Dispersion-dominated Galaxies Research Articles

Lyman-α at Cosmic Noon II: The relationship between kinematics and Lyman-α in z ∼ 2–3 Lyman break galaxies

Abstract We report for the first time a relationship between galaxy kinematics and net Lyman- $\alpha$ equivalent width (net Ly $\alpha$ EW) in star-forming galaxies during the epoch of peak cosmic star formation. Building on the previously reported broadband imaging segregation of Ly $\alpha$ -emitting and Ly $\alpha$ -absorbing Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at $z\sim2$ (Paper I in this series) and previously at $z\sim3$ , we use the Ly $\alpha$ spectral type classification method to study the relationship between net Ly $\alpha$ EW and nebular emission-line kinematics in samples of $z\sim2$ and $z\sim3$ LBGs drawn from the literature for which matching rest-frame UV photometry, consistently measured net Ly $\alpha$ EWs, and kinematic classifications from integral field unit spectroscopy are available. We show that $z\sim2$ and $z\sim3$ LBGs segregate in colour-magnitude space according to their kinematic properties and Lyman- $\alpha$ spectral type and conclude that LBGs with Ly $\alpha$ dominant in absorption (aLBGs) are almost exclusively rotation-dominated (presumably disc-like) systems, and LBGs with Ly $\alpha$ dominant in emission (eLBGs) characteristically have dispersion-dominated kinematics. We quantify the relationship between the strength of rotational dynamic support (as measured using ${v}_{\mathrm{obs}}/2{\sigma }_{\mathrm{int}}$ and ${v}_{\mathrm{rot}}/{\sigma}_{\mathrm{0}}$ ) and net Ly $\alpha$ EW for subsets of our kinematic sample where these data are available, and demonstrate the consistency of our result with other properties that scale with net Ly $\alpha$ EW and kinematics. Based on these findings, we suggest a method by which large samples of rotation- and dispersion-dominated galaxies might be selected using broadband imaging in as few as three filters and/or net Ly $\alpha$ EW alone. If confirmed with larger samples, application of this method will enable an understanding of galaxy kinematic behaviour over large scales in datasets from current and future large-area and all-sky photometric surveys that will select hundreds of millions of LBGs in redshift ranges from $z\sim2-6$ across many hundreds to thousands of Mpc. Finally, we speculate that the combination of our result linking net Ly $\alpha$ EW and nebular emission-line kinematics with the known large-scale clustering behaviour of Ly $\alpha$ -absorbing and Ly $\alpha$ -emitting LBGs is evocative of an emergent bimodality of early galaxies that is consistent with a nascent morphology-density relation at $z\sim2-3$ .

The role of gas kinematics in setting metallicity gradients at high redshift

ABSTRACT In this work, we explore the diversity of ionized gas kinematics (rotational velocity vϕ and velocity dispersion σg) and gas-phase metallicity gradients at 0.1 ≤ z ≤ 2.5 using a compiled data set of 74 galaxies resolved with ground-based integral field spectroscopy. We find that galaxies with the highest and the lowest σg have preferentially flat metallicity gradients, whereas those with intermediate values of σg show a large scatter in the metallicity gradients. Additionally, steep negative gradients appear almost only in rotation-dominated galaxies (vϕ/σg > 1), whereas most dispersion-dominated galaxies show flat gradients. We use our recently developed analytical model of metallicity gradients to provide a physical explanation for the shape and scatter of these observed trends. In the case of high σg, the inward radial advection of gas dominates over metal production and causes efficient metal mixing, thus giving rise to flat gradients. For low σg, it is the cosmic accretion of metal-poor gas diluting the metallicity that gives rise to flat gradients. Finally, the reason for intermediate σg showing the steepest negative gradients is that both inward radial advection and cosmic accretion are weak as compared to metal production, which leads to the creation of steeper gradients. The larger scatter at intermediate σg may be due in part to preferential ejection of metals in galactic winds, which can decrease the strength of the production term. Our analysis shows how gas kinematics play a critical role in setting metallicity gradients in high-redshift galaxies.

