scholarly journals IMF radial gradients in most massive early-type galaxies

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (3) ◽  
pp. 4090-4110 ◽  
Author(s):  
F La Barbera ◽  
A Vazdekis ◽  
I Ferreras ◽  
A Pasquali ◽  
C Allende Prieto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Early Type ◽  
Low Mass Stars ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Surface Mass Density ◽  
The Imf

ABSTRACT Using new long-slit spectroscopy obtained with X-Shooter at ESO-VLT, we study, for the first time, radial gradients of optical and near-infrared initial mass function (IMF)-sensitive features in a representative sample of galaxies at the very high mass end of the galaxy population. The sample consists of seven early-type galaxies (ETGs) at z ∼ 0.05, with central velocity dispersion in the range 300 ≲ σ ≲ 350 km s−1. Using state-of-the-art stellar population synthesis models, we fit a number of spectral indices, from different chemical species (including TiO and Na indices), to constrain the IMF slope (i.e. the fraction of low-mass stars), as a function of galactocentric distance, over a radial range out to ∼4 kpc. ETGs in our sample show a significant correlation of IMF slope and surface mass density. The bottom-heavy population (i.e. an excess of low-mass stars in the IMF) is confined to central galaxy regions with surface mass density above $\rm \sim 10^{10}\, M_\odot \, kpc^{-2}$, or, alternatively, within a characteristic radius of ∼2 kpc. Radial distance, in physical units, and surface mass density are the best correlators to IMF variations, with respect to other dynamical (e.g. velocity dispersion) and stellar population (e.g. metallicity) properties. Our results for the most massive galaxies suggest that there is no single parameter that fully explains variations in the stellar IMF, but IMF radial profiles at z ∼ 0 rather result from the complex formation and mass accretion history of galaxy inner and outer regions.

scholarly journals What does (not) drive the variation of the low-mass end of the stellar initial mass function of early-type galaxies

2021 ◽  
Vol 645 ◽  
pp. L1
Author(s):  
C. E. Barbosa ◽  
C. Spiniello ◽  
M. Arnaboldi ◽  
L. Coccato ◽  
M. Hilker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Population Parameters ◽  
Early Type ◽  
Stellar Velocity ◽  
Stellar Initial Mass Function ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
The Imf

Context. The stellar initial mass function (IMF) seems to be variable and not universal, contrary to what has been argued in the literature over the last three decades. Several relations of the low-mass end of the IMF slope with other stellar population, photometrical, and kinematical parameters of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) have been proposed, but consensus on the factual cause of the observed variations has not yet been reached. Aims. We investigate the relationship between the IMF and other stellar population parameters in NGC 3311, the central galaxy of the Hydra I cluster. NGC 3311 is a unique laboratory, characterized by old and metal-rich stars, that is similar to other massive ETGs for which the IMF slope has been measured to be bottom-heavy (i.e., dwarf-rich); however, it has unusual stellar velocity dispersion and [α/Fe] profiles, both of which increase with radius. Methods. We use the spatially resolved stellar population parameters (age, total metallicity, and [α/Fe]) that were derived in a forthcoming paper (Barbosa et al. 2020) – via the full-spectrum fitting of high signal-to-noise MUSE observations – to compare the IMF slope in the central part of NGC 3311 (R ≲ 16 kpc) against other stellar parameters, with the goal of assessing their relations and dependencies. Results. For NGC 3311, we unambiguously invalidate the previously observed direct correlation between the IMF slope and the local stellar velocity dispersion, confirming some doubts that had been raised in the literature. This relation may simply arise as a spatial coincidence between the region with the largest stellar velocity dispersion and the region where the oldest in situ population is found and dominates the light. We also show robust evidence that the proposed IMF−metallicity relation is contaminated by the degeneracy between these two parameters. We do confirm that the stellar content in the innermost region of NGC 3311 follows a bottom-heavy IMF, in line with other literature results. The tightest correlations we found are those between stellar age and the IMF and between the galactocentric radius and the IMF. Conclusions. The variation of the IMF at its low-mass end is not due to kinematical, dynamical, or global properties in NGC 3311. We speculate instead that the IMF might be dwarf-dominated in the “red nuggets” that formed through a very short and intense star formation episode at high redshifts (z >  2) when the Universe was denser and richer in gas, and which then ended up being the central cores of today’s giant ellipticals.

