No Arabic abstract
We use observations from the GEMINI-N/GMOS integral-field spectrograph (IFS) to obtain spatially resolved stellar kinematics of the central $sim 1$ kpc of 20 early-type galaxies (ETGs) with stellar masses greater than $10^{11.7} M_odot$ in the MASSIVE survey. Together with observations from the wide-field Mitchell IFS at McDonald Observatory in our earlier work, we obtain unprecedentedly detailed kinematic maps of local massive ETGs, covering a scale of $sim 0.1-30$ kpc. The high ($sim 120$) signal-to-noise of the GMOS spectra enable us to obtain two-dimensional maps of the line-of-sight velocity, velocity dispersion $sigma$, as well as the skewness $h_3$ and kurtosis $h_4$ of the stellar velocity distributions. All but one galaxy in the sample have $sigma(R)$ profiles that increase towards the center, whereas the slope of $sigma(R)$ at one effective radius ($R_e$) can be of either sign. The $h_4$ is generally positive, with 14 of the 20 galaxies having positive $h_4$ within the GMOS aperture and 18 having positive $h_4$ within $1 R_e$. The positive $h_4$ and rising $sigma(R)$ towards small radii are indicative of a central black hole and velocity anisotropy. We demonstrate the constraining power of the data on the mass distributions in ETGs by applying Jeans anisotropic modeling (JAM) to NGC~1453, the most regular fast rotator in the sample. Despite the limitations of JAM, we obtain a clear $chi^2$ minimum in black hole mass, stellar mass-to-light ratio, velocity anisotropy parameters, and the circular velocity of the dark matter halo.
We use high spatial resolution stellar velocity maps from the Gemini GMOS integral-field spectrograph (IFS) and wide-field velocity maps from the McDonald Mitchell IFS to study the stellar velocity profiles and kinematic misalignments from $sim 200$ pc to $sim 20$ kpc in 20 early-type galaxies with stellar mass $M_* > 10^{11.7} M_odot$ in the MASSIVE survey. While 80% of the galaxies have low spins ($lambda < 0.1$) and low rotational velocities ($< 50$ km/s) in both the central region and the main body, we find a diverse range of velocity features and misalignment angles. For the 18 galaxies with measurable central kinematic axes, 10 have well aligned kinematic axis and photometric major axis, and the other 8 galaxies have misalignment angles that are distributed quite evenly from $15^circ$ to the maximal value of $90^circ$. There is a strong correlation between central kinematic misalignment and galaxy spin, where all 4 galaxies with significant spins have well aligned kinematic and photometric axes, but only 43% of the low-spin galaxies are well aligned. The central and main-body kinematic axes within a galaxy are not always aligned. When the two kinematic axes are aligned ($sim 60$% of the cases), they are either also aligned with the photometric major axis or orthogonal to it. We find 13 galaxies to also exhibit noticeable local kinematic twists, and one galaxy to have a counter-rotating core. A diverse assembly history consisting of multiple gas-poor mergers of a variety of progenitor mass ratios and orbits is likely to be needed to account for the predominance of low spins and the wide range of central and main-body velocity features reported here for local massive ETGs.
We present a study into the capabilities of integrated and spatially resolved integral field spectroscopy of galaxies at z=2-4 with the future HARMONI spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) using the simulation pipeline, HSIM. We focus particularly on the instruments capabilities in stellar absorption line integral field spectroscopy, which will allow us to study the stellar kinematics and stellar population characteristics. Such measurements for star-forming and passive galaxies around the peak star formation era will provide a critical insight into the star formation, quenching and mass assembly history of high-z, and thus present-day galaxies. First, we perform a signal-to-noise study for passive galaxies at a range of stellar masses for z=2-4, assuming different light profiles; for this population we estimate integrated stellar absorption line spectroscopy with HARMONI will be limited to galaxies with M_star > 10^10.7 solar masses. Second, we use HSIM to perform a mock observation of a typical star-forming 10^10 solar mass galaxy at z=3 generated from the high-resolution cosmological simulation NutFB. We demonstrate that the input stellar kinematics of the simulated galaxy can be accurately recovered from the integrated spectrum in a 15-hour observation, using common analysis tools. Whilst spatially resolved spectroscopy is likely to remain out of reach for this particular galaxy, we estimate HARMONIs performance limits in this regime from our findings. This study demonstrates how instrument simulators such as HSIM can be used to quantify instrument performance and study observational biases on kinematics retrieval; and shows the potential of making observational predictions from cosmological simulation output data.
