Probing Satellite Quenching With Galaxy Clustering

Abstract

Satellites within simulated massive clusters are significantly spatially correlated with each other, even when those satellites are not gravitationally bound to each other. This correlation is produced by satellites that entered their hosts relatively recently, and is undetectable for satellites that have resided in their hosts for multiple dynamical timescales. Therefore, a measurement of clustering statistics of cluster satellites may be used to determine the typical accretion redshifts of those satellites into their observed hosts. We argue that such measurements may be used to determine the fraction of satellite galaxies that were quenched by their current hosts, thereby discriminating among models for quenching of star formation in satellite galaxies.