Temporally and Spatially Extended Star Formation in the Brightest Cluster Galaxy of MACS\,J0329.7$-$0211 at $z=0.45$: Implications for Stellar Growth

TL;DR

This study investigates the extended star formation history of the brightest cluster galaxy in MACS J0329.7-0211, revealing persistent, moderate star formation over 400 million years driven by residual cooling flows, with implications for stellar and globular cluster growth.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the temporal extent of star formation in this BCG, showing sustained activity over hundreds of millions of years using spectral energy distribution fitting.

Findings

Star formation has persisted at ~2 solar masses per year over ~400 million years.

This star formation accounts for up to 10% of the galaxy's stellar mass growth since z~2.

Residual cooling flows can significantly influence globular cluster populations around BCGs.

Abstract

Brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), particularly those at the centers of cool-core clusters, can exhibit star formation over spatial extents of up to $\gtrsim$100\,kpc at inferred rates of up to $\gtrsim100\rm\,M_\sun\,yr^{-1}$. Is their star formation also extended over time, as might be expected if fuelled by cooling of the surrounding hot intracluster gas -- a residual cooling flow -- as demonstrated hitherto only for the BCG in the Perseus cluster? Here, to infer the formation history of relatively young stars in the BCG of MACS\,J0329.7$-$0211, we fit model single-stellar-populations to the spectral energy distributions (spanning near-UV to near-IR) measured along different sightlines towards its young stellar population. Employing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we show that star formation in this BCG has persisted at a relatively constant rate of $\sim2{\rm\,M_\sun\,yr^{-1}}$ (factors of 10--40 below the rates previously inferred using simpler methods and/or ad hoc assumptions) over the past $\sim$400\,Myr, beyond which any star formation falls below the observational detection threshold. Such persistent star formation from a residual cooling flow can contribute up to $\sim$10\% of the original stellar mass of this BCG if its progenitor was among the most massive red nuggets known at $z\sim$2 having masses of $\sim1\times10^{11}\rm\,M_\sun$, but only a few percent of its overall growth in stellar mass to $\sim8\times10^{11}\rm\,M_\sun$ at $z=0.45$. Although constituting only a minor pathway for the stellar growth of this BCG, persistent star formation from a residual cooling flow can nevertheless contribute significantly to the enormous number of globular clusters found around BCGs in the local Universe.