The Tully-Fisher relation in dense groups at z ∼ 0.7 in the MAGIC survey

Context. Galaxies in dense environments are subject to interactions and mechanisms that directly affect their evolution by lowering their gas fractions and consequently reducing their star-forming capacity earlier than their isolated counterparts. Aims. The aim of our project is to get new insights into the role of environment in the stellar and baryonic content of galaxies using a kinematic approach, through the study of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). Methods. We study a sample of galaxies in eight groups, over-dense by a factor larger than 25 with respect to the average projected density, spanning a redshift range of 0.5 < z < 0.8 and located in ten pointings of the MAGIC MUSE Guaranteed Time Observations program. We perform a morpho-kinematics analysis of this sample and set up a selection based on galaxy size, [O II]λλ3727,3729 emission line doublet signal-to-noise ratio, bulge-to-disk ratio, and nuclear activity to construct a robust kinematic sample of 67 star-forming galaxies. Results. We show that this selection considerably reduces the number of outliers in the TFR, which are predominantly dispersion-dominated galaxies. Similar to other studies, we find that including the velocity dispersion in the velocity budget mainly affects galaxies with low rotation velocities, reduces the scatter in the relation, increases its slope, and decreases its zero-point. Including gas masses is more significant for low-mass galaxies due to a larger gas fraction, and thus decreases the slope and increases the zero-point of the relation. Our results suggest a significant offset of the TFR zero-point between galaxies in low- and high-density environments, regardless of the kinematics estimator used. This can be interpreted as a decrease in either stellar mass by ∼0.05 − 0.3 dex or an increase in rotation velocity by ∼0.02 − 0.06 dex for galaxies in groups, depending on the samples used for comparison. We also studied the stellar and baryon mass fractions within stellar disks and found they both increase with stellar mass, the trend being more pronounced for the stellar component alone. These fractions do not exceed 50%. We show that this evolution of the TFR is consistent either with a decrease in star formation or with a contraction of the mass distribution due to the environment. These two effects probably act together, with their relative contribution depending on the mass regime.

And yet it flips: connecting galactic spin and the cosmic web

ABSTRACT We study the spin alignment of galaxies and haloes with respect to filaments and walls of the cosmic web, identified with DisPerSE , using the Simba simulation from z = 0 − 2. Massive haloes’ spins are oriented perpendicularly to their closest filament’s axis and walls, while low-mass haloes tend to have their spins parallel to filaments and in the plane of walls. A similar mass-dependent spin flip is found for galaxies, albeit with a weaker signal particularly at low mass and low-z, suggesting that galaxies’ spins retain memory of their larger scale environment. Low-z star-forming and rotation-dominated galaxies tend to have spins parallel to nearby filaments, while quiescent and dispersion-dominated galaxies show preferentially perpendicular orientation; the star formation trend can be fully explained by the stellar mass correlation, but the morphology trend cannot. There is a dependence on HI mass, such that high-HI galaxies tend to have parallel spins while low-HI galaxies are perpendicular, suggesting that HI content may trace anisotropic infall more faithfully than the stellar component. Finally, at fixed stellar mass, the strength of spin alignments correlates with the filament’s density, with parallel alignment for galaxies in high density environments. These findings are consistent with conditional tidal torque theory, and highlight a significant correlation between galactic spin and the larger scale tides that are important e.g., for interpreting weak lensing studies. Simba allows us to rule out numerical grid locking as the cause of previously-seen low mass alignment.

Assembly of spheroid-dominated galaxies in the EAGLE simulation

Context. Despite the insights gained in the last few years, our knowledge about the formation and evolution scenario for the spheroid-dominated galaxies is still incomplete. New and more powerful cosmological simulations have been developed that together with more precise observations open the possibility of more detailed study of the formation of early-type galaxies (ETGs).Aims. The aim of this work is to analyse the assembly histories of ETGs in a Λ cold dark matter cosmology, focussing on the archeological approach given by the mass-growth histories.Methods. We inspected a sample of dispersion-dominated galaxies selected from the largest volume simulation of the EAGLE project. This simulation includes a variety of physical processes such as radiative cooling, star formation (SF), metal enrichment, and stellar and active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback. The selected sample comprised 508 spheroid-dominated galaxies classified according to their dynamical properties. Their surface brightness profile, the fundamental relations, kinematic properties, and stellar-mass growth histories are estimated and analysed. The findings are confronted with recent observations.Results. The simulated ETGs are found to globally reproduce the fundamental relations of ellipticals. All of them have an inner disc component where residual younger stellar populations (SPs) are detected. A correlation between the inner-disc fraction and the bulge-to-total ratio is reported. We find a relation between kinematics and shape that implies that dispersion-dominated galaxies with lowV/σL(whereVis the average rotational velocity andσLthe one dimensional velocity dispersion) tend to have ellipticity smaller than ∼0.5 and are dominated by old stars. On average, less massive galaxies host slightly younger stars. More massive spheroids show coeval SPs while for less massive galaxies (stellar masses lower than ∼1010 M⊙), there is a clear trend to have rejuvenated inner regions, showing an age gap between the inner and the outer regions up to ∼2 Gyr, in apparent contradiction with observational findings. We find evidences suggesting that both the existence of the disc components with SF activity in the inner region and the accretion of satellite galaxies in outer regions could contribute to the outside-in formation history in galaxies with low stellar mass. On the other hand, there are non-negligible uncertainties in the determination of the ages of old stars in observed galaxies. Stronger supernova (SN) feedback and/or the action of AGN feedback for galaxies with stellar masses lower than 1010 M⊙could contribute to prevent the SF in the inner regions.

