Quenching or Bursting: Star Formation Acceleration--A New Methodology
  for Tracing Galaxy Evolution
  We introduce a new methodology for the direct extraction of galaxy physical
parameters from multi-wavelength photometry and spectroscopy. We use
semi-analytic models that describe galaxy evolution in the context of large
scale cosmological simulation to provide a catalog of galaxies, star formation
histories, and physical parameters. We then apply stellar population synthesis
models and a simple extinction model to calculate the observable broad-band
fluxes and spectral indices for these galaxies. We use a linear regression
analysis to relate physical parameters to observed colors and spectral indices.
The result is a set of coefficients that can be used to translate observed
colors and indices into stellar mass, star formation rate, and many other
parameters, including the instantaneous time derivative of the star formation
rate which we denote the {\it Star Formation Acceleration (SFA)}, We apply the
method to a test sample of galaxies with GALEX photometry and SDSS
spectroscopy, deriving relationships between stellar mass, specific star
formation rate, and star formation acceleration. We find evidence for a
mass-dependent SFA in the green valley, with low mass galaxies showing greater
quenching and higher mass galaxies greater bursting. We also find evidence for
an increase in average quenching in galaxies hosting AGN. A simple scenario in
which lower mass galaxies accrete and become satellite galaxies, having their
star forming gas tidally and/or ram-pressure stripped, while higher mass
galaxies receive this gas and react with new star formation can qualitatively
explain our results.
