The Environments of Post-Starburst Galaxies

Post-starburst (E+A) galaxies are thought to be in the green valley transition phase between star-forming blue galaxies and quiescent red galaxies. They are identified by their unusual spectra characterized by strong Balmer absorption lines and weak emission lines, indicating a period of starburst followed by abrupt quenching. However, the underlying mechanism that drives the formation of E+A galaxies still remains contradictory or inconclusive. Thus, in order to differentiate between the different formation scenarios of E+A galaxies, we perform a statistical analysis of the environments of E+A galaxies. We spectroscopically identify a large sample of post-starburst galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) using a selection criteria based on $H{\delta}$ equivalent width. We report our findings and discuss their implications in the context of post-starburst galaxy formation.