scholarly journals Variation in the Stellar Initial Mass Function from the Chromospheric Activity of M Dwarfs in Early-type Galaxies

2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Pieter van Dokkum ◽  
Charlie Conroy
Keyword(s):  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass ◽  
Early Type ◽  
M Dwarfs ◽  
Low Mass Stars ◽  
Chromospheric Activity ◽  
Stellar Initial Mass Function ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
The Imf

Abstract Mass measurements and absorption-line studies indicate that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is bottom-heavy in the central regions of many early-type galaxies, with an excess of low-mass stars compared to the IMF of the Milky Way. Here we test this hypothesis using a method that is independent of previous techniques. Low-mass stars have strong chromospheric activity characterized by nonthermal emission at short wavelengths. Approximately half of the UV flux of M dwarfs is contained in the λ1215.7 Lyα line, and we show that the total Lyα emission of an early-type galaxy is a sensitive probe of the IMF with a factor of ∼2 flux variation in response to plausible variations in the number of low-mass stars. We use the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the Lyα line in the centers of the massive early-type galaxies NGC 1407 and NGC 2695. We detect Lyα emission in both galaxies and demonstrate that it originates in stars. We find that the Lyα to i-band flux ratio is a factor of 2.0 ± 0.4 higher in NGC 1407 than in NGC 2695, in agreement with the difference in their IMFs as previously determined from gravity-sensitive optical absorption lines. Although a larger sample of galaxies is required for definitive answers, these initial results support the hypothesis that the IMF is not universal but varies with environment.

scholarly journals Connection between dynamically derived IMF normalisation and stellar populations

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S311) ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Richard M. McDermid
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Stellar Dynamics ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Abundance Ratio ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Low Mass Stars ◽  
Stellar Initial Mass Function ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Imf

AbstractIn this contributed talk I present recent results on the connection between stellar population properties and the normalisation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) measured using stellar dynamics, based on a large sample of 260 early-type galaxies observed as part of the ATLAS3D project. This measure of the IMF normalisation is found to vary non-uniformly with age- and metallicity-sensitive absorption line strengths. Applying single stellar population models, there are weak but measurable trends of the IMF with age and abundance ratio. Accounting for the dependence of stellar population parameters on velocity dispersion effectively removes these trends, but subsequently introduces a trend with metallicity, such that ‘heavy’ IMFs favour lower metallicities. The correlations are weaker than those found from previous studies directly detecting low-mass stars, suggesting some degree of tension between the different approaches of measuring the IMF. Resolving these discrepancies will be the focus of future work.

scholarly journals The SAMI Galaxy Survey: stellar population and structural trends across the Fundamental Plane

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco D’Eugenio ◽  
Matthew Colless ◽  
Nicholas Scott ◽  
Arjen van der Wel ◽  
Roger L Davies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Empirical Relation ◽  
Zero Point ◽  
High Signal ◽  
Fundamental Plane ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Integral Field Spectroscopy ◽  
Surface Mass Density ◽  
Photometric Measurements

