Oral Presentation
The Effects of Ram Pressure Stripping on the Star Formation Activity of Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
Presenter: Jae Yeon Mun (Seoul National University)
Ram pressure stripping (RPS) is one of the most effective ways of removing star-forming gas from galaxies. As a result, RPS is generally expected to quench star formation in galaxies. However, many studies have insinuated the possibility of ram pressure enhancing star formation prior to complete quenching. We study galaxies undergoing RPS in the Virgo cluster to examine whether we can identify any discernible trend in their star formation activity. We employ a new scheme for galaxy classification which combines HI mass fractions and locations in projected phase space to identify galaxies at different stripping stages. We utilize a variety of star formation tracers, which include g - r, WISE [3.4] - [12] colors, and starburstiness that are defined by stellar mass and star formation rates to compare the star formation activity of galaxies at different stripping stages. While we find no clear evidence for enhancement, we are able to capture the overall quenching of star formation activity with increasing degree of RPS. Our results suggest that if there is any RPS-induced enhancement, it is at best locally modest, and galaxies undergoing enhancement make up a small fraction of the total sample. Our results also indicate that it is possible to trace galaxies at different stages of stripping with the combination of HI gas content and location in projected phase space, which can be extended to other galaxy clusters that lack high-resolution HI imaging.
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