It's not easy being green: The evolution of galaxy colour in the EAGLE
simulation
J. Trayford, T. Theuns, R. Bower, R. Crain, C. Lagos, M. Schaller, and J. Schaye. (2016)cite arxiv:1601.07907Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. All comments welcome. Larger version of Fig. 1 included in source. For the animated evolution of the EAGLE intrinsic u-r CMD (with central and satellite galaxies coloured red and blue respectively) see http://community.dur.ac.uk/j.w.trayford/media/CMD_evolution_EAGLE.mp4.
Abstract
We examine the evolution of intrinsic u-r colours of galaxies in the EAGLE
cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which has been shown to reproduce the
observed redshift z=0.1 colour-magnitude distribution well. The median u-r of
star-forming ('blue cloud') galaxies reddens by 1 mag from z=2 to 0 at fixed
stellar mass, as their specific star formation rates decrease with time. A red
sequence starts to build-up around z=1, due to the quenching of low-mass
satellite galaxies at the faint end, and due to the quenching of more massive
central galaxies by their active galactic nuclei (AGN) at the bright end. This
leaves a dearth of intermediate-mass red sequence galaxies at z=1, which is
mostly filled in by z=0. We quantify the time-scales of colour transition due
to satellite and AGN quenching, finding that most galaxies spend less than 2
Gyr in the 'green valley'. On examining the trajectories of galaxies in a
colour-stellar mass diagram, we identify three characteristic tracks that
galaxies follow (quiescently star-forming, quenching and rejuvenating galaxies)
and quantify the fraction of galaxies that follow each track.
Description
[1601.07907] It's not easy being green: The evolution of galaxy colour in the EAGLE simulation
cite arxiv:1601.07907Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. All comments welcome. Larger version of Fig. 1 included in source. For the animated evolution of the EAGLE intrinsic u-r CMD (with central and satellite galaxies coloured red and blue respectively) see http://community.dur.ac.uk/j.w.trayford/media/CMD_evolution_EAGLE.mp4
%0 Generic
%1 trayford2016being
%A Trayford, James. W.
%A Theuns, Tom
%A Bower, Richard G.
%A Crain, Robert A.
%A Lagos, Claudia del P.
%A Schaller, Matthieu
%A Schaye, Joop
%D 2016
%K bimodality color quenching simulation
%T It's not easy being green: The evolution of galaxy colour in the EAGLE
simulation
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.07907
%X We examine the evolution of intrinsic u-r colours of galaxies in the EAGLE
cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which has been shown to reproduce the
observed redshift z=0.1 colour-magnitude distribution well. The median u-r of
star-forming ('blue cloud') galaxies reddens by 1 mag from z=2 to 0 at fixed
stellar mass, as their specific star formation rates decrease with time. A red
sequence starts to build-up around z=1, due to the quenching of low-mass
satellite galaxies at the faint end, and due to the quenching of more massive
central galaxies by their active galactic nuclei (AGN) at the bright end. This
leaves a dearth of intermediate-mass red sequence galaxies at z=1, which is
mostly filled in by z=0. We quantify the time-scales of colour transition due
to satellite and AGN quenching, finding that most galaxies spend less than 2
Gyr in the 'green valley'. On examining the trajectories of galaxies in a
colour-stellar mass diagram, we identify three characteristic tracks that
galaxies follow (quiescently star-forming, quenching and rejuvenating galaxies)
and quantify the fraction of galaxies that follow each track.
@misc{trayford2016being,
abstract = {We examine the evolution of intrinsic u-r colours of galaxies in the EAGLE
cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, which has been shown to reproduce the
observed redshift z=0.1 colour-magnitude distribution well. The median u-r of
star-forming ('blue cloud') galaxies reddens by 1 mag from z=2 to 0 at fixed
stellar mass, as their specific star formation rates decrease with time. A red
sequence starts to build-up around z=1, due to the quenching of low-mass
satellite galaxies at the faint end, and due to the quenching of more massive
central galaxies by their active galactic nuclei (AGN) at the bright end. This
leaves a dearth of intermediate-mass red sequence galaxies at z=1, which is
mostly filled in by z=0. We quantify the time-scales of colour transition due
to satellite and AGN quenching, finding that most galaxies spend less than 2
Gyr in the 'green valley'. On examining the trajectories of galaxies in a
colour-stellar mass diagram, we identify three characteristic tracks that
galaxies follow (quiescently star-forming, quenching and rejuvenating galaxies)
and quantify the fraction of galaxies that follow each track.},
added-at = {2016-02-01T10:10:11.000+0100},
author = {Trayford, James. W. and Theuns, Tom and Bower, Richard G. and Crain, Robert A. and Lagos, Claudia del P. and Schaller, Matthieu and Schaye, Joop},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/283da89f9cf8784f2e9e39dc97c9789c4/miki},
description = {[1601.07907] It's not easy being green: The evolution of galaxy colour in the EAGLE simulation},
interhash = {0a67a1ee87f5ef1e7ddfb5d53eee164d},
intrahash = {83da89f9cf8784f2e9e39dc97c9789c4},
keywords = {bimodality color quenching simulation},
note = {cite arxiv:1601.07907Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. All comments welcome. Larger version of Fig. 1 included in source. For the animated evolution of the EAGLE intrinsic u-r CMD (with central and satellite galaxies coloured red and blue respectively) see http://community.dur.ac.uk/j.w.trayford/media/CMD_evolution_EAGLE.mp4},
timestamp = {2016-02-01T10:10:11.000+0100},
title = {It's not easy being green: The evolution of galaxy colour in the EAGLE
simulation},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.07907},
year = 2016
}