J/ApJS/276/55 Interstellar medium in early-type gal. V. GAMA DR4 (Ryzhov+, 2025)
The fate of the interstellar medium in early-type galaxies.
V. Active galactic nucleus feedback from optical spectral classification.
Ryzhov O., Michalowski M.J., Nadolny J., Hjorth J., Lesniewska A.,
Solar M., Nowaczyk P., Gall C., Takeuchi T.T.
<Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser., 276, 55 (2025)>
=2025ApJS..276...55R 2025ApJS..276...55R
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, spectra; Interstellar medium; Surveys; Infrared;
Optical; Redshifts; Active gal. nuclei
Keywords: Early-type galaxies ; Elliptical galaxies ; Galaxy ages ;
Galaxy evolution ; Interstellar medium ; Galaxy quenching ;
Galaxy spectroscopy ; Dust destruction
Abstract:
Quenching of star formation plays a fundamental role in galaxy
evolution. This process occurs due to the removal of the cold
interstellar medium (ISM) or stabilization against collapse, so that
gas cannot be used in the formation of new stars. In this paper, we
study the effect of different mechanisms of ISM removal. In
particular, we revised the well-known Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich (BPT)
and EWHα versus [NII]/Hα (WHAN) emission-line ratio
diagnostics, so that we could classify all galaxies, even those not
detected at some emission lines, introducing several new spectral
classes. We use spectroscopic data and several physical parameters of
2409 dusty early-type galaxies in order to find out the dominant
ionization source (active galactic nuclei, AGNs, young massive stars,
hot low-mass evolved stars, HOLMES) and its effect on the ISM. We find
that strong AGNs can play a significant role in the ISM removal
process only for galaxies with ages lower than 109.4yr, but we cannot
rule out the influence of weak AGNs at any age. For older galaxies,
HOLMES/planetary nebulae contribute significantly to the ISM removal
process. Additionally, we provide the BPT and WHAN classifications not
only for the selected sample but also for all 300,000 galaxies in the
Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey fields.
Description:
We selected dusty early-type galaxies from the Galaxy And Mass
Assembly (GAMA) survey Data Release 4 (DR4; Driver+ 2022, J/MNRAS/513/439)
using the criteria: Sersic index n>4, signal-to-noise at the Herschel
SPIRE 250um band greater than 3, and redshift 0.01<z<0.32.
For our analysis, we used spectra obtained from GAMA or SDSS because
they were flux-calibrated. Finally, we ended up with 2409 galaxies.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table4.dat 158 305529 GAMA galaxies with spectroscopic observations
(Appendix E)
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See also:
J/MNRAS/413/971 : Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) DR1 (Driver+, 2011)
J/ApJ/826/71 : Growth curves of CALIFA spiral gal. (Iglesias-Paramo+, 2016)
J/MNRAS/474/3875 : Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): DR3 (Baldry+, 2018)
J/ApJ/919/134 : SDSS shocked post-starburst gal. with HST (Sazonova+, 2021)
J/MNRAS/513/439 : GAMA DR4 spectrum catalog (Driver+, 2022)
J/A+A/674/A85 : BPT class and AGN classification (Alban+, 2023)
J/ApJ/953/27 : Dusty ellipticals (Lesniewska+, 2023)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table4.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 7 I7 --- CATAID [6648/9100130] Unique GAMA DR4 object
ID, Driver+ (2022, J/MNRAS/513/439)
9- 17 F9.5 deg RAdeg [30.2/352.4] Right Ascension (J2000)
19- 28 F10.5 deg DEdeg [-35.5/3.5] Declination (J2000)
30- 39 F10.8 --- zspec [0.0019/1.4] Spectroscopic redshift
with heliocentric correction removed
41- 50 F10.3 [Msun/yr] deltaMS [-3.95/1.91]?=-99999 Distance from the
Main Sequence (2)(1)
52- 56 A5 --- BPT Extended BPT class, this work (3)
58- 61 A4 --- WHAN Extended WHAN class, this work (4)
63- 73 F11.4 --- GALn-r [-9999.0/20]?=-99999 GALFIT Sersic
index in r-filter (5)
75- 90 F16.4 --- e_GALn-r [-9999.0/1711684610]?=-99999 GALFIT
error on Sersic index in r-filter (5)
92- 102 F11.3 [Msun/yr] out-on-16 [-100000/4.93] 16th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN ON
mode (6)(2)
104- 113 F10.3 [Msun/yr] out-on-50 [-99999/4.94] 50th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN ON
mode (6)
115- 125 F11.3 [Msun/yr] out-on-84 [-100000/4.95] 84th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN ON
mode (2)(6)
127- 136 F10.3 [Msun/yr] out-off-16 [-99999/3] 16th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN OFF
mode (6)
138- 147 F10.3 [Msun/yr] out-off-50 [-99999/3.001] 50th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN OFF
mode (6)
149- 158 F10.3 [Msun/yr] out-off-84 [-99999/3.001] 84th percentile of
molecular outflow estimation in AGN OFF
mode (6)
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Note (1): Distance from the Main sequence calculated from
Speagle+ 2014ApJS..214...15S 2014ApJS..214...15S, considering spectroscopic
redshift, stellar mass and star-formation rate of the galaxy.
