No Arabic abstract
By means of the abundance matching technique, we infer the local stellar and baryonic mass-halo mass (Ms-Mh and Mb-Mh) relation for central blue and red galaxies separately in the mass range Ms~10^8.5-10^12.0 Msun. The observational inputs are the SDSS central blue and red Galaxy Stellar Mass Functions reported in Yang et al. 2009, and the measured local gas mass-Ms relations for blue and red galaxies. For the Halo Mass Function associated to central blue galaxies, the distinct LCDM one is used and set up to exclude: (i) the observed group/cluster mass function (blue galaxies are rare as centers of groups/clusters), and (ii) halos with a central major merger at resdshifts z<0.8 (dry late major mergers destroy the disks of blue galaxies). For red galaxies, we take the complement of this function to the total. The obtained mean Ms-Mh and Mb-Mh relations of central blue and red galaxies do not differ significantly from the respective relations for all central galaxies. For Mh>10^11.5 Msun, the Mss of red galaxies tend to be higher than those of blue ones for a given Mh, the difference not being larger than 1.7. For Mh<10^11.5 Msun, this trend is inverted. For blue (red) galaxies: (a) the maximum value of fs=Ms/Mh is 0.021^{+0.016}_{-0.009} (0.034{+0.026}_{-0.015}) and it is attained atlog(Mh/Msun)~12.0 (log(Mh/Msun)~11.9); (b) fspropto Mh (fspropto Mh^3) at the low-mass end while at the high-mass end, fspropto Mh^-0.4 (fspropto Mh^-0.6). The baryon mass fractions, fb=Mb/Mh, of blue and red galaxies reach maximum values of fb=0.028^{+0.018}_{-0.011} and fb=0.034^{+0.025}_{-0.014}, respectively. For Mh<10^11.3 Msun, a much steeper dependence of fb on Mh is obtained for the red galaxies than for the blue ones. We discuss on the differences found in the fs-Mh and fb-Mh relations between blue and red galaxies in the light of of semi-empirical galaxy models.
Recent work has identified a population of low-redshift E/S0 galaxies that lie on the blue sequence in color vs. stellar mass parameter space, where spiral galaxies typically reside. While high-mass blue-sequence E/S0s often resemble young merger or interaction remnants likely to fade to the red sequence, we focus on blue-sequence E/S0s with lower stellar masses (< a few 10^10 M_sun), which are characterized by fairly regular morphologies and low-density field environments where fresh gas infall is possible. This population may provide an evolutionary link between early-type galaxies and spirals through disk regrowth. Focusing on atomic gas reservoirs, we present new GBT HI data for 27 E/S0s on both sequences as well as a complete tabulation of archival HI data for other galaxies in the Nearby Field Galaxy Survey. Normalized to stellar mass, the atomic gas masses for 12 of the 14 blue-sequence E/S0s range from 0.1 to >1.0. These gas-to-stellar mass ratios are comparable to those of spiral and irregular galaxies and have a similar dependence on stellar mass. Assuming that the HI is accessible for star formation, we find that many of our blue-sequence E/S0s can increase in stellar mass by 10-60% in 3 Gyr in both of two limiting scenarios, exponentially declining star formation and constant star formation. In a constant star formation scenario, about half of the blue-sequence E/S0s require fresh gas infall on a timescale of <3 Gyr to avoid exhausting their atomic gas reservoirs and evolving to the red sequence. We present evidence that star formation in these galaxies is bursty and likely involves externally triggered gas inflows. Our analysis suggests that most blue-sequence E/S0s are indeed capable of substantial stellar disk growth on relatively short timescales. (abridged)
[Abridged] In this paper we derive the central stellar mass density within a fixed radius and the effective stellar mass density within the effective radius for a complete sample of 34 ETGs morphologically selected at 0.9<z_{spec}<2 and compare them with those derived for a sample of ~900 local ETGs in the same mass range. We find that the central stellar mass density of high-z ETGs spans just an order of magnitude and it is similar to the one of local ETGs as actually found in previous studies.However, we find that the effective stellar mass density of high-z ETGs spans three orders of magnitude, exactly as the local ETGs and that it is similar to the effective stellar mass density of local ETGs showing that it has not changed since z~1.5, in the last 9-10 Gyr. Thus, the wide spread of the effective stellar mass density observed up to z~1.5 must originate earlier, at z>2. Also, we show that the small scatter of the central mass density of ETGs compared to the large scatter of the effective mass density is simply a peculiar feature of the Sersic profile hence, independent of redshift and of any assembly history experienced by galaxies. Thus, it has no connection with the possible inside-out growth of ETGs. Finally, we find a tight correlation between the central stellar mass density and the total stellar mass of ETGs in the sense that the central mass density increases with mass as M^{~0.6}. This implies that the fraction of the central stellar mass of ETGs decreases with the mass of the galaxy. These correlations are valid for the whole population of ETGs considered independently of their redshift suggesting that they originate in the early-phases of their formation.