Declining Rotation Curves at z = 2 in ΛCDM Galaxy Formation Simulations

Abstract Selecting disk galaxies from the cosmological, hydrodynamical simulation Magneticum Pathfinder, we show that almost half of our poster child disk galaxies at z = 2 show significantly declining rotation curves and low dark matter fractions, very similar to recently reported observations. These galaxies do not show any anomalous behavior, they reside in standard dark matter halos, and they typically grow significantly in mass until z = 0, where they span all morphological classes, including disk galaxies matching present-day rotation curves and observed dark matter fractions. Our findings demonstrate that declining rotation curves and low dark matter fractions in rotation-dominated galaxies at z = 2 appear naturally within the ΛCDM paradigm and reflect the complex baryonic physics, which plays a role at the peak epoch of star formation. In addition, we find some dispersion-dominated galaxies at z = 2 that host a significant gas disk and exhibit similar shaped rotation curves as the disk galaxy population, rendering it difficult to differentiate between these two populations with currently available observation techniques.

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: kinematics of dusty early-type galaxies

Recently, large samples of visually classified early-type galaxies (ETGs) containing dust have been identified using space-based infrared observations with the Herschel Space Telescope. The presence of large quantities of dust in massive ETGs is peculiar as X-ray halos of these galaxies are expected to destroy dust in 10 Myr (or less). This has sparked a debate regarding the origin of the dust: is it internally produced by asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, or is it accreted externally through mergers? We examine the 2D stellar and ionised gas kinematics of dusty ETGs using IFS observations from the SAMI galaxy survey, and integrated star-formation rates, stellar masses, and dust masses from the GAMA survey. Only 8% (4/49) of visually-classified ETGs are kinematically consistent with being dispersion-supported systems. These "dispersion-dominated galaxies" exhibit discrepancies between stellar and ionised gas kinematics, either offsets in the kinematic position angle or large differences in the rotational velocity, and are outliers in star-formation rate at a fixed dust mass compared to normal star-forming galaxies. These properties are suggestive of recent merger activity. The remaining 90% of dusty ETGs have low velocity dispersions and/or large circular velocities, typical of "rotation-dominated galaxies". These results, along with the general evidence of published works on X-ray emission in ETGs, suggest that they are unlikely to host hot, X-ray gas consistent with their low stellar mass when compared to dispersion-dominated galaxies. This means dust will be long lived and thus these galaxies do not require external scenarios for the origin of their dust content.

Knowing the unknowns: uncertainties in simple estimators of galactic dynamical masses

The observed stellar kinematics of dispersion-supported galaxies are often used to measure dynamical masses. Recently, several analytical relationships between the stellar line-of-sight velocity dispersion, the projected (2D) or deprojected (3D) half-light radius, and the total mass enclosed within the half-light radius, relying on the spherical Jeans equation, have been proposed. Here, we make use of the APOSTLE cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of the Local Group to test the validity and accuracy of such mass estimators for both dispersion and rotation-supported galaxies, for field and satellite galaxies, and for galaxies of varying masses, shapes, and velocity dispersion anisotropies. We find that the mass estimators of Walker et al. and Wolf et al. are able to recover the masses of dispersion-dominated systems with little systematic bias, but with a 1-sigma scatter of 25 and 23 percent, respectively. The error on the estimated mass is dominated by the impact of the 3D shape of the stellar mass distribution, which is difficult to constrain observationally. This intrinsic scatter becomes the dominant source of uncertainty in the masses estimated for galaxies like the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites of the Milky Way, where the observational errors in their sizes and velocity dispersions are small. Such scatter may also affect the inner density slopes of dSphs derived from multiple stellar populations, relaxing the significance with which Navarro-Frenk-White profiles may be excluded, depending on the degree to which the relevant properties of the different stellar populations are correlated. Finally, we derive a new optimal mass estimator that removes the residual biases and achieves a statistically significant reduction in the scatter to 20 percent overall for dispersion-dominated galaxies, allowing more precise and accurate mass estimates.

