Disc growth and vertical heating of lenticular galaxies in the Fornax cluster

Martig, M ORCID: 0000-0001-5454-1492, Pinna, F, Falcón-Barroso, J, Martín-Navarro, I, Minchev, I and Ding, Y (2026) Disc growth and vertical heating of lenticular galaxies in the Fornax cluster. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 547 (3). pp. 1-18. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of the vertical and radial structure of mono-age stellar populations in three edge-on lenticular galaxies (FCC 153, FCC 170, and FCC 177) in the Fornax cluster, using deep MUSE observations. By measuring the half-mass radius (R) and half-mass height (z) across 1 Gyr-wide age bins, we trace the spatial evolution of stellar populations over cosmic time. All galaxies exhibit a remarkably constant disc thickness for all stars younger than Gyr, suggesting minimal secular heating and limited impact from environmental processes such as tidal shocking or harassment. Evidence of past mergers (8-10 Gyr ago) is found in the increase of z for older populations. We find that accreted (metal-poor) stars have been deposited in quite thick configurations, but that the interactions only moderately thickened pre-existing stars in the galaxies, and only caused mild flaring in the outer regions of the discs. The radial structure of the discs varies across galaxies, but in all cases we find that the radial extent of mono-age populations remains constant or grows over the past 8 Gyr. This leads us to argue that within the radial range we consider, strangulation, rather than ram-pressure stripping, is the dominant quenching mechanism in those galaxies. Our results highlight the usefulness of analysing the structure of mono-age population to uncover the mechanisms driving galaxy evolution, and we anticipate broader insights from the GECKOS survey, studying 36 nearby edge-on disc galaxies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: individual: IC 1963; galaxies: individual: NGC 1380A; galaxies: individual: NGC 1381; galaxies: structure; 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance:	3 March 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	22 April 2026
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2026 13:12
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2026 13:12
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stag458
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28430

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