http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03492
We investigate dust-unbiased star formation rates (SFR) as a function of the environment in 20 massive clusters ($M_{200}>4\times10^{14}\,{\rm M}{\odot}$) between $0.15<z<0.35$ using radio luminosities ($L{\rm 1.4GHz}$) from the recently released MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey catalogue. We use optical data from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey to estimate photo-$z$s and assign cluster membership. We observe a steady decline in the fraction ($f_{\rm SF}$) of star-forming galaxies from $2R_{200}$ to the cluster centres in our full cluster sample, but notice a significant difference in $f_{\rm SF}$ gradients between clusters hosting large-scale extended radio emission in the form of haloes and relics (associated with ongoing merger activity) and non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters. For star-forming galaxies within $R_{200}$, the $f_{\rm SF}$ in clusters hosting radio haloes and relics ($0.148\pm0.016$) is $\approx23\%$ higher than in non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters ($0.120\pm0.011$). We observe a $3\sigma$ difference between the total SFR normalised by cluster mass for non-radio-halo/relic hosting clusters ($21.5\pm1.9$\,M${\odot}$yr$^{-1}$/$10^{14}$M${\odot}$) and for clusters with radio haloes and relics ($26.1\pm1.4$\,M${\odot}$yr$^{-1}$/$10^{14}$M${\odot}$). There is a $\approx4\times$ decline in the mass normalised total SFR of clusters for galaxies with SFR above the luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) SFR limit at our redshift slice, corresponding to 2\,Gyr in look-back time. This is consistent with the rapid decline in SF activity with decreasing redshift amongst cluster LIRGs seen by previous studies using infrared-derived SFR.
K. Kesebonye, M. Hilton, K. Knowles, et. al.
Tue, 8 Nov 22
33/79
Comments: 13 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS