On the fast quenching of young low-mass galaxies up to z $\sim$ 0.6: new spotlight on the lead role of environment

TL;DR

This study explores how environment influences the rapid quenching of young low-mass galaxies up to redshift 0.6, highlighting the increasing role of environmental factors over cosmic time in galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides observational evidence linking environmental density to the fast quenching of low-mass galaxies, emphasizing the significance of environment-driven quenching mechanisms.

Findings

Low-mass galaxy quiescence correlates with higher local densities.

The reservoir of star-forming low-mass galaxies in dense regions grew from z~0.6 to z~0.4.

Environmental quenching becomes more dominant over mass quenching at lower redshifts.

Abstract

We investigate the connection between environment and the different quenching channels that galaxies are prone to follow in the rest-frame NUVrK colour diagram, as identified by Moutard et al. (2016b). Namely, the fast quenching channel followed by $young$ low-mass galaxies and the slow quenching channel followed by $old$ high-mass ones. We make use of the >22 deg$^2$ covered the VIPERS Multi-Lambda Survey (VIPERS-MLS) to select a galaxy sample complete down to stellar masses of $M_* > 10^{9.4} M_\odot$ at $z < 0.65$ ($M_* > 10^{8.8} M_\odot$ at $z < 0.5$) and including 33,500 (43,000) quiescent galaxies properly selected at $0.2 < z < 0.65$, while being characterized by reliable photometric redshifts ($\sigma_{\delta z/(1+z)} \leq 0.04$) that we use to measure galaxy local densities. We find that (1) the quiescence of low-mass [$M_* \leq 10^{9.7} M_\odot$] galaxies requires a strong increase of the local density, which confirms the lead role played by environment in their fast quenching and, therefore, confirms that the low-mass upturn observed in the stellar mass function of quiescent galaxies is due to $environmental$ $quenching$. We also observe that (2) the reservoir of low-mass star-forming galaxies located in very dense regions (prone to environmental quenching) has grown between $z \sim 0.6$ and $ z \sim 0.4$ whilst the share of low-mass quiescent galaxies (expected to being environmentally quenched) may have simultaneously increased, which would plead for a rising importance of $environmental$ $quenching$ with cosmic time, compared to $mass$ $quenching$. We finally discuss the composite picture of such environmental quenching of low-mass galaxies and, in particular, how this picture may be consistent with a $delayed$-$then$-$rapid$ quenching scenario.