AGN-driven quenching of star formation: morphological and dynamical implications for early-type galaxies

In order to understand the physical mechanisms at work during the formation of massive early-type galaxies, we performed six zoomed hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of halos in the mass range 4.3 10^12 < M_vir < 8.0 10^13 M_sun at z=0, using the Adaptive Mesh Refinement code RAMSES. These simulations explore the role of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), through jets powered by the accretion onto supermassive black holes on the formation of massive elliptical galaxies. In the absence of AGN feedback, large amounts of stars accumulate in the central galaxies to form overly massive, blue, compact and rotation-dominated galaxies. Powerful AGN jets transform the central galaxies into red extended and dispersion-dominated galaxies. This morphological transformation of disc galaxies into elliptical galaxies is driven by the efficient quenching of the in situ star formation due to AGN feedback, which transform these galaxies into systems built up by accretion. For galaxies mainly formed by accretion, the proportion of stars deposited farther away from the centre increases, and galaxies have larger sizes. The accretion is also directly responsible for randomising the stellar orbits, increasing the amount of dispersion over rotation of stars as a function of time. Finally, we find that our galaxies simulated with AGN feedback better match the observed scaling laws, such as the size-mass, velocity dispersion-mass, fundamental plane relations, and slope of the total density profiles at z~0, from dynamical and strong lensing constraints.

THE zCOSMOS-SINFONI PROJECT. I. SAMPLE SELECTION AND NATURAL-SEEING OBSERVATIONS

The zCOSMOS SINFONI project is aimed at studying the physical and kinematical properties of a sample of massive z~1.4-2.5 star-forming galaxies, through SINFONI near-IR integral field spectroscopy (IFS), combined with the multi-wavelength information from the zCOSMOS (COSMOS) survey. The project is based on 1 hour of natural-seeing observations per target, and Adaptive Optics (AO) follow-up for a major part of the sample, which includes 30 galaxies selected from the zCOSMOS/VIMOS spectroscopic survey. This first paper presents the sample selection, and the global physical characterization of the target galaxies from multicolor photometry, i.e., star formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, age, etc. The Halpha integrated properties such as, flux, velocity dispersion, and size, are derived from the natural-seeing observations, while the follow up AO observations will be presented in the next paper of this series. Our sample appears to be well representative of star-forming galaxies at z~2, covering a wide range in mass and SFR. The Halpha integrated properties of the 25 Halpha detected galaxies are similar to those of other IFS samples at the same redshifts. Good agreement is found among the SFRs derived from Halpha luminosity and other diagnostic methods, provided the extinction affecting the Halpha luminosity is about twice that affecting the continuum. A preliminary kinematic analysis, based on the maximum observed velocity difference across the source, and on the integrated velocity dispersion, indicates that the sample splits nearly 50-50 into rotation-dominated and velocity dispersion-dominated galaxies, in good agreement with previous surveys.

HIGH-REDSHIFT STAR-FORMING GALAXIES: ANGULAR MOMENTUM AND BARYON FRACTION, TURBULENT PRESSURE EFFECTS, AND THE ORIGIN OF TURBULENCE

