Revealing the Relation between Star Formation Activity of Jellyfish Galaxies and Ram Pressure Stripping

Abstract

Abstract Jellyfish galaxies are starburst galaxies with ram-pressure-stripped tails and blue star-forming knots. These galaxies show a snapshot of star formation enhancement triggered by ram pressure stripping (RPS), being important targets for studying the RPS-induced star formation in gas-rich galaxies. Here we investigate the star formation activity of five jellyfish galaxies in massive clusters, using Gemini GMOS/IFU observations. From the Hα-derived star formation rates (SFRs), we find that our sample shows higher SFR excess to the star formation main sequence than the jellyfish galaxies in low-mass clusters. From the compiled sample of jellyfish galaxies in low-mass to high-mass host clusters, we suggest that the star formation activity of jellyfish galaxies has positive correlations with host cluster mass and degree of RPS. These relationships imply that higher ram pressure environments tend to trigger stronger starbursts in jellyfish galaxies in the early stage of RPS.