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Register a new userThe SLUGGS Survey: The mass distribution in early-type galaxies within five effective radii and beyond
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We study mass distributions within and beyond 5~effective radii ($R_{rm e}$) in 23 early-type galaxies from the SLUGGS survey, using their globular cluster (GC) kinematic data. The data are obtained with Keck/DEIMOS spectrograph, and consist of line-of-sight velocities for ~$3500$ GCs, measured with a high precision of ~15 $rm km s^{-1}$ per GC and extending out to $~13 R_{rm e}$. We obtain the mass distribution in each galaxy using the tracer mass estimator of Watkins et al. and account for kinematic substructures, rotation of the GC systems and galaxy flattening in our mass estimates. The observed scatter between our mass estimates and results from the literature is less than 0.2 dex. The dark matter fraction within $5R_{rm e}$ ($f_{rm DM}$) increases from ~$0.6$ to ~$0.8$ for low- and high-mass galaxies, respectively, with some intermediate-mass galaxies ($M_*{sim}10^{11}M_odot$) having low $f_{rm DM}sim0.3$, which appears at odds with predictions from simple galaxy models. We show that these results are independent of the adopted orbital anisotropy, stellar mass-to-light ratio, and the assumed slope of the gravitational potential. However, the low $f_{rm DM}$ in the ~$10^{11}M_odot$ galaxies agrees with the cosmological simulations of Wu et al. where the pristine dark matter distribution has been modified by baryons during the galaxy assembly process. We find hints that these $M_*sim10^{11}M_odot$ galaxies with low $f_{rm DM}$ have very diffuse dark matter haloes, implying that they assembled late. Beyond $5R_{rm e}$, the $M/L$ gradients are steeper in the more massive galaxies and shallower in both low and intermediate mass galaxies.
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Due to longer dynamical timescales, the outskirts of early-type galaxies retain the footprint of their formation and assembly. Under the popular two-phase galaxy formation scenario, an initial in-situ phase of star formation is followed by minor merging and accretion of ex-situ stars leading to the expectation of observable transitions in the kinematics and stellar populations on large scales. However, observing the faint galactic outskirts is challenging, often leaving the transition unexplored. The large scale, spatially-resolved stellar kinematic data from the SAGES Legacy Unifying Galaxies and GlobularS (SLUGGS) survey are ideal for detecting kinematic transitions. We present kinematic maps out to 2.6 effective radii on average, kinemetry profiles, measurement of kinematic twists and misalignments, and the average outer intrinsic shape of 25 SLUGGS galaxies. We find good overall agreement in the kinematic maps and kinemetry radial profiles with literature. We are able to confirm significant radial modulations in rotational versus pressure support of galaxies with radius so that the central and outer rotational properties may be quite different. We also test the suggestion that galaxies may be more triaxial in their outskirts and find that while fast rotating galaxies were already shown to be axisymmetric in their inner regions, we are unable to rule out triaxiality in their outskirts. We compare our derived outer kinematic information to model predictions from a two-phase galaxy formation scenario. We find that the theoretical range of local outer angular momentum agrees well with our observations, but that radial modulations are much smaller than predicted.
Stellar metallicity gradients in the outer regions of galaxies are a critical tool for disentangling the contributions of in-situ and ex-situ formed stars. In the two-phase galaxy formation scenario, the initial gas collapse creates steep metallicity gradients, while the accretion of stars formed in satellites tends to flatten these gradients in the outskirts, particularly for massive galaxies. This work presents the first compilation of extended metallicity profiles over a wide range of galaxy mass. We use the DEIMOS spectrograph on the Keck telescope in multi-slit mode to obtain radial stellar metallicity profiles for 22 nearby early-type galaxies. From the calcium triplet lines in the near-infrared we measure the metallicity of the starlight up to 3 effective radii. We find a relation between the outer metallicity gradient and galaxy mass, in the sense that lower mass systems show steeper metallicity gradients than more massive galaxies. This result is consistent with a picture in which the ratio of ex-situ to in-situ formed stars is lower in less massive galaxies as a consequence of the smaller contribution by accretion. In addition, we infer a correlation between the strength of the calcium triplet feature in the near-infrared and the stellar initial mass function slope that is consistent with recent models in the literature.
