Studying Quenching in Intermediate-z Galaxies: Gas, Angular Momentum, and Evolution
The SQuIGGLE Survey
Characterizing the physical mechanisms that "quench" massive galaxies, transforming them from blue star-forming disks into quiescent red ellipticals, is a hotly debated and poorly understood aspect of extragalactic astronomy. The SQuIGGLE survey targets massive post-starburst galaxies at z∼0.6, which are observed within a few hundred million years after they stopped forming stars. Our team has assembled a multi-wavelength view of their detailed physical properties including: ALMA CO(2-1) observations of molecular gas, Gemini/GMOS measurements of stellar kinematics, VLA and Keck/NIRES measurements of obscured star formation and AGN activity, and HST and Subaru/HSC imaging of stellar structures. Together we are building a picture of the detailed properties of these transitioning massive galaxies to unveil the physical processes that drive their transformation.
Publications
Merger Signatures are Common, but not Universal, In Massive, Recently-Quenched Galaxies at z~0.7 (Verrico et al. 2023)
Star Formation Suppresion by Tidal Removal of Cold Molecular Gas from an Intermediate-Redshift Massive Post-Starburst Galaxy (Spilker et al. 2022)
The Compact Structures of z~0.7 Post-Starburst Galaxies (Setton et al. 2022)
Star formation truncation precedes the loss of molecular gas by ∼100 Myr in massive post-starburst galaxies at z∼0.6 (Bezanson et al. 2022)
SQuIGGLE: Studying Quenching in Intermediate-z Galaxies -- Gas, AnguLar Momentum, and Evolution (Suess et al. 2022)
Massive z ∼ 0.6 Post-starburst Galaxies Exhibit Flat Age Gradients (Setton et al. 2020)
The Role of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Quenching of Massive Galaxies (Greene et al. 2020)
Stellar and Molecular Gas Rotation in a Recently Quenched Massive Galaxy at z ∼ 0.7 (Hunt et al. 2018)
Massive Quenched Galaxies at z ∼ 0.7 Retain Large Molecular Gas Reservoirs (Suess et al. 2017)
The Team
David Setton
Wren Suess
Vinny D'Onofrio
Justin Spilker
Rachel Bezanson
Jenny Greene
Mariska Kriek
Desika Narayanan
Robert Feldmann
Andy Goulding
Elia Cenci
Maggie Verrico