Abstract We study the Fundamental Plane (FP) for a volume- and luminosity-limited sample of 560 early-type galaxies from the SAMI survey. Using r −band sizes and luminosities from new Multi-Gaussian Expansion (MGE) photometric measurements, and treating luminosity as the dependent variable, the FP has coefficients a = 1.294 ± 0.039, b = 0.912 ± 0.025, and zero-point c = 7.067 ± 0.078. We leverage the high signal-to-noise of SAMI integral field spectroscopy, to determine how structural and stellar-population observables affect the scatter about the FP. The FP residuals correlate most strongly (8σ significance) with luminosity-weighted simple-stellar-population (SSP) age. In contrast, the structural observables surface mass density, rotation-to-dispersion ratio, Sérsic index and projected shape all show little or no significant correlation. We connect the FP residuals to the empirical relation between age (or stellar mass-to-light ratio ϒ⋆ ) and surface mass density, the best predictor of SSP age amongst parameters based on FP observables. We show that the FP residuals (anti-)correlate with the residuals of the relation between surface density and ϒ⋆ . This correlation implies that part of the FP scatter is due to the broad age and ϒ⋆ distribution at any given surface mass density. Using virial mass and ϒ⋆ we construct a simulated FP and compare it to the observed FP. We find that, while the empirical relations between observed stellar population relations and FP observables are responsible for most (75 per cent) of the FP scatter, on their own they do not explain the observed tilt of the FP away from the virial plane.

The surface mass density in the solar neighbourhood using red clumps stars in TGASxRAVE

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S334) ◽  
pp. 304-305
Author(s):  
Jorrit H. J. Hagen ◽  
Amina Helmi
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Solar Neighbourhood ◽  
Local Distribution ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Surface Mass Density ◽  
Red Clump

AbstractWe investigate the kinematics of red clump stars in the Solar neighbourhood by combining data from the RAVE survey with the TGAS dataset presented in Gaia DR1. Our goal is to put new constraints on the (local) distribution of mass using the Jeans Equations. Here we show the variation of the vertical velocity dispersion as function of height above the mid-plane for both a thin and a thick disk tracer sample and present preliminary results.

scholarly journals Resolving the Disc–Halo Degeneracy – II: NGC 6946

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (3) ◽  
pp. 3579-3593
Author(s):  
S Aniyan ◽  
A A Ponomareva ◽  
K C Freeman ◽  
M Arnaboldi ◽  
O E Gerhard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Velocity ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Scale Height ◽  
Galactic Rotation ◽  
Dark Halo ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Ngc 6946 ◽  
Stellar Velocity ◽  
Surface Mass Density

ABSTRACT The mass-to-light ratio (M/L) is a key parameter in decomposing galactic rotation curves into contributions from the baryonic components and the dark halo of a galaxy. One direct observational method to determine the disc M/L is by calculating the surface mass density of the disc from the stellar vertical velocity dispersion and the scale height of the disc. Usually, the scale height is obtained from near-IR studies of edge-on galaxies and pertains to the older, kinematically hotter stars in the disc, while the vertical velocity dispersion of stars is measured in the optical band and refers to stars of all ages (up to ∼10 Gyr) and velocity dispersions. This mismatch between the scale height and the velocity dispersion can lead to underestimates of the disc surface density and a misleading conclusion of the submaximality of galaxy discs. In this paper, we present the study of the stellar velocity dispersion of the disc galaxy NGC 6946 using integrated star light and individual planetary nebulae as dynamical tracers. We demonstrate the presence of two kinematically distinct populations of tracers that contribute to the total stellar velocity dispersion. Thus, we are able to use the dispersion and the scale height of the same dynamical population to derive the surface mass density of the disc over a radial extent. We find the disc of NGC 6946 to be closer to maximal with the baryonic component contributing most of the radial gravitational field in the inner parts of the galaxy (Vmax(bar) = 0.76(±0.14)Vmax).

scholarly journals Stellar Population and Elemental Abundance Gradients of Early-type Galaxies*

2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
A. Feldmeier-Krause ◽  
I. Lonoce ◽  
W. L. Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Stellar Population ◽  
Stellar Populations ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Elemental Abundance ◽  
Early Type ◽  
Elemental Abundances ◽  
Global Correlation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Local Correlations ◽  
The Imf

