Galaxy evolution in the mid-infrared green valley: A case of the a2199 supercluster

Abstract

We study the mid-infrared (MIR) properties of the galaxies in the A2199 supercluster at z = 0.03 to understand the star formation activity of galaxy groups and clusters in the supercluster environment. Using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer data, we find no dependence of mass-normalized integrated star formation rates of galaxy groups/ clusters on their virial masses. We classify the supercluster galaxies into three classes in the MIR color-luminosity diagram: MIR blue cloud (massive, quiescent, and mostly early-type), MIR star-forming sequence (mostly latetype), and MIR green valley galaxies. These MIR green valley galaxies are distinguishable from the optical green valley galaxies in the sense that they belong to the optical red sequence. We find that the fraction of each MIR class does not depend on the virial mass of each group/cluster. We compare the cumulative distributions of surface galaxy number density and cluster/group-centric distance for the three MIR classes. MIR green valley galaxies show the distribution between MIR blue cloud and MIR star-forming (SF) sequence galaxies. However, if we fix galaxy morphology, early-and late-type MIR green valley galaxies show different distributions. Our results suggest a possible evolutionary scenario of these galaxies: (1) late-type MIR SF sequence galaxies. (2) late-type MIR green valley galaxies. (3) early-type MIR green valley galaxies. (4) early-type MIR blue cloud galaxies. In this sequence, the star formation of galaxies is quenched before the galaxies enter the MIR green valley, and then morphological transformation occurs in the MIR green valley.