More connected, more active: galaxy clusters and groups at z~1 and the connection between their quiescent galaxy fractions and large-scale environments

TL;DR

This study investigates high-redshift galaxy clusters and their large-scale environments, revealing that surrounding large-scale structures influence the quiescent galaxy fraction and star formation activity within clusters at z~1.

Contribution

It provides new spectroscopic data confirming cluster candidates and demonstrates the impact of large-scale structures on galaxy quiescence at high redshift.

Findings

Clusters within large-scale structures have lower quiescent galaxy fractions.

Extended LSSs are associated with more active, star-forming galaxies.

Clusters with higher quiescent fractions tend to be more centrally concentrated.

Abstract

High-redshift galaxy clusters, unlike local counterparts, show diverse star formation activities. However, it is still unclear what keeps some of the high-redshift clusters active in star formation. To address this issue, we performed a multi-object spectroscopic (MOS) observation of 226 high-redshift (0.8 < z < 1.3) galaxies in galaxy cluster candidates and the areas surrounding them. Our spectroscopic observation reveals six to eight clusters/groups at z ~ 0.9 and z ~ 1.3. The redshift measurements demonstrate the reliability of our photometric redshift measurements, which in turn gives credibility for using photometric redshift members for the analysis of large-scale structures (LSSs). Our investigation of the large-scale environment (~10 Mpc) surrounding each galaxy cluster reveals LSSs --- structures up to ~10 Mpc scale --- around many of, but not all, the confirmed overdensities and the cluster candidates. We investigate the correlation between quiescent galaxy fraction of galaxy overdensities and their surrounding LSSs, with a larger sample of ~ 20 overdensities including photometrically selected overdensities at 0.6 < z < 0.9. Interestingly, galaxy overdensities embedded within these extended LSSs show a lower fraction of quiescent galaxies (~ 20 %) than isolated ones at similar redshifts (with a quiescent galaxy fraction of ~ 50 %). Furthermore, we find a possible indication that clusters/groups with a high quiescent galaxy fraction are more centrally concentrated. Based on these results, we suggest that LSSs are the main reservoirs of gas and star-forming galaxies to keep galaxy clusters fresh and extended in size at z ~ 1.