Catching galaxies in the act of quenching star formation
Salvatore Quai, Lucia Pozzetti, Annalisa Citro, Michele Moresco,, Andrea Cimatti

TL;DR
This study identifies galaxies in the act of quenching star formation by analyzing emission line ratios, revealing rapid quenching timescales and supporting environmental mechanisms like ram-pressure stripping.
Contribution
First to select quenching galaxies using [O III]/Halpha ratio, providing new insights into the rapid quenching process and its timescales.
Findings
Quenching timescale approximately 50 million years.
Low fraction (~0.58%) of galaxies are in the quenching phase.
Supports rapid environmental quenching mechanisms.
Abstract
Detecting galaxies when their star-formation is being quenched is crucial to understand the mechanisms driving their evolution. We identify for the first time a sample of quenching galaxies selected just after the interruption of their star formation by exploiting the [O III]5007/Halpha ratio and searching for galaxies with undetected [O III]. Using a sample of ~174000 star-forming galaxies extracted from the SDSS-DR8 at 0.04 < z < 0.21,we identify the ~300 quenching galaxy best candidates with low [O III]/Halpha, out of ~26000 galaxies without [O III] emission. They have masses between 10^9.7 and 10^10.8 Mo, consistently with the corresponding growth of the quiescent population at these redshifts. Their main properties (i.e. star-formation rate, colours and metallicities) are comparable to those of the star-forming population, coherently with the hypothesis of recent quenching, but…
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