Critical Stellar Central Densities Drive Galaxy Quenching in the Nearby Universe postprint

Abstract: We study the structural and environmental dependence of the star formation on the plane of stellar mass versus central core density ($\Sigma_{\rm 1\ kpc}$) in the nearby universe. We study the central galaxies in the sparse environment and find a characteristic population-averaged $\rm \Sigma_{1\ kpc} \sim 10^9-10^{9.2}\ M_{\odot}\ kpc^{-2}$, above which quenching is operating. This $\rm \Sigma^{crit}_{1\ kpc}$ only weakly depends on the stellar mass, suggesting that the mass-quenching of the central galaxies is more closely related to the processes that operate in the central regions than over the entire galaxies. For satellites, at a given stellar mass, environment-quenching appears to operate in a similar fashion as mass-quenching in centrals, also starting from galaxies with high $\rm \Sigma_{1\ kpc}$ to low $\rm \Sigma_{1kpc}$, and $\rm \Sigma^{crit}_{1\ kpc}$ becomes strongly mass-dependent, in particular in dense regions. This is because (1) more low-mass satellites are quenched by the environmental effects in denser regions and (2) at fixed stellar mass and environment, the environment-quenched satellites have, on average, larger $\Sigma_{\rm 1\ kpc}$, $\rm M_{1\ kpc}/M_{\star}$ and Sersic index $n$, and as well as smaller size. These results imply that either some dynamical processes change the structure of the satellites during quenching or the satellites with higher $\Sigma_{\rm 1\ kpc}$ are more susceptible to the environmental effects.