We study trends in the slope of the total mass profiles and dark matter fractions within the central half-light radius of 258 early-type galaxies, using data from the volume-limited ATLAS3D survey. ...We use three distinct sets of dynamical models, which vary in their assumptions and also allow for spatial variations in the stellar mass-to-light ratio, to test the robustness of our results. We confirm that the slopes of the total mass profiles are approximately isothermal, and investigate how the total mass slope depends on various galactic properties. The most statistically significant correlations we find are a function of either surface density, Σe, or velocity dispersion, σe. However there is evidence for a break in the latter relation, with a nearly universal logarithmic slope above log10σe/(km s−1) ∼ 2.1 and a steeper trend below this value. For the 142 galaxies above that critical σe value, the total mass–density logarithmic slopes have a mean value 〈γ΄〉 = −2.193 ± 0.016 (1σ error) with an observed rms scatter of only $\sigma _{\gamma ^\prime }=0.168\pm 0.015$. Considering the observational errors, we estimate an intrinsic scatter of $\sigma _{\gamma ^\prime }^\mathrm{intr} \approx 0.15$. These values are broadly consistent with those found by strong lensing studies at similar radii and agree, within the tight errors, with values recently found at much larger radii via stellar dynamics or H i rotation curves (using significantly smaller samples than this work).
We here present the first spatially resolved study of the initial mass function (IMF) in external galaxies derived using a dynamical tracer of the mass-to-light ratio (M/L). We use the kinematics of ...relaxed molecular gas discs in seven early-type galaxies (ETGs) selected from the ATLAS super( 3D) survey to dynamically determine M/L gradients. These M/L gradients are not very strong in the inner parts of these objects, and galaxies that do show variations are those with the highest specific star formation rates. Stellar population parameters derived from star formation histories are then used in order to estimate the stellar IMF mismatch parameter, and shed light on its variation within ETGs. Some of our target objects require a light IMF, otherwise their stellar population masses would be greater than their dynamical masses. In contrast, other systems seem to require heavier IMFs to explain their gas kinematics. Our analysis again confirms that IMF variation seems to be occurring within massive ETGs. We find good agreement between our IMF normalizations derived using molecular gas kinematics and those derived using other techniques. Despite this, we do not see find any correlation between the IMF normalization and galaxy dynamical properties or stellar population parameters, either locally or globally. In the future, larger studies which use molecules as tracers of galaxy dynamics can be used to help us disentangle the root cause of IMF variation.
Much of our knowledge of galaxies comes from analysing the radiation emitted by their stars, which depends on the present number of each type of star in the galaxy. The present number depends on the ...stellar initial mass function (IMF), which describes the distribution of stellar masses when the population formed, and knowledge of it is critical to almost every aspect of galaxy evolution. More than 50 years after the first IMF determination, no consensus has emerged on whether it is universal among different types of galaxies. Previous studies indicated that the IMF and the dark matter fraction in galaxy centres cannot both be universal, but they could not convincingly discriminate between the two possibilities. Only recently were indications found that massive elliptical galaxies may not have the same IMF as the Milky Way. Here we report a study of the two-dimensional stellar kinematics for the large representative ATLAS(3D) sample of nearby early-type galaxies spanning two orders of magnitude in stellar mass, using detailed dynamical models. We find a strong systematic variation in IMF in early-type galaxies as a function of their stellar mass-to-light ratios, producing differences of a factor of up to three in galactic stellar mass. This implies that a galaxy's IMF depends intimately on the galaxy's formation history.
We study the volume-limited and nearly mass-selected (stellar mass M
stars 6 × 109 M) ATLAS3D sample of 260 early-type galaxies (ETGs, ellipticals Es and lenticulars S0s). We construct detailed ...axisymmetric dynamical models (Jeans Anisotropic MGE), which allow for orbital anisotropy, include a dark matter halo and reproduce in detail both the galaxy images and the high-quality integral-field stellar kinematics out to about 1R
e, the projected half-light radius. We derive accurate total mass-to-light ratios (M/L)
e
and dark matter fractions f
DM, within a sphere of radius
centred on the galaxies. We also measure the stellar (M/L)stars and derive a median dark matter fraction f
DM = 13 per cent in our sample. We infer masses M
JAM ≡ L × (M/L)
e
2 × M
1/2, where M
1/2 is the total mass within a sphere enclosing half of the galaxy light. We find that the thin two-dimensional subset spanned by galaxies in the
coordinates system, which we call the Mass Plane (MP) has an observed rms scatter of 19 per cent, which implies an intrinsic one of 11 per cent. Here,
is the major axis of an isophote enclosing half of the observed galaxy light, while σ
e
is measured within that isophote. The MP satisfies the scalar virial relation
within our tight errors. This show that the larger scatter in the Fundamental Plane (FP) (L, σ
e
, R
e) is due to stellar population effects including trends in the stellar initial mass function (IMF). It confirms that the FP deviation from the virial exponents is due to a genuine (M/L)
e
variation. However, the details of how both R
e and σ
e
are determined are critical in defining the precise deviation from the virial exponents. The main uncertainty in masses or M/L estimates using the scalar virial relation is in the measurement of R
e. This problem is already relevant for nearby galaxies and may cause significant biases in virial mass and size determinations at high redshift. Dynamical models can eliminate these problems. We revisit the (M/L)
e
-σ
e
relation, which describes most of the deviations between the MP and the FP. The best-fitting relation is
(r band). It provides an upper limit to any systematic increase of the IMF mass normalization with σ
e
. The correlation is more shallow and has smaller scatter for slow rotating systems or for galaxies in Virgo. For the latter, when using the best distance estimates, we observe a scatter in (M/L)
e
of 11 per cent, and infer an intrinsic one of 8 per cent. We perform an accurate empirical study of the link between σ
e
and the galaxies circular velocity V
circ within 1R
e (where stars dominate) and find the relation max (V
circ) 1.76 × σ
e
, which has an observed scatter of 7 per cent. The accurate parameters described in this paper are used in the companion Paper XX (Cappellari et al.) of this series to explore the variation of global galaxy properties, including the IMF, on the projections of the MP.
