From Cluster Cores to the Low-Density Field: Strong Environmental Quenching of Galaxy Star Formation at Low Redshift

Abstract

We investigate how galaxy star formation activity depends on environment using a sample of 81,647 SDSS galaxies selected over $0.03\leq z\leq0.075$ and $9.7\leq\log_{10}(M_\star/h^{-2}M_\odot)\leq11.0$, including 18,426 members from 572 clusters in the \texttt{GalWCat19} catalog. We characterize environment in two complementary ways: (1) nearest-neighbor density for the full sample, and (2) clustercentric radius and host halo mass for \texttt{GalWCat19}. The sSFR distribution remains bimodal across all environments, with distinct quenched and star-forming components. As local density increases, the quenched component becomes more prominent, while the characteristic sSFR of the star-forming component decreases by approximately $0.29$--$0.35$ dex from the lowest- to highest-density classes. Within clusters, the quenched fraction decreases with increasing projected clustercentric radius, while the star-forming peak shifts by approximately $0.42$ dex toward lower sSFR from the outskirts to the inner cluster region. This extends the picture from previous studies, in which environmental trends are primarily associated with changes in the quenched fraction, by showing that galaxies remaining in the star-forming population also exhibit systematically suppressed sSFR in denser environments. The dependence on host halo mass is weaker and is most apparent among lower-stellar-mass galaxies in the inner cluster regions. By measuring the environmental quenching efficiency at fixed stellar mass, we find excess quenching in cluster environments beyond that expected from stellar-mass quenching alone. These results show that environment is associated not only with an increased probability of quenching, but also with suppressed star formation among galaxies that remain star forming, with local density and clustercentric radius showing the strongest associations.