ACCESS - V. Dissecting ram-pressure stripping through integral-field spectroscopy and multiband imaging

We study the case of a bright (L > L⋆) barred spiral galaxy from the rich cluster A3558 in the Shapley supercluster core (z = 0.05) undergoing ram-pressure stripping. Integral-field spectroscopy with Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) at the 2.3-m Australian National University telescope, complemented by imaging in ultraviolet (GALEX), B and R [European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2.2-m WFI], Hα (Magellan), K (United Kingdom Infrared Telescope), 24 and 70 μm (Spitzer), allows us to reveal the impact of ram pressure on the interstellar medium. With these data we study in detail the kinematics and the physical conditions of the ionized gas and the properties of the stellar populations. We observe one-sided extraplanar ionized gas along the full extent of the galaxy disc, extending ˜13 kpc in projection from it. Narrow-band Hα imaging resolves this outflow into a complex of knots and filaments, similar to those seen in other cluster galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping. The gas velocity field is complex with the extraplanar gas showing signature of rotation, while the stellar velocity field is regular and the K-band image shows a symmetric stellar distribution. We use line-ratio diagnostics to ascertain the origin of the observed emission. In all parts of the galaxy, we find a significant contribution from shock excitation, as well as emission powered by star formation. Shock-ionized gas is associated with the turbulent gas outflow and highly attenuated by dust (Av = 1.5-2.3 mag). All these findings cover the whole phenomenology of early-stage ram-pressure stripping. Intense, highly obscured star formation is taking place in the nucleus, probably related to the bar, and in a region 12 kpc south-west (SW) from the centre. These two regions account for half of the total star formation in the galaxy, which overall amounts to 7.2 ± 2.2 M⊙ yr-1. In the SW region we identify a starburst characterized by a ˜5× increase in the star formation rate over the last ˜100 Myr, possibly related to the compression of the interstellar gas by the ram pressure. The scenario suggested by the observations is supported and refined by ad hoc N-body/hydrodynamical simulations which identify a rather narrow temporal range for the onset of ram-pressure stripping around t ˜ 60 Myr ago, and an angle between the galaxy rotation axis and the intracluster medium wind of ˜45°. The ram pressure is therefore acting at an intermediate angle between face-on and edge-on. Taking into account that the galaxy is found ˜1 Mpc from the cluster centre in a relatively low density region, this study shows that ram-pressure stripping still acts efficiently on massive galaxies well outside the cluster cores, as also recently observed in the Virgo cluster