WALLABY Pilot Survey: Star Formation Enhancement and Suppression in Gas-rich Galaxy Pairs

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Main Authors: Huang, Qifeng, Wang, Jing, Lin, Xuchen, Oh, Se-Heon, Chen, Xinkai, Catinella, Barbara, Deg, Nathan, Dénes, Helga, For, Bi-Qing, Koribalski, Baerbel, Lee-Waddell, Karen, Rhee, Jonghwan, Shen, Austin, Shao, Li, Spekkens, Kristine, Staveley-Smith, Lister, Westmeier, Tobias, Wong, O. Ivy, Bosma, Albert
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Huang, Qifeng
Wang, Jing
Lin, Xuchen
Oh, Se-Heon
Chen, Xinkai
Catinella, Barbara
Deg, Nathan
Dénes, Helga
For, Bi-Qing
Koribalski, Baerbel
Lee-Waddell, Karen
Rhee, Jonghwan
Shen, Austin
Shao, Li
Spekkens, Kristine
Staveley-Smith, Lister
Westmeier, Tobias
Wong, O. Ivy
Bosma, Albert
author_facet Huang, Qifeng
Wang, Jing
Lin, Xuchen
Oh, Se-Heon
Chen, Xinkai
Catinella, Barbara
Deg, Nathan
Dénes, Helga
For, Bi-Qing
Koribalski, Baerbel
Lee-Waddell, Karen
Rhee, Jonghwan
Shen, Austin
Shao, Li
Spekkens, Kristine
Staveley-Smith, Lister
Westmeier, Tobias
Wong, O. Ivy
Bosma, Albert
contents Galaxy interactions can significantly affect the star formation in galaxies, but it remains a challenge to achieve a consensus on the star formation rate (SFR) enhancement in galaxy pairs. Here, we investigate the SFR enhancement of gas-rich galaxy pairs detected by the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY). We construct a sample of 278 paired galaxies spanning a stellar mass ($M_\ast$) range from $10^{7.6}$ to $10^{11.2}M_\odot$. We obtain individual masses of atomic hydrogen (HI) for these paired galaxies, using a novel deblending algorithm for HI data cubes. Quantifying the interaction stages and strengths with parameters motivated by first principles, we find that at fixed stellar and HI mass, the alteration in SFR of galaxy pairs starts when their dark matter halos encounter. For galaxies with stellar mass lower than $10^9M_\odot$, their SFRs show tentative suppression of 1.4 sigma after the halo encounter, and then become enhanced when their HI disks overlap, regardless of mass ratios. In contrast, the SFRs of galaxies with $M_\ast > 10^9M_\odot$ increase monotonically toward smaller projected distances and radial velocity offsets. When a close companion is present, a pronounced SFR enhancement is found for the most HI-poor high-mass galaxies in our sample. Collecting the observational evidence, we provide a coherent picture of the evolution of galaxy pairs, and discuss how the tidal effects and hydrodynamic processes shape the SFR enhancement. Our results provide a coherent picture of gas-rich galaxy interactions and impose constraints on the underlying physical processes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_22406
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle WALLABY Pilot Survey: Star Formation Enhancement and Suppression in Gas-rich Galaxy Pairs
Huang, Qifeng
Wang, Jing
Lin, Xuchen
Oh, Se-Heon
Chen, Xinkai
Catinella, Barbara
Deg, Nathan
Dénes, Helga
For, Bi-Qing
Koribalski, Baerbel
Lee-Waddell, Karen
Rhee, Jonghwan
Shen, Austin
Shao, Li
Spekkens, Kristine
Staveley-Smith, Lister
Westmeier, Tobias
Wong, O. Ivy
Bosma, Albert
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Galaxy interactions can significantly affect the star formation in galaxies, but it remains a challenge to achieve a consensus on the star formation rate (SFR) enhancement in galaxy pairs. Here, we investigate the SFR enhancement of gas-rich galaxy pairs detected by the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY). We construct a sample of 278 paired galaxies spanning a stellar mass ($M_\ast$) range from $10^{7.6}$ to $10^{11.2}M_\odot$. We obtain individual masses of atomic hydrogen (HI) for these paired galaxies, using a novel deblending algorithm for HI data cubes. Quantifying the interaction stages and strengths with parameters motivated by first principles, we find that at fixed stellar and HI mass, the alteration in SFR of galaxy pairs starts when their dark matter halos encounter. For galaxies with stellar mass lower than $10^9M_\odot$, their SFRs show tentative suppression of 1.4 sigma after the halo encounter, and then become enhanced when their HI disks overlap, regardless of mass ratios. In contrast, the SFRs of galaxies with $M_\ast > 10^9M_\odot$ increase monotonically toward smaller projected distances and radial velocity offsets. When a close companion is present, a pronounced SFR enhancement is found for the most HI-poor high-mass galaxies in our sample. Collecting the observational evidence, we provide a coherent picture of the evolution of galaxy pairs, and discuss how the tidal effects and hydrodynamic processes shape the SFR enhancement. Our results provide a coherent picture of gas-rich galaxy interactions and impose constraints on the underlying physical processes.
title WALLABY Pilot Survey: Star Formation Enhancement and Suppression in Gas-rich Galaxy Pairs
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22406