Galaxy starlight at 3.6$mu$m is an excellent tracer of stellar mass. Here we use the latest 3.6$mu$m imaging from the Spitzer Space Telescope to measure the total stellar mass and effective radii in a homogeneous way for a sample of galaxies from the SLUGGS survey. These galaxies are representative of nearby early-type galaxies in the stellar mass range of 10 $<$ log M$_{ast}$/M$_{odot}$ $<$ 11.7, and our methodology can be applied to other samples of early-type galaxies. We model each galaxy in 2D and estimate its total asymptotic magnitude from a 1D curve-of-growth. Magnitudes are converted into stellar masses using a 3.6$mu$m mass-to-light ratio from the latest stellar population models of Rock et al., assuming a Kroupa IMF. We apply a ratio based on each galaxys mean mass-weighted stellar age within one effective radius (the mass-to-light ratio is insensitive to galaxy metallicity for the generally old stellar ages and high metallicities found in massive early-type galaxies). Our 3.6$mu$m stellar masses agree well with masses derived from 2.2$mu$m data. From the 1D surface brightness profile we fit a single Sersic law, excluding the very central regions. We measure the effective radius, Sersic n parameter and effective surface brightness for each galaxy. We find that galaxy sizes derived from shallow optical imaging and the 2MASS survey tend to underestimate the true size of the largest, most massive galaxies in our sample. We adopt the 3.6$mu$m stellar masses and effective radii for the SLUGGS survey galaxies.
Early-type (E and S0) galaxies may have assembled via a variety of different evolutionary pathways. Here we investigate these pathways by comparing the stellar kinematic properties of 24 early-type galaxies from the SLUGGS survey with the hydrodynamical simulations of Naab et al. (2014). In particular, we use the kinematics of starlight up to 4 effective radii (R$_e$) as diagnostics of galaxy inner and outer regions, and assign each galaxy to one of six Naab et al. assembly classes. The majority of our galaxies (14/24) have kinematic characteristics that indicate an assembly history dominated by gradual gas dissipation and accretion of many gas-rich minor mergers. Three galaxies, all S0s, indicate that they have experienced gas-rich major mergers in their more recent past. One additional elliptical galaxy is tentatively associated with a gas-rich merger which results in a remnant galaxy with low angular momentum. Pathways dominated by gas-poor (major or minor) mergers dominate the mass growth of six galaxies. Most SLUGGS galaxies appear to have grown in mass (and size) via the accretion of stars and gas from minor mergers, with late major mergers playing a much smaller role. We find that the fraction of accreted stars correlates with the stellar mean age and metallicity gradient, but not with the slope of the total mass density profile. We briefly mention future observational and modelling approaches that will enhance our ability to accurately reconstruct the assembly histories of individual present day galaxies.
Large galaxies may contain an atmosphere of hot interstellar X-ray gas, and the temperature and radial density profile of this gas can be used to measure the total mass of the galaxy contained within a given radius r. We use this technique for 102 early-type galaxies (ETGs) with stellar masses M_* > 10^10 M_Sun, to evaluate the mass fraction of dark matter (DM) within the fiducial radius r = 5 r_e, denoted f_5 = f_{DM}(5r_e). On average, these systems have a median f_5 = 0.8 - 0.9 with a typical galaxy-to-galaxy scatter +-0.15. Comparisons with mass estimates made through the alternative techniques of satellite dynamics (e.g. velocity distributions of globular clusters, planetary nebulae, satellite dwarfs) as well as strong lensing show encouraging consistency over the same range of stellar mass. We find that many of the disk galaxies (S0/SA0/SB0) have a significantly higher mean $f_5$ than do the pure ellipticals, by Delta f_5 = 0.1. We suggest that this higher level may be a consequence of sparse stellar haloes and quieter histories with fewer major episodes of feedback or mergers. Comparisons are made with the Magneticum Pathfinder suite of simulations for both normal and centrally dominant Brightest Cluster galaxies. Though the observed data exhibit somewhat larger scatter at a given galaxy mass than do the simulations, the mean level of DM mass fraction for all classes of galaxies is in good first-order agreement with the simulations. Lastly, we find that the group galaxies with stellar masses near M_* ~ 10^11 M_Sun have relatively more outliers at low $f_5$ than in other mass ranges, possibly the result of especially effective AGN feedback in that mass range leading to expansion of their dark matter halos.
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