Quenching of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon: Understanding the Effect of Environment

TL;DR

This study investigates the quenching of massive galaxies at high redshift, finding rapid internal mechanisms like AGN feedback dominate over environment in shutting down star formation.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of quenching timescales and environmental effects on massive quiescent galaxies at z~3.1 using multi-wavelength data and Voronoi density mapping.

Findings

Quenching timescales are uniformly short (<500 Myr).

No significant correlation between galaxy quiescence and environment.

Internal processes likely drive galaxy quenching at high redshift.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify quiescent galaxies in the 2-deg$^2$ COSMOS field at $z \sim 3.1$ and analyze their environment. Using data from the ODIN survey and COSMOS2020 catalog, we identify 24 massive quiescent galaxies (MQGs) with stellar masses $\geq 10^{10.6}$ and derive their star formation histories and quenching timescales using SED fitting with BAGPIPES. Voronoi-based density maps trace local and large-scale environments using Lyman-$\alpha$ Emitters and photometric galaxies. Results indicate uniformly short quenching timescales ($<$500 Myr) independent of environmental density, suggesting rapid internal mechanisms such as AGN feedback dominate over environmental factors. MQGs do not correlate with protoclusters or filaments, although some are near gas-rich filaments but show no rejuvenation. These findings suggest quenching at high redshift is driven primarily by internal processes rather than environmental interactions.