http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.08452
Recent observations of galaxies in a cluster at z=0.35 show that their integrated gas-phase metallicities increase with decreasing cluster-centric distance. To test if ram pressure stripping (RPS) is the underlying cause, we use a semi-analytic model to quantify the “observational bias” that RPS introduces into the aperture-based metallicity measurements. We take integral field spectroscopy of local galaxies, remove gas from their outer galactic disks via RPS, and then conduct mock slit observations of cluster galaxies at z=0.35. Our RPS model predicts a typical cluster-scale metallicity gradient of -0.03 dex/Mpc. By removing gas from the outer galactic disks, RPS introduces a mean metallicity enhancement of +0.02 dex at a fixed stellar mass. This gas removal and subsequent quenching of star formation preferentially removes low mass cluster galaxies from the observed star-forming population. As only the more massive star-forming galaxies survive to reach the cluster core, RPS produces a cluster-scale stellar mass gradient of -0.05 log(M_*/M_sun)/Mpc. This mass segregation drives the predicted cluster-scale metallicity gradient of -0.03 dex/Mpc. However, the effects of RPS alone can not explain the higher metallicities measured in cluster galaxies at z=0.35. We hypothesize that additional mechanisms including steep internal metallicity gradients and self-enrichment due to gas strangulation are needed to reproduce our observations at z=0.35.
A. Gupta, T. Yuan, D. Martizzi, et. al.
Thu, 25 May 17
34/44
Comments: 17 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication ApJ
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