No Arabic abstract
We study the present-day connection between galaxy morphology and angular momentum using the {sc Dark Sage} semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. For galaxies between $ 10^{11}-10^{12} mathrm{M}_{odot}$ in stellar mass, the model successfully predicts the observed trend whereby galaxies with more prominent disks exhibit higher {em stellar} disk specific angular momentum ($j_{rm stellar, disk}$) at fixed stellar mass. However, when we include the gas in the disk, bulge-dominated galaxies have the highest {em total} disk specific angular momentum ($j_{rm total, disk}$). We attribute this to a large contribution from an extended disk of cold gas in typical bulge-dominated galaxies. We find the relationship between $j_{rm dark matter}$ and morphology to be quite complex. Surprisingly, in this stellar mass range, not only do bulge-dominated galaxies tend to live in halos with higher $j_{rm dark matter}$ than disk-dominated galaxies, but intermediate galaxies (those with roughly equal fractions of bulge and disk mass) have the lowest $j_{rm dark matter}$ of all. Yet, when controlling for halo mass, rather than stellar mass, the relationship between $j_{rm dark matter}$ and morphology vanishes. Based on these results, halo mass rather than angular momentum is the main driver of the predicted morphology sequence at high masses. In fact, in our stellar mass range, disk-dominated galaxies live in dark matter halos that are roughly 1/10th the mass of their bulge-dominated counterparts.
We have analyzed high resolution N-body simulations of dark matter halos, focusing specifically on the evolution of angular momentum. We find that not only is individual particle angular momentum not conserved, but the angular momentum of radial shells also varies over the age of the Universe by up to factors of a few. We find that torques from external structure are the most likely cause for this distribution shift. Since the model of adiabatic contraction that is often applied to model the effects of galaxy evolution on the dark-matter density profile in a halo assumes angular momentum conservation, this variation implies that there is a fundamental limit on the possible accuracy of the adiabatic contraction model in modeling the response of DM halos to the growth of galaxies.
The relations between the specific angular momenta ($j$) and masses ($M$) of galaxies are often used as a benchmark in analytic models and hydrodynamical simulations as they are considered to be amongst the most fundamental scaling relations. Using accurate measurements of the stellar ($j_ast$), gas ($j_{rm gas}$), and baryonic ($j_{rm bar}$) specific angular momenta for a large sample of disc galaxies, we report the discovery of tight correlations between $j$, $M$, and the cold gas fraction of the interstellar medium ($f_{rm gas}$). At fixed $f_{rm gas}$, galaxies follow parallel power laws in 2D $(j,M)$ spaces, with gas-rich galaxies having a larger $j_ast$ and $j_{rm bar}$ (but a lower $j_{rm gas}$) than gas-poor ones. The slopes of the relations have a value around 0.7. These new relations are amongst the tightest known scaling laws for galaxies. In particular, the baryonic relation ($j_{rm bar}-M_{rm bar}-f_{rm gas}$), arguably the most fundamental of the three, is followed not only by typical discs but also by galaxies with extreme properties, such as size and gas content, and by galaxies previously claimed to be outliers of the standard 2D $j-M$ relations. The stellar relation ($j_{ast}-M_{ast}-f_{rm gas}$) may be connected to the known $j_ast-M_ast-$bulge fraction relation; however, we argue that the $j_{rm bar}-M_{rm bar}-f_{rm gas}$ relation can originate from the radial variation in the star formation efficiency in galaxies, although it is not explained by current disc instability models.
We describe the SDSS-IV MaNGA PyMorph Photometric (MPP-VAC) and MaNGA Deep Learning Morphology (MDLM-VAC) Value Added Catalogs. The MPP-VAC provides photometric parameters from Sersic and Sersic+Exponential fits to the 2D surface brightness profiles of the MaNGA DR15 galaxy sample. Compared to previous PyMorph analyses of SDSS imaging, our analysis of the MaNGA DR15 incorporates three improvements: the most recent SDSS images; modified criteria for determining bulge-to-disk decompositions; and the fits in MPP-VAC have been eye-balled, and re-fit if necessary, for additional reliability. A companion catalog, the MDLM-VAC, provides Deep Learning-based morphological classifications for the same galaxies. The MDLM-VAC includes a number of morphological properties (e.g., a TType, and a finer separation between elliptical and S0 galaxies). Combining the MPP- and MDLM-VACs allows to show that the MDLM morphological classifications are more reliable than previous work. It also shows that single-Sersic fits to late- and early-type galaxies are likely to return Sersic indices of $n le 2$ and $ge 4$, respectively, and this correlation between $n$ and morphology extends to the bulge component as well. While the former is well-known, the latter contradicts some recent work suggesting little correlation between $n$-bulge and morphology. Combining both VACs with MaNGAs spatially resolved spectroscopy allows us to study how the stellar angular momentum depends on morphological type. We find correlations between stellar kinematics, photometric properties, and morphological type even though the spectroscopic data played no role in the construction of the MPP- and MDLM-VACs.
Using 324 numerically modelled galaxy clusters as provided by THE THREE HUNDRED project, we study the evolution of the kinematic properties of the stellar component of haloes on first infall. We select objects with M$_{textrm{star}}>5times10^{10} h^{-1}M_{odot}$ within $3R_{200}$ of the main cluster halo at $z=0$ and follow their progenitors. We find that although haloes are stripped of their dark matter and gas after entering the main cluster halo, there is practically no change in their stellar kinematics. For the vast majority of our `galaxies -- defined as the central stellar component found within the haloes that form our sample -- their kinematic properties, as described by the fraction of ordered rotation, and their position in the specific stellar angular momentum$-$stellar mass plane $j_{rm star}$ -- M$_{rm star}$, are mostly unchanged by the influence of the central host cluster. However, for a small number of infalling galaxies, stellar mergers and encounters with remnant stellar cores close to the centre of the main cluster, particularly during pericentre passage, are able to spin-up their stellar component by $z=0$.
We study the morphological transformation from late types to early types and the quenching of galaxies with the seventh Data Release (DR7) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Both early type galaxies and late type galaxies are found to have bimodal distributions on the star formation rate versus stellar mass diagram ($lg SFR - lg M_*$). We therefore classify them into four types: the star-forming early types (sEs), the quenched early types (qEs), the star-forming late types (sLs) and the quenched late types (qLs). We checked many parameters on various environmental scales for their potential effects on the quenching rates of late types and early types, as well as the early type fractions among star-forming galaxies and those among quenched galaxies. These parameters include: the stellar mass $M_*$, and the halo mass $M_{halo}$; the small-scale environmental parameters, such as the halo centric radius $R_p/r_{180}$ and the third nearest neighbor distances ($d_{3nn}$); the large-scale environmental parameters, specifically whether they are located in clusters, filaments, sheets, or voids. We found that the morphological transformation is mainly regulated by the stellar mass. Quenching is mainly driven by the stellar mass for more massive galaxies and by the halo mass for galaxies with smaller stellar masses. In addition, we see an overall stronger halo quenching effect in early type galaxies, which might be attributed to their lacking of cold gas or earlier accretion into the massive host halos.