TY - JOUR
T1 - What Is Inside Matters
T2 - Simulated Green Valley Galaxies Have too Centrally Concentrated Star Formation
AU - Starkenburg, Tjitske K.
AU - Tonnesen, Stephanie
AU - Kopenhafer, Claire
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - In spatially resolved galaxy observations, star formation rate (SFR) radial profiles are found to correlate with total specific SFRs. A central depletion in star formation is thought to correlate with the globally depressed SFRs of, for example, galaxies within the Green Valley (GV). We present, for the first time, radial specific SFR profiles for a statistical sample of simulated galaxies from the Illustris and EAGLE large cosmological simulations. For galaxies on the star-forming sequence, simulated specific SFR profiles are in reasonable agreement with observations. However, both galaxy samples show centrally concentrated star formation for galaxies in the GV at all galaxy stellar masses, suggesting that quenching occurs from the outside-in, in strong conflict with observations of inside-out quenching. This difference between simulations and observations may be due to resolution issues and/or possible failures in the star formation and feedback implementation in current large-scale cosmological simulations. We conclude that the distribution of star formation within galaxies is a strong additional constraint for simulations and models, in particular, related to the quenching of star formation.
AB - In spatially resolved galaxy observations, star formation rate (SFR) radial profiles are found to correlate with total specific SFRs. A central depletion in star formation is thought to correlate with the globally depressed SFRs of, for example, galaxies within the Green Valley (GV). We present, for the first time, radial specific SFR profiles for a statistical sample of simulated galaxies from the Illustris and EAGLE large cosmological simulations. For galaxies on the star-forming sequence, simulated specific SFR profiles are in reasonable agreement with observations. However, both galaxy samples show centrally concentrated star formation for galaxies in the GV at all galaxy stellar masses, suggesting that quenching occurs from the outside-in, in strong conflict with observations of inside-out quenching. This difference between simulations and observations may be due to resolution issues and/or possible failures in the star formation and feedback implementation in current large-scale cosmological simulations. We conclude that the distribution of star formation within galaxies is a strong additional constraint for simulations and models, in particular, related to the quenching of star formation.
KW - galaxies: evolution
KW - galaxies: star formation
KW - galaxies: structure
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U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0f34
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0f34
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064441403
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 874
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2
M1 - L17
ER -