Dynamical studies of local ETGs and the Fundamental Plane point to a strong dependence of M/L ratio on luminosity (and stellar mass) with a relation of the form $M/L propto L^{gamma}$. The tilt $gamma$ may be caused by various factors, including stellar population properties, IMF, rotational support, luminosity profile non-homology and dark matter (DM) fraction. We evaluate the impact of all these factors using a large uniform dataset of local ETGs from Prugniel & Simien (1997). We take particular care in estimating the stellar masses, using a general star formation history, and comparing different population synthesis models. We find that the stellar M/L contributes little to the tilt. We estimate the total M/L using simple Jeans dynamical models, and find that adopting accurate luminosity profiles is important but does not remove the need for an additional tilt component, which we ascribe to DM. We survey trends of the DM fraction within one effective radius, finding it to be roughly constant for galaxies fainter than $M_B sim -20.5$, and increasing with luminosity for the brighter galaxies; we detect no significant differences among S0s and fast- and slow-rotating ellipticals. We construct simplified cosmological mass models and find general consistency, where the DM transition point is caused by a change in the relation between luminosity and effective radius. A more refined model with varying galaxy star formation efficiency suggests a transition from total mass profiles (including DM) of faint galaxies distributed similarly to the light, to near-isothermal profiles for the bright galaxies. These conclusions are sensitive to various systematic uncertainties which we investigate in detail, but are consistent with the results of dynamics studies at larger radii.
We employ a large sample of 20171 optically-selected groups and clusters at 0.15 < z < 0.4 in the SDSS to investigate how the stacked stellar mass fraction varies across a wide range of total mass, $M_{500}$. Our study improves upon previous observational studies in a number of important ways, including having a much larger sample size, an explicit inclusion of the intracluster light (ICL) component, and a thorough examination of the accuracy of our total mass estimates via comparisons to simulations and weak lensing observations. We find that the stellar mass fraction depends only weakly on total mass and that the contribution of ICL to the total stellar mass fraction is significant (typically 20-40 per cent). Both of these findings are in excellent accordance with the predictions of cosmological simulations. Under the assumption of a Chabrier (Salpeter) IMF, the derived star formation efficiency ($f_{star}$/$f_{b}$, where $f_b=Omega_b/Omega_m$) is relatively low at 8 per cent (14 per cent) and is consistent with the global star formation efficiency of semi-analytic models that reproduce the galaxy stellar mass function. When our measured stellar mass fractions are combined with the observed relation between hot gas mass fraction and total mass from X-ray observations, our results imply that galaxy groups have significantly lower baryon fractions than massive clusters. Ejection of gas due to energetic AGN feedback (most likely at high redshift) provides a plausible mechanism for explaining the trends we observe.
[Abridged] We study the spectral properties of intermediate mass galaxies as a function of colour and morphology. We use Galaxy Zoo to define three morphological classes of galaxies, namely early-types (ellipticals), late-type (disk-dominated) face-on spirals and early-type (bulge-dominated) face-on spirals. We classify these galaxies as blue or red according to their SDSS g-r colour and use the spectral fitting code VESPA to calculate time-resolved star-formation histories, metallicity and total starlight dust extinction from their SDSS fibre spectra. We find that red late-type spirals show less star-formation in the last 500 Myr than blue late-type spirals by up to a factor of three, but share similar star-formation histories at earlier times. This decline in recent star-formation explains their redder colour: their chemical and dust content are the same. We postulate that red late-type spirals are recent descendants of blue late-type spirals, with their star-formation curtailed in the last 500 Myrs. The red late-type spirals are however still forming stars approximately 17 times faster than red ellipticals over the same period. Red early-type spirals lie between red late-type spirals and red ellipticals in terms of recent-to-intermediate star-formation and dust content. Therefore, it is plausible that these galaxies represent an evolutionary link between these two populations. They are more likely to evolve directly into red ellipticals than red late-type spirals. Blue ellipticals show similar star-formation histories as blue spirals (regardless of type), except they have formed less stars in the last 100 Myrs. However, blue ellipticals have different dust content, which peaks at lower extinction values than all spiral galaxies.