a Supercluster in the COSMOS field (VIS3COS) at z ∼ 0.84. We use VIMOS high-resolution spectra (GG475 filter) to spectroscopically select 490 galaxies in and around the superstructure and an additional 481 galaxies in the line of sight. We present the redshift distribution, the catalogue to be made public, and the first results on the properties of individual galaxies and stacked spectra (3500 Å < λ <  4200 Å rest-frame). We probe a wide range of densities and environments (from low-density field to clusters and rich groups). We find a decrease in the median star formation rate from low- to high-density environments in all bins of stellar mass and a sharp rise of the quenched fraction (from ∼10% to ∼40 − 60%) of intermediate-stellar-mass galaxies (10 <  log10 (M⋆/M⊙) <  10.75) from filaments to clusters. The quenched fraction for massive galaxies shows little dependence on environment, being constant at ∼30 − 40%. We find a break in the strength of the [O II] emission, with nearly constant line equivalent widths at lower densities (∼ − 11 Å) and then a drop to ∼ − 2.5 Å towards higher densities. The break in the [OII] line strength happens at similar densities (log10(1 + δ) ∼ 0.0 − 0.5) as the observed rise in the quenched fraction. Our results may provide further clues regarding the different environmental processes affecting galaxies with different stellar masses and highlight the advantages of a single dataset in the COSMOS field probing a wide range of stellar masses and environments. We hypothesise that quenching mechanisms are enhanced in high-density regions.

Keywords
galaxies: clusters: general; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; large-scale structure of Universe

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume 620, Article Number A186, Number of pages 16
2018 December

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia