Tidal stripping as a test of satellite quenching in redMaPPer clusters

TL;DR

This study uses satellite galaxy correlations in SDSS clusters to show many satellites quenched star formation before falling into their current hosts, challenging models of galaxy quenching.

Contribution

It provides observational evidence linking satellite infall times with star formation quenching, using correlation measurements beyond the tidal radius.

Findings

Subhalo correlations persist beyond the tidal radius.

Many satellites quenched before infall into current hosts.

Star formation quenching occurred approximately 6 Gyr ago.

Abstract

When dark matter halos are accreted by massive host clusters, strong gravitational tidal forces begin stripping mass from the accreted subhalos. This stripping eventually removes all mass beyond a subhalo's tidal radius, but the unbound mass remains in the vicinity of the satellite for at least a dynamical time t_dyn. The N-body subhalo study of Chamberlain et al. verified this picture and pointed out a useful observational consequence: measurements of subhalo correlations beyond the tidal radius are sensitive to the infall time, t_infall, of the subhalo onto its host. We perform this cross-correlation measurement using ~ 160,000 red satellite galaxies in SDSS redMaPPer clusters and find evidence that subhalo correlations do persist well beyond the tidal radius, suggesting that many of the observed satellites fell into their current host less than a dynamical time ago, t_infall < t_dyn. Combined with estimated dynamical times t_dyn ~ 3-5 Gyr and SED fitting results for the time at which satellites stopped forming stars, t_quench ~ 6 Gyr, we infer that for a significant fraction of the satellites, star formation quenched before those satellites entered their current hosts. The result holds for red satellites over a large range of cluster-centric distances 0.1 - 0.6 Mpc/h. We discuss the implications of this result for models of galaxy formation.