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Abstract We present a12CO(J= 2−1) survey of 60 local galaxies using data from the Atacama Compact Array as part of the Extragalactic Database for Galaxy Evolution: the ACA EDGE survey. These galaxies all have integral field spectroscopy from the CALIFA survey. Compared to other local galaxy surveys, ACA EDGE is designed to mitigate selection effects based on CO brightness and morphological type. Of the 60 galaxies in ACA EDGE, 36 are on the star formation main sequence, 13 are on the red sequence, and 11 lie in the “green valley” transition between these sequences. We test how star formation quenching processes affect the star formation rate (SFR) per unit molecular gas mass, SFEmol= SFR/Mmol, and related quantities in galaxies with stellar masses 10 ≤ log[M⋆/M⊙] ≤ 11.5 covering the full range of morphological types. We observe a systematic decrease of the molecular-to-stellar mass fraction ( ) with a decreasing level of star formation activity, with green valley galaxies also having lower SFEmolthan galaxies on the main sequence. On average, we find that the spatially resolved SFEmolwithin the bulge region of green valley galaxies is lower than in the bulges of main-sequence galaxies if we adopt a constant CO-to-H2conversion factor,αCO. While efficiencies in main-sequence galaxies remain almost constant with galactocentric radius, in green valley galaxies, we note a systematic increase of SFEmol, , and specific SFR with increasing radius. As shown in previous studies, our results suggest that although gas depletion (or removal) seems to be the most important driver of the star formation quenching in galaxies transiting through the green valley, a reduction in star formation efficiency is also required during this stage.
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This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2027
The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Star Formation Efficiency and Galaxy Quenching across 62 Main Sequence, Green Valley, and Red Galaxies
We present GBT-EDGE, a new CO(1-0) survey using the Green Bank Telescope to map 62 nearby (10-140 Mpc) galaxies spanning the star-forming main sequence (SFMS), green valley, and red sequence. The galaxy sample is selected from the CALIFA survey with integral field spectroscopy (IFS), which provides a representative census of local galactic environments. Combining the CO dataset with CALIFA's optical IFS measurements, we derive molecular gas masses, star formation rates (SFR), metallicities, and stellar mass densities to measure star formation efficiency (SFE) and investigate the physical drivers of galaxy quenching. We obtain a median molecular gas depletion time of $$2.10^{+2.35}_{-1.31}$$, $$6.90^{+17.00}_{-3.67}$$, and $$127.7^{+201.6}_{-113.4}$$ Gyr for our sample of main sequence, green valley, and red galaxies, respectively, assuming a Galactic CO-to-H2 conversion factor. By applying various conversion factor prescriptions, we also confirm a systematic decrease of SFE with galaxy's offset below the SFMS, regardless of the adopted prescription. This suggests that the low SFR in some quenched galaxies is primarily driven by suppressed SFE rather than an absence of molecular gas. Our results provide evidence that galaxies below the main sequence can retain substantial molecular gas reservoirs comparable to star-forming galaxies, but they exhibit longer depletion times and form stars inefficiently, possibly due to the combined effects of low gas density and morphological quenching mechanisms.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2307440
- PAR ID:
- 10694574
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- ArXiv e-prints
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical journal
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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