Note (2): There are two values used in these columns to indicate when
calculations are missing. These are as:
-99999.000 = no estimate of SFR and M*, so both outflow rates
(out-*) and the distance from the MS (deltaMS) cannot be
calculated;
-100000.000 = no detection of the OIII line, so the 50th
percentile of the outflow estimation (out-on-50)
is presented as an 2σ upper limit.
Note (3): Extended BPT class (see also Section 3) as follows:
AGNX = Active Galactic Nuclei, above the Kauffmann+ 2003MNRAS.346.1055K 2003MNRAS.346.1055K
line, using x-axis of diagnostic diagram;
AGNXY = Active Galactic Nuclei, above the Kauffmann+ 2003MNRAS.346.1055K 2003MNRAS.346.1055K
line, using x- & y-axis of diagnostic diagram;
AGNY = Active Galactic Nuclei, above the Kauffmann+ 2003MNRAS.346.1055K 2003MNRAS.346.1055K
line, using y-axis of diagnostic diagram;
NDA = problems in the estimation of the flux of lines;
NOEL = no emission lines galaxies;
SFGX = Star-forming galaxy region, defined by Kewley+ 2001ApJ...556..121K 2001ApJ...556..121K,
using x-axis of diagnostic diagram;
SFGXY = Star-forming galaxy region, defined by Kewley+ 2001ApJ...556..121K 2001ApJ...556..121K,
using x- & y-axis of diagnostic diagram;
SFGY = Star-forming galaxy region, defined by Kewley+ 2001ApJ...556..121K 2001ApJ...556..121K,
using y-axis of diagnostic diagram;
UNCX = Unclear cases (UNC), for which data allow both SFG and AGN
classifications, using x-axis of diagnostic diagram;
UNCXY = Unclear cases (UNC), for which data allow both SFG and AGN
classifications, using x- and y-axis of diagnostic diagram;
UNCY = Unclear cases (UNC), for which data allow both SFG and AGN
classifications, using y-axis of diagnostic diagram.
Note (4): Extended WHAN class as follows:
ELR = emission-lines retired with 0.5Å<EWHa<3Å;
LLR = line-less retired with EWHa<0.5Å;
NDA = problems in the estimation of the flux of lines;
NER = noisy equivalent width retired galaxies;
SFG = star-forming galaxies with log([NII]/Ha)<-0.4 and EWHa>3Å;
UNC = Unclear cases (UNC), for which data allow both SFG and
AGN classifications;
sAGN = strong AGN with log([NII]/Ha)>-0.4 and EWHa>6Å.
wAGN = weak AGN with log([NII]/Ha)>-0.4 and 3Å<EWHa<6Å.
Note (5): GALFIT Sersic indices were taken from the GAMA catalog
(http://www.gama-survey.org/ - GAMA home page) and were used in
our work to query dusty ellipticals.
Note (6): Calculated using Equation 5 of Fluetsch+ 2019MNRAS.483.4586F 2019MNRAS.483.4586F
and LAGN=3500L[OIII] ('AGN on') from Heckman+ 2004ApJ...613..109H 2004ApJ...613..109H
In 'AGN off' mode, we assumed LAGN=0.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Michalowski et al. Paper I. 2019A&A...632A..43M 2019A&A...632A..43M
Lesniewska et al. Paper II. 2023ApJ...953...27L 2023ApJ...953...27L Cat. J/ApJ/953/27
Michalowski et al. Paper III. 2024ApJ...964..129M 2024ApJ...964..129M
Nadolny et al. Paper IV. 2024A&A...689A.210N 2024A&A...689A.210N
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 30-Oct-2025