Ram pressure candidates in UNIONS
Chambers, Kenneth C.; Wainscoat, Richard J.; Oguri, Masamune; Mellier, Yannick; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles; Gwyn, Stephen; Hudson, Michael J.; Carlberg, Raymond; Hill, Vanessa; Mei, Simona; Ibata, Rodrigo; Furusawa, Hisanori; Miyazaki, Satoshi; Huber, Mark E.; Duc, Pierre-Alain; Parker, Laura C.; Roberts, Ian D.; McConnachie, Alan; Kilbinger, Martin; Gavazzi, Raphael
Netherlands, Canada, France, United States, Japan
Abstract
We present a search for disturbed, candidate ram pressure stripping galaxies across more than 50 spectroscopically selected SDSS groups and clusters. 48 ram pressure candidates are visually identified in these systems using high-quality UNIONS imaging from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, covering ${\sim }6200\, \mathrm{deg^2}$ and ${\sim }2800\, \mathrm{deg^2}$ in the u- and r-bands, respectively. Ram pressure candidates are found in groups and clusters spanning a wide range in halo mass and include ~30 ram pressure candidates in the group regime (Mh < 1014). The observed frequency of ram pressure candidates shows substantial scatter with group/cluster mass, but on average is larger in clusters ($M_h \ge 10^{14}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$) than groups ($M_h \lt 10^{14}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$) by a factor of ~2. We find that ram pressure candidates are most commonly low-mass galaxies and have enhanced star formation rates relative to star-forming field galaxies. The enhancement in star formation is largely independent of galaxy mass and strongest for galaxies in clusters. As a result of the large survey footprint and excellent image quality from UNIONS, we are able to identify disturbed galaxies, potentially affected by ram pressure stripping, across a wide range of host environment.