The structure of a sample of high-redshift (z=2), rotating galaxies with high star formation rates and turbulent gas velocities of sigma=40-80 km/s is investigated. Fitting the observed disk rotational velocities and radii with a Mo, Mao, White (1998) (MMW) model requires unusually large disk spin parameters lambda_d>0.1 and disk-to-dark halo mass fraction m_d=0.2, close to the cosmic baryon fraction. The galaxies segregate into dispersion-dominated systems with 1<vmax/sigma<3, maximum rotational velocities vmax<200 km/s and disk half-light radii rd=1-3 kpc and rotation-dominated systems with vmax>200 km/s, vmax/sigma>3 and rd=4-8 kpc. For the dispersion-dominated sample, radial pressure gradients partly compensate the gravitational force, reducing the rotational velocities. Including this pressure effect in the MMW model, dispersion-dominated galaxies can be fitted well with spin parameters lf lambda_d=0.03-0.05 for high disk mass fractions of m_d=0.2 and with lambda_d=0.01-0.03 for m_d=0.05. These values are in good agreement with cosmological expectations. For the rotation-dominated sample however pressure effects are small and better agreement with theoretically expected disk spin parameters can only be achieved if the dark halo mass contribution in the visible disk regime (2-3*rd) is smaller than predicted by the MMW model. We argue that these galaxies can still be embedded in standard cold dark matter halos if the halos did not contract adiabatically in response to disk formation. It is shown that the observed high turbulent gas motions of the galaxies are consistent with a Toomre instability parameter Q=1 which is equal to the critical value, expected for gravitational disk instability to be the major driver of turbulence. The dominant energy source of turbulence is then the potential energy of the gas in the disk.

2D kinematics and physical properties ofz ∼ 3star-forming galaxies

We combined two-dimensional kinematic and morphology information on the Hα emission, obtained using near-infrared integral-field spectroscopy, with broad-band photometry to investigate the dynamical structure and the physical properties of a sample of 10 late-type galaxies at 1.0 ≲ z ≲ 1.5. Their star formation rate ranges from ~4 to ~400 M ⊙ yr -1 with a mean value of ~80 M ⊙ yr -1 . We found that three of these objects are undergoing a strong burst of star formation. The sample displays a range of kinematical types which include one merger, one face-on galaxy and eight objects showing evidence of rotation. Among these eight objects, half are rotation-dominated galaxies, while the rest are dispersion-dominated. We found also that two galaxies out of the rotation-dominated galaxies are pure rotationally supported discs. They achieve a maximum velocity of ~180-290 km s -1 within ~0.5-1 kpc, similar to local spirals with thin discs. Regarding the perturbed rotation and the dispersion-dominated galaxies, they display a plateau velocity range of 105-257 km s -1 , which is certainly underestimated due to beam smearing. However, their plateau radii (4.5-10.8 kpc) derived from our rotating disc model are significantly higher than those derived for pure rotating discs and local spiral galaxies. The galaxies of our sample have relatively young stellar populations (≲1.5 Gyr) and possess a range of stellar mass of 0.6-5 x 10 10 M ⊙ . In addition, most of them have not yet converted the majority of their gas into stars (six galaxies have their gas fraction >50 per cent). Therefore, those of them which already have a stable disc will probably have their final stellar mass similar to the present-day spirals, to which these rotating systems can be seen as precursors. We conclude our study by investigating the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation at 1.2 ≲ z ≲ 1.5.

A Survey of Galaxy Kinematics toz∼1 in the TKRS/GOODS‐N Field. I. Rotation and Dispersion Properties

We present kinematic measurements of a large sample of galaxies from the Team Keck Redshift Survey in the GOODS-N field. We measure line-of-sight velocity dispersions from integrated emission for 1089 galaxies with median redshift 0.637 and spatially resolved kinematics for a subsample of 380 galaxies. This is the largest sample of galaxies to z ~ 1 with kinematics to date and allows us to measure kinematic properties without morphological preselection. Emission-line widths provide a dynamical measurement for the bulk of blue galaxies. To fit the spatially resolved kinematics, we construct models that fit both line-of-sight rotation amplitude and velocity dispersion. Integrated line width correlates well with a combination of the velocity gradient and dispersion and is a robust measure of galaxy kinematics. The spatial extents of emission and continuum are similar, and there is no evidence that line widths are affected by nuclear or clumpy emission. The measured rotation gradient depends strongly on slit position angle alignment with galaxy major axis, but integrated line width does not. Even for galaxies with well-aligned slits, some have kinematics dominated by dispersion (V/σ < 1) rather than rotation. These are probably objects with disordered velocity fields, not dynamically hot stellar systems. About 35% of the spatially resolved sample are dispersion dominated; galaxies that are both dispersion dominated and bright exist at high redshift but appear rare at low redshift. This kinematic morphology may probe galaxies' evolutionary state. It is linked to photometric morphology in HST ACS images: dispersion-dominated galaxies include a higher fraction of irregulars and chain galaxies, while rotation-dominated galaxies are mostly disks and irregulars. Only one-third of chain/hyphen galaxies are dominated by rotation; high-redshift elongated objects cannot be assumed to be inclined disks.