Quenching timescales of dwarf satellites around Milky Way-mass hosts

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to analyze the quenching timescales of dwarf satellite galaxies around Milky Way-like hosts, revealing mass-dependent quenching behaviors and environmental influences.

Contribution

It provides detailed measurements of quenched fractions and timescales, and identifies a stellar mass threshold affecting quenching resistance in satellite galaxies.

Findings

Many satellites quench within 2 Gyr of infall.

Satellites with $M_* ext{~} 10^{6-8}$ solar masses show varied quenching times.

A stellar mass of $10^8$ solar masses marks a threshold for quenching resistance.

Abstract

Observations of the low-mass satellites in the Local Group have shown high fractions of gas-poor, quiescent galaxies relative to isolated dwarfs, implying that the host halo environment plays an important role in the quenching of dwarf galaxies. In this work, we present measurements of the quenched fractions and quenching timescales of dwarf satellite galaxies in the DC Justice League suite of 4 high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of Milky Way-mass halos. We show that these simulations accurately reproduce the satellite luminosity functions of observed nearby galaxies, as well as the variation in satellite quenched fractions from $M_* \sim 10^5$ solar masses to $10^{10}$ solar masses. We then trace the histories of satellite galaxies back to $z \sim 15$, and find that many satellites with $M_* \sim 10^{6-8}$ solar masses quench within 2 Gyr of infall into the host halo, while others in the same mass range remain star-forming for as long as 5 Gyr. We show that this scatter can be explained by the satellite's gas mass and the ram pressure it feels at infall. Finally, we identify a characteristic stellar mass scale of $10^8$ solar masses above which infalling satellites are largely resistant to rapid environmental quenching.