Shocked POststarbust Galaxy Survey I: Candidate Poststarbust Galaxies
  with Emission Line Ratios Consistent with Shocks
  [Abridged] The Shocked POststarburst Galaxy Survey (SPOGS) aims to identify
transforming galaxies, in which the nebular lines are excited via shocks
instead of through star formation processes. Utilizing the OSSY measurements on
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 catalog, we applied Balmer
absorption and shock boundary criteria to identify 1,067 SPOG candidates
(SPOGs*) within z=0.2. SPOGs* represent 0.2% of the OSSY sample galaxies that
exceed the continuum signal-to-noise cut (and 0.7% of the emission line galaxy
sample). SPOGs* colors suggest that they are in an earlier phase of transition
than OSSY galaxies that meet an E+A selection. SPOGs* have a 13% 1.4GHz
detection rate from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters
survey, higher than most other subsamples, and comparable only to
low-ionization nuclear emission line region hosts, suggestive of the presence
of active galactic nuclei. SPOGs* also have stronger NaD absorption than
predicted from the stellar population, suggestive of cool gas being driven out
in galactic winds. It appears that SPOGs* represent an earlier phase in galaxy
transformation than traditionally selected poststarburst galaxies, and that a
large proportion of SPOGs* also have properties consistent with disruption of
their interstellar media, a key component to galaxy transformation. It is
likely that many of the known pathways to transformation undergo a SPOG phase.
Studying this sample of SPOGs* further, including their morphologies, active
galactic nuclei properties, and environments, has the potential for us to build
a more complete picture of the initial conditions that can lead to a galaxy
evolving.
