Now You Don't: Star Formation Truncation Precedes the Loss of Molecular Gas by 100 Myr in Massive Poststarburst Galaxies at <i>z</i> 0.6 Now You See It

Abstract We use ALMA observations of CO(21) in 13 massive (M * 1011 M ) poststarburst galaxies at z 0.6 to constrain the molecular gas content in galaxies shortly after they quench their major star-forming episode. The poststarburst galaxies in this study are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic samples (Data Release 14) based on their spectral shapes, as part of the Studying QUenching at Intermediate-z Galaxies: Gas, angu L ar momentum, and Evolution ( SQuIGG L E ) program. Early results showed that two poststarburst galaxies host large H2 reservoirs despite their low inferred star formation rates (SFRs). Here we expand this analysis to a larger statistical sample of 13 galaxies. Six of the primary targets (45%) are detected, with m{H}}}_{2}}gtrsim {10}^{9}$?> M H 2 10 9 M . Given their high stellar masses, this mass limit corresponds to an average gas fraction of m{H}}}_{2}}equiv {M}_{{{
m{H}}}_{2}}/{M}_{* }
angle sim 7 \% $?> f H 2 M H 2 /

Bezanson, R., Spilker, J. S., Suess, K. A., Setton, D. J., Feldmann, R., Greene, J. E., ... Verrico, M.

Bezanson, Rachel||Spilker, Justin S||Suess, Katherine A||Setton, David J||Feldmann, Robert||Greene, Jenny E||Kriek, Mariska||Narayanan, Desika||Verrico, Margaret

Now You See It, Now You Don't: Star Formation Truncation Precedes the Loss of Molecular Gas by 100 Myr in Massive Poststarburst Galaxies at z 0.6