Quenching Timescales in the IllustrisTNG Simulation

TL;DR

This study analyzes galaxy quenching timescales in the IllustrisTNG simulation, revealing diverse quenching durations, their evolution, and properties predicting quenching behavior, with implications for understanding galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of quenching timescales and their predictors, highlighting the roles of gas angular momentum and galaxy properties in quenching processes.

Findings

40% of galaxies quench rapidly within 1 Gyr

Slow quenching galaxies are more massive with higher black hole masses

Residual star formation persists in slow quenchers at z=0

Abstract

The timescales for galaxy quenching offer clues to its underlying physical drivers. We investigate central galaxy quenching timescales in the IllustrisTNG 100-1 simulation, their evolution over time, and the pre-quenching properties of galaxies that predict their quenching timescales. Defining quenching duration $\tau_q$ as the time between crossing sSFR thresholds, we find that $\sim$40% of galaxies quench rapidly with $\tau_q<$1 Gyr, but a substantial tail of galaxies can take up to 10 Gyr to quench. Furthermore, 29% of galaxies that left the star forming main sequence (SFMS) more than 2 Gyr ago never fully quench by $z=0$. While the median $\tau_q$ is fairly constant with epoch, the rate of galaxies leaving the SFMS increases steadily over cosmic time, with the rate of slow quenchers being dominant around $z\sim2$ to 0.7. Compared to fast quenchers ($\tau_q<$1 Gyr), slow-quenching galaxies ($\tau_q>$1 Gyr) were more massive, had more massive black holes, had larger stellar radii and accreted gas with higher specific angular momentum (AM) prior to quenching. These properties evolve little by $z=0$, except for the accreting gas AM for fast quenchers, which reaches the same high AM as the gas in slow quenchers. By $z=0$, slow quenchers also have residual star formation in extended gas rings. Using the expected relationship between stellar age gradient and $\tau_q$ for inside-out quenching we find agreement with MaNGA IFU observations. Our results suggest the accreting gas AM and potential well depth determine the quenching timescale.