The dependence of galaxy group star formation rates and metallicities on large scale environment

TL;DR

This study investigates how large-scale environments influence star formation rates and metallicities in galaxies within compact groups, revealing that isolated systems have slightly higher SFRs, while metallicities remain unaffected.

Contribution

It provides new evidence that large-scale environment affects star formation rates in compact group galaxies, with minimal impact on metallicity.

Findings

Isolated compact group galaxies show enhanced SFR compared to controls.

Embedded systems do not show significant SFR differences.

Metallicity remains unchanged across environments within sensitivity limits.

Abstract

We construct a sample of 75,863 star forming galaxies with robust metallicity and star formation rate measurements from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7), from which we select a clean sample of compact group (CG) galaxies. The CGs are defined to be close configurations of at least 4 galaxies that are otherwise apparently isolated. Our selection results in a sample of 112 spectroscopically identified compact group galaxies, which can be further divided into groups that are either embedded within a larger structure, such as a cluster or large group, or truly isolated systems. The compact groups then serve as a probe into the influence of large scale environment on a galaxy's evolution, while keeping the local density fixed at high values. We find that the star formation rates (SFRs) of star forming galaxies in compact groups are significantly different between isolated and embedded systems. Galaxies in isolated systems show significantly enhanced SFR, relative to a control sample matched in mass and redshift, a trend not seen in the embedded systems. Galaxies in isolated systems exhibit a median SFR enhancement at fixed stellar mass of +0.07 \pm 0.03 dex. These dependences on large scale environment are small in magnitude relative to the apparent influence of local scale effects found in previous studies, but the significance of the difference in SFRs between our two samples constrains the effect of large scale environment to be non-zero. We find no significant change in the gas-phase interstellar metallicity for either the isolated or embedded compact group sample relative to their controls. However, simulated samples that include artificial offsets indicate that we are only sensitive to metallicity changes of log O/H >0.13 dex (at 99% confidence), which is considerably larger than the typical metallicity differences seen in previous environmental studies.