Abstract
We present a combination of the Schwarzschild orbit-superposition dynamical modelling technique with the spatially resolved mean stellar age and metallicity maps to uncover the formation ...history of galaxies. We apply this new approach to a remarkable five-pointing mosaic of VLT/MUSE observations obtained by Guérou et al. (2016) extending to a maximum galactocentric distance of ${\sim } {120}{\, {\rm arcsec}}\ \left({5.6}\, {\rm kpc}\right)$ along the major axis, corresponding to ∼2.5Re. Our method first identifies ‘families’ of orbits from the dynamical model that represent dynamically distinct structures of the galaxy. Individual ages and metallicities of these components are then fit for using the stellar-population information. Our results highlight components of the galaxy that are distinct in the combined stellar dynamics/populations space, which implies distinct formation paths. We find evidence for a dynamically cold, metal-rich disc, consistent with a gradual in situ formation. This disc is embedded in a generally old population of stars, with kinematics ranging from dispersion dominated in the centre to an old, diffuse, metal-poor stellar halo at the extremities. We find also a direct correlation between the dominant dynamical support of these components, and their associated age, akin to the relation observed in the Milky Way. This approach not only provides a powerful model for inferring the formation history of external galaxies but also paves the way to a complete population-dynamical model.
We use interferometric 12CO(1-0) observations to compare and contrast the extent, surface brightness profiles and kinematics of the molecular gas in CO-rich ATLAS3D early-type galaxies (ETGs) and ...spiral galaxies. We find that the molecular gas extent is smaller in absolute terms in ETGs than in late-type galaxies, but that the size distributions are similar once scaled by the galaxies optical/stellar characteristic scalelengths. Amongst ETGs, we find that the extent of the gas is independent of its kinematic misalignment (with respect to the stars), but does depend on the environment, with Virgo cluster ETGs having less extended molecular gas reservoirs, further emphasizing that cluster ETGs follow different evolutionary pathways from those in the field. Approximately half of ETGs have molecular gas surface brightness profiles that follow the stellar light profile. These systems often have relaxed gas out to large radii, suggesting they are unlikely to have had recent merger/accretion events. A third of the sample galaxies show molecular gas surface brightness profiles that fall off slower than the light, and sometimes show a truncation. These galaxies often have a low mass, and either have disturbed molecular gas or are in the Virgo cluster, suggesting that recent mergers, ram pressure stripping and/or the presence of hot gas can compress/truncate the gas. The remaining galaxies have rings, or composite profiles, that we argue can be caused by the effects of bars. We investigated the kinematics of the molecular gas using position-velocity diagrams, and compared the observed kinematics with dynamical model predictions, and the observed stellar and ionized gas velocities. We confirm that the molecular gas reaches beyond the turnover of the circular velocity curve in 70 per cent of our CO-rich ATLAS3D ETGs, validating previous work on the CO Tully-Fisher relation. In general we find that in most galaxies the molecular gas is dynamically cold, and the observed CO rotation matches well model predictions of the circular velocity. In the galaxies with the largest molecular masses, dust obscuration and/or population gradients can cause model predictions of the circular velocity to disagree with observations of the molecular gas rotation; however, these effects are confined to the most star forming systems. Bars and non-equilibrium conditions can also make the gas deviate from circular orbits. In both these cases, one expects the model circular velocity to be higher than the observed CO velocity, in agreement with our observations. Molecular gas is a better direct tracer of the circular velocity than the ionized gas, justifying its use as a kinematic tracer for Tully-Fisher and similar analyses.
