Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Properties and evolution of red spiral galaxies

Mahajan, Smriti; Gupta, Kriti Kamal; Rana, Rahul; Brown, M J I; Phillipps, S.; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Bremer, M. N.; Brough, S.; Holwerda, B. W.; Hopkins, A. M.; Loveday, J.; Pimbblet, Kevin; Wang, Lingyu

Abstract

We use multi-wavelength data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to explore the cause of red optical colours in nearby (0.002 < z < 0.06) spiral galaxies. We show that the colours of red spiral galaxies are a direct consequence of some environment-related mechanism(s) which has removed dust and gas, leading to a lower star formation rate. We conclude that this process acts on long timescales (several Gyr) due to a lack of morphological transformation associated with the transition in optical colour. The sSFR and dust-to-stellar mass ratio of red spiral galaxies is found to be statistically lower than blue spiral galaxies. On the other hand, red spirals are on average 0.9 dex more massive, and reside in environments 2.6 times denser than their blue counterparts. We find no evidence of excessive nuclear activity, or higher inclination angles to support these as the major causes for the red optical colours seen in ≳ 47% of all spirals in our sample. Furthermore, for a small subsample of our spiral galaxies which are detected in HI, we find that the SFR of gas-rich red spiral galaxies is lower by ∼1 dex than their blue counterparts.

Citation

Mahajan, S., Gupta, K. K., Rana, R., Brown, M. J. I., Phillipps, S., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Bremer, M. N., Brough, S., Holwerda, B. W., Hopkins, A. M., Loveday, J., Pimbblet, K., & Wang, L. (2020). Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Properties and evolution of red spiral galaxies. Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 491(1), 398-408. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2993

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 21, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 26, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Deposit Date: Oct 28, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 28, 2019
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 491
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 398-408
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2993
• Keywords: Space and Planetary Science; Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3015955
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/491/1/398/5607797?redirectedFrom=fulltext
• Contract Date: Oct 28, 2019