Galaxy Populations in Groups and Clusters: Evidence for a Characteristic Stellar Mass Scale at M ∗ ∼ 109.5 M ⊙

Abstract

We use the DR9 of the DESI legacy imaging survey and SDSS galaxy groups to measure the conditional luminosity function (CLF) for groups with halo mass M _h ≥ 10 ^12 M _⊙ and redshift 0.01 ≤ z ≤ 0.08, down to a limiting r -band magnitude of M _r = −10 to −12. For given halo masses we measure the CLF for the total populations and for the red and blue populations classified using the ( g − z ) color. We find a clear faint-end upturn in the CLF of red satellites, with a slope α ≈ −1.8, which is almost independent of halo mass. This faint-end upturn is not seen for the blue and total populations. Our stellar population synthesis modeling shows that ( g − z ) provides a clean red/blue division and that red group galaxies defined by ( g − z ) are all dominated by old stellar populations. The fraction of old galaxies as a function of galaxy luminosity shows a minimum at M _r ∼ −18, corresponding to M _* ∼ 10 ^9.5 M _⊙ . This scale is independent of halo mass and is comparable to the characteristic luminosity at which galaxies show a dichotomy in surface brightness and size, suggesting that the dichotomy in the old fraction and in galaxy structure may have a common origin. The rising of the old fraction at the faint end for Milky Way (MW)−sized halos is in good agreement with the quenched fraction measured for the MW/M31 system and from the ELVES survey. We discuss the implications of our results for the formation and evolution of low-mass galaxies and for the stellar mass functions of low-mass galaxies to be observed at high redshift.

Keywords

• Galaxy clusters
• Galaxy groups
• Galaxy abundances
• Galaxy formation