pith. sign in

arxiv: 2111.04501 · v1 · pith:VKLA7J3Tnew · submitted 2021-11-08 · 🌌 astro-ph.GA

Observing ram pressure at work in intermediate redshift clusters with MUSE: the case of Abell 2744and Abell 370

classification 🌌 astro-ph.GA
keywords galaxiesclustersredshiftintermediatemusestrippingabellalpha
0
0 comments X
read the original abstract

Ram pressure stripping has been proven to be effective in shaping galaxy properties in dense environments at low redshift. The availability of MUSE observations of a sample of distant (z$\sim 0.3-0.5$) clusters has allowed to search for galaxies subject to this phenomenon at significant lookback times. In this paper we describe how we discovered and characterized 13 ram-pressure stripped galaxies in the central regions of two intermediate redshift (z$\sim$0.3-0.4) clusters, A2744 and A370, using the MUSE spectrograph. Emission line properties as well as stellar features have been analyzed to infer the presence of this gas--only stripping mechanism, that produces spectacular ionized gas tails (H$_{\alpha}$ and even more astonishing [OII](3727,3729) departing from the main galaxy body. The inner regions of these two clusters reveal the predominance of such galaxies among blue star-forming cluster members, suggesting that ram-pressure stripping was even more effective at intermediate redshift than in today's Universe. Interestingly, the resolved [OII]/H$_{\alpha}$ line ratio in the stripped tails is exceptionally high compared to that in the disks of these galaxies, (which is comparable to that in normal low-z galaxies), suggesting lower gas densities and/or an interaction with the hot surrounding ICM.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.