Reignition of Star Formation in Dwarf Galaxies

Abstract

The Local Group hosts a number of star-forming dwarf galaxies that show evidence of periods of little to no star formation. We use a suite of cosmological simulations to study how star formation is reignited in such galaxies. We focus on isolated galaxies at $z=0$ with halo masses between 9.2$\times$10$^8$ M$_\odot$ and 8.4$\times$10$^9$ M$_\odot$, where star formation is typically shut off by reionization or by supernova feedback. Nearly 20% of these simulated galaxies later restart star formation, due to interactions with streams of gas in the intergalactic medium, indicating that this mechanism is relatively common in this mass range and that many isolated dwarfs at $z=0$ may not have been isolated throughout their histories. The source of this gas is not necessarily cosmic filaments. Rather, the dwarfs interact with gas thrown off by nearby galaxy mergers or streams extending from neighboring galaxies. While high ram pressure interactions of this nature lead to stripping, the encounters that reignite star formation are low density and/or low velocity and thus low ram pressure, resulting in compression of the hot gas in the halos of our dwarfs. The gas mass bound up in hot halos can be substantial -- at least an order of magnitude greater than the mass contained in HI. Consequently, we find that dwarfs that have experienced reignition tend to be more HI-rich and have a higher M$_{HI}$/M$_{*}$ ratio at $z=0$ than galaxies with continuous star formation. Using this fact, we identify galaxies in the Local Volume that might have "gappy" star formation histories, and can be studied by the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope.