Mapping dusty star formation in and around a cluster at z = 0.81 by wide-field imaging with AKARI

We present environmental dependence of dusty star-forming activity in and around the cluster RXJ1716.4+6708 at z = 0.81 based on wide-field and multiwavelength observations with the Prime Focus Camera on the Subaru Telescope (Suprime-Cam) and the Infrared Camera onboard the AKARI satellite. Our optical data show that the optical colour distribution of galaxies starts to dramatically change from blue to red at the medium-density environment such as cluster outskirts, groups and filaments. By combining with the AKARI infrared data, we find that 15-μm-detected galaxies tend to have optical colours between the red sequence and the blue cloud with a tail into the red sequence, consistent with being dusty star-forming galaxies. The spatial distribution of the 15-μm-detected galaxies over ∼200 arcmin² around the cluster reveals that few 15-μm galaxies are detected in the cluster central region. This is probably due to the low star-forming activity in the cluster core. However, interestingly, the fraction of 15-μm-detected galaxies in the medium-density environments is as high as in the low-density field, despite the fact that the optical colours start to change in the medium-density environments. Furthermore, we find that 15-μm-detected galaxies which have optically red colours (candidates for dusty red galaxies) and galaxies with high specific star formation rates are also concentrated in the medium-density environment. These results imply that the star-forming activity in galaxies in groups and filaments is enhanced due to some environmental effects specific to the medium-density environment (e.g. galaxy-galaxy interaction), and such a phenomenon is probably directly connected to the truncation of star-forming activity in galaxies seen as the dramatic change in optical colours in such environment.