We present spatially-resolved two-dimensional maps and radial trends of the stellar populations and kinematics for a sample of six compact elliptical galaxies (cE) using spectroscopy from the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI). We recover their star formation histories, finding that all except one of our cEs are old and metal rich, with both age and metallicity decreasing toward their outer radii. We also use the integrated values within one effective radius to study different scaling relations. Comparing our cEs with others from the literature and from simulations we reveal the formation channel that these galaxies might have followed. All our cEs are fast rotators, with relatively high rotation values given their low ellipticites. In general, the properties of our cEs are very similar to those seen in the cores of more massive galaxies, and in particular, to massive compact galaxies. Five out of our six cEs are the result of stripping a more massive (compact or extended) galaxy, and only one cE is compatible with having been formed intrinsically as the low-mass, compact object that we see today. These results further confirm that cEs are a mixed-bag of galaxies that can be formed following different formation channels, reporting for the first time an evolutionary link within the realm of compact galaxies (at all stellar masses).
The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) is an ongoing 3D spectroscopic survey of 600 nearby galaxies of all kinds. This pioneer survey is providing valuable clues on how galaxies form and evolve. Processed through spectral synthesis techniques, CALIFA datacubes allow us to, for the first time, spatially resolve the star formation history of galaxies spread across the color-magnitude diagram. The richness of this approach is already evident from the results obtained for the first 107 galaxies. Here we show how the different galactic spatial sub-components (bulge and disk) grow their stellar mass over time. We explore the results stacking galaxies in mass bins, finding that, except at the lowest masses, galaxies grow inside-out, and that the growth rate depends on a galaxys mass. The growth rate of inner and outer regions differ maximally at intermediate masses. We also find a good correlation between the age radial gradient and the stellar mass density, suggesting that the local density is a main driver of galaxy evolution.
We present high spatial resolution (FWHM$sim$0.14) observations of the CO($8-7$) line in GDS-14876, a compact star-forming galaxy at $z=2.3$ with total stellar mass of $log(M_{star}/M_{odot})=10.9$. The spatially resolved velocity map of the inner $rlesssim1$~kpc reveals a continous velocity gradient consistent with the kinematics of a rotating disk with $v_{rm rot}(r=1rm kpc)=163pm5$ km s$^{-1}$ and $v_{rm rot}/sigmasim2.5$. The gas-to-stellar ratios estimated from CO($8-7$) and the dust continuum emission span a broad range, $f^{rm CO}_{rm gas}=M_{rm gas}/M_{star}=13-45%$ and $f^{rm cont}_{rm gas}=50-67%$, but are nonetheless consistent given the uncertainties in the conversion factors. The dynamical modeling yields a dynamical mass of$log(M_{rm dyn}/M_{odot})=10.58^{+0.5}_{-0.2}$ which is lower, but still consistent with the baryonic mass, $log$(M$_{rm bar}$= M$_{star}$ + M$^{rm CO}_{rm gas}$/M$_{odot}$)$=11.0$, if the smallest CO-based gas fraction is assumed. Despite a low, overall gas fraction, the small physical extent of the dense, star-forming gas probed by CO($8-7$), $sim3times$ smaller than the stellar size, implies a strong concentration that increases the gas fraction up to $f^{rm CO, 1rm kpc}_{rm gas}sim 85%$ in the central 1 kpc. Such a gas-rich center, coupled with a high star-formation rate, SFR$sim$ 500 M$_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, suggests that GDS-14876 is quickly assembling a dense stellar component (bulge) in a strong nuclear starburst. Assuming its gas reservoir is depleted without replenishment, GDS-14876 will quickly ($t_{rm depl}sim27$ Myr) become a compact quiescent galaxy that could retain some fraction of the observed rotational support.