Passive spiral galaxies deeply captured by Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam

TL;DR

This study identifies and analyzes a large sample of passive spiral galaxies using deep learning and multi-wavelength data, revealing their distribution and environmental dependence, especially in galaxy clusters.

Contribution

It presents a new large catalog of passive spiral galaxies identified through deep-learning classification and visual inspection, with insights into their environmental distribution and properties.

Findings

Passive spirals are similarly distributed to quiescent galaxies on key spectral indices.

Enhanced passive fraction of spirals found in X-ray clusters.

Passive spirals in clusters are located in the mid to late infall phase, supporting ram pressure stripping.

Abstract

This paper presents a thousand passive spiral galaxy samples at $z=$ 0.01-0.3 based on a combined analysis of the Third Public Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP PDR3) and the GALEX-SDSS-WISE Legacy Catalog (GSWLC-2). Among 54871 $gri$ galaxy cutouts taken from the HSC-SSP PDR3 over 1072 deg$^2$, we conducted a search with deep-learning morphological classification for candidates of passive spirals below the star-forming main sequence derived by UV to mid-IR SED fitting in the GSWLC-2. We then classified the candidates into 1100 passive spirals and 1141 secondary samples based on visual inspections. Most of the latter cases are considered to be passive ringed S0 or pseudo-ringed galaxies. The remainder of these secondary samples has ambiguous morphologies, including two peculiar objects with diamond-shaped stellar wings. The selected passive spirals have a similar distribution to the general quiescent galaxies on the EW$_\mathrm{H\delta}$-D$_n$4000 diagram and concentration indices. Moreover, we detected an enhanced passive fraction of spiral galaxies in X-ray clusters. Passive spirals in galaxy clusters are preferentially located in the midterm or late infall phase on the phase-space diagram, supporting the ram pressure scenario, which has been widely advocated in previous studies. The source catalog and $gri$-composite images are available on the HSC-SSP PDR3 website (https://hsc.mtk.nao.ac.jp/ssp/data-release/). Future updates, including integration with a citizen science project dedicated to the HSC data, will achieve more effective and comprehensive classifications.