Abstract The evolution of galaxies is imprinted on their stellar populations. Several stellar population properties in massive early-type galaxies have been shown to correlate with intrinsic galaxy properties such as the galaxy’s central velocity dispersion, suggesting that stars formed in an initial collapse of gas (z ∼ 2). However, stellar populations change as a function of galaxy radius, and it is not clear how local gradients of individual galaxies are influenced by global galaxy properties and galaxy environment. In this paper, we study the stellar populations of eight early-type galaxies as a function of radius. We use optical spectroscopy (∼4000–8600 Å) and full spectral fitting to measure stellar population age, metallicity, slope of the initial mass function (IMF), and nine elemental abundances (O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, C, N, Na, and Fe) out to 1 R e for each galaxy individually. We find a wide range of properties, with ages ranging from 3–13 Gyr. Some galaxies have a radially constant, Salpeter-like IMF, and other galaxies have a super-Salpeter IMF in the center, decreasing to a sub-Salpeter IMF at ∼0.5 R e . We find a global correlation of the central [Z/H] with the central IMF and the radial gradient of the IMF for the eight galaxies, but local correlations of the IMF slope with other stellar population parameters hold only for subsets of the galaxies in our sample. Some elemental abundances also correlate locally with each other within a galaxy, suggesting a common production channel. These local correlations appear only in subsets of our galaxies, indicating variations of the stellar content among different galaxies.

scholarly journals Resolving the Disk-Halo Degeneracy: A look at M74

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 267-267
Author(s):  
S. Aniyan ◽  
K. C. Freeman ◽  
M. Arnaboldi ◽  
O. Gerhard ◽  
L. Coccato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Density ◽  
Rotation Curve ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Disk Surface ◽  
Scale Height ◽  
Dark Halo ◽  
Conceptual Problem ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Surface Mass Density

AbstractThe decomposition of the 21 cm rotation curve of galaxies into contribution from the disk and dark halo depends on the adopted mass to light ratio (M/L) of the disk. Given the vertical velocity dispersion (σz) of stars in the disk and its scale height (h), the disk surface density and hence the M/L can be estimated. Earlier works have used this technique to conclude that galaxy disks are submaximal. Here we address an important conceptual problem: σz and h must pertain to the same population. Our analysis concludes that previous studies underestimate the disk surface mass density by ~ 2, sufficient to make a maximal disk for M74 appear like a submaximal disk.

scholarly journals Gravitational Microlensing By Random Motion Of Stars: Movie and Analysis of Light Curves

1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 287-288
Author(s):  
Joachim Wambsganss ◽  
Tomislav Kundić
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Random Motion ◽  
Light Curves ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Full Paper ◽  
Surface Mass ◽  
Bulk Motion ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Surface Mass Density

We present a quantitative analysis of the effect of microlensing caused by random motion of individual stars in a galaxy lensing a background quasar. We calculate a large number of magnification patterns for positions of the stars slightly offset from one frame to the next, and thus obtain light curves for fixed quasar and galaxy positions, only due to the change in the relative star positions. These light curves are analyzed to identify microlensing events, which are then classified with respect to height, duration, and slope. These random motion microlensing events are compared with the corresponding ones caused by the bulk motion of the galaxy.We find that microlensing events produced by random motion of stars are shorter, steeper, and more frequent than bulk motion events, assuming the velocity dispersion of the stars equals the bulk velocity of the galaxy. The reason for this difference is that in the case of random motion, caustics can move with an arbitrarily high velocity, producing very short events, whereas in the comparison case for bulk motion a microlensing event can never be shorter than it takes a fold caustic, which moves with the velocity of the lensing galaxy projected onto the quasar plane, to cross the quasar. An accompanying video illustrates these results. For three different values of the surface mass density κ, it shows time sequences of 1000 magnification patterns for slowly changing lens positions, together with the positions and velocity vectors of the microlensing stars. The full paper including the video can be found in Wambsganss & Kundić (1995). A short version of the video is available as an MPEG movie under anonymous ftp at astro.princeton.edu, in the directory jkw/microlensing/moving_stars.

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