Galactic archaeology based on star counts is instrumental to reconstruct the past mass assembly of Local Group galaxies. The development of new observing techniques and data reduction, coupled with ...the use of sensitive large field of view cameras, now allows us to pursue this technique in more distant galaxies exploiting their diffuse low surface brightness (LSB) light. As part of the ATLAS3D project, we have obtained with the MegaCam camera at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope extremely deep, multiband images of nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). We present here a catalogue of 92 galaxies from the ATLAS3D sample, which are located in low- to medium-density environments. The observing strategy and data reduction pipeline, which achieve a gain of several magnitudes in the limiting surface brightness with respect to classical imaging surveys, are presented. The size and depth of the survey are compared to other recent deep imaging projects. The paper highlights the capability of LSB-optimized surveys at detecting new prominent structures that change the apparent morphology of galaxies. The intrinsic limitations of deep imaging observations are also discussed, among those, the contamination of the stellar haloes of galaxies by extended ghost reflections, and the cirrus emission from Galactic dust. The detection and systematic census of fine structures that trace the present and past mass assembly of ETGs are one of the prime goals of the project. We provide specific examples of each type of observed structures – tidal tails, stellar streams and shells – and explain how they were identified and classified. We give an overview of the initial results. The detailed statistical analysis will be presented in future papers.
The ATLAS3D project is a multiwavelength survey combined with a theoretical modelling effort. The observations span from the radio to the millimetre and optical, and provide multicolour imaging, ...two-dimensional kinematics of the atomic (H i), molecular (CO) and ionized gas (Hβ, O iii and N i), together with the kinematics and population of the stars (Hβ, Fe5015 and Mg b), for a carefully selected, volume-limited (1.16 × 105 Mpc3) sample of 260 early-type (elliptical E and lenticular S0) galaxies (ETGs). The models include semi-analytic, N-body binary mergers and cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Here we present the science goals for the project and introduce the galaxy sample and the selection criteria. The sample consists of nearby (D < 42 Mpc, |δ− 29°| < 35°, |b| > 15°) morphologically selected ETGs extracted from a parent sample of 871 galaxies (8 per cent E, 22 per cent S0 and 70 per cent spirals) brighter than MK
< −21.5 mag (stellar mass M
★≳ 6 ×109 M⊙). We analyse possible selection biases and we conclude that the parent sample is essentially complete and statistically representative of the nearby galaxy population. We present the size-luminosity relation for the spirals and ETGs and show that the ETGs in the ATLAS3D sample define a tight red sequence in a colour-magnitude diagram, with few objects in the transition from the blue cloud. We describe the strategy of the SAURON integral field observations and the extraction of the stellar kinematics with the ppxf method. We find typical 1σ errors of ΔV≈ 6 km s−1, Δσ≈ 7 km s−1, Δh
3≈Δh
4≈ 0.03 in the mean velocity, the velocity dispersion and Gauss-Hermite (GH) moments for galaxies with effective dispersion σe≳ 120 km s−1. For galaxies with lower σe (≈40 per cent of the sample) the GH moments are gradually penalized by ppxf towards zero to suppress the noise produced by the spectral undersampling and only V and σ can be measured. We give an overview of the characteristics of the other main data sets already available for our sample and of the ongoing modelling projects.
We present the emission-line fluxes and kinematics of 48 representative elliptical and lenticular galaxies obtained with our custom-built integral-field spectrograph, SAURON, operating on the William ...Herschel Telescope. Hβ, O iiiλλ4959,5007 and N iλλ5198,5200 emission lines were measured using a new procedure that simultaneously fits both the stellar spectrum and the emission lines. Using this technique we can detect emission lines down to an equivalent width of 0.1 Å set by the current limitations in describing galaxy spectra with synthetic and real stellar templates, rather than by the quality of our spectra. Gas velocities and velocity dispersions are typically accurate to within 14 and 20 km s−1, respectively, and at worse to within 25 and 40 km s−1. The errors on the flux of the O iii and Hβ lines are on average 10 and 20 per cent, respectively, and never exceed 30 per cent. Emission is clearly detected in 75 per cent of our sample galaxies, and comes in a variety of resolved spatial distributions and kinematic behaviours. A mild dependence on the Hubble type and galactic environment is observed, with higher detection rates in lenticular galaxies and field objects. More significant is the fact that only 55 per cent of the galaxies in the Virgo cluster exhibit clearly detected emission. The ionized-gas kinematics is rarely consistent with simple coplanar circular motions. However, the gas almost never displays completely irregular kinematics, generally showing coherent motions with smooth variations in angular momentum. In the majority of the cases, the gas kinematics is decoupled from the stellar kinematics, and in half of the objects this decoupling implies a recent acquisition of gaseous material. Over the entire sample however, the distribution of the mean misalignment values between stellar and gaseous angular momenta is inconsistent with a purely external origin. The distribution of kinematic misalignment values is found to be strongly dependent on the apparent flattening and the level of rotational support of galaxies, with flatter, fast rotating objects hosting preferentially corotating gaseous and stellar systems. In a third of the cases, the distribution and kinematics of the gas underscore the presence of non-axisymmetric perturbations of the gravitational potential. Consistent with previous studies, the presence of dust features is always accompanied by gas emission while the converse is not always true. A considerable range of values for the O iii/Hβ ratio is found both across the sample and within single galaxies. Despite the limitations of this ratio as an emission-line diagnostic, this finding suggests either that a variety of mechanisms is responsible for the gas excitation in E and S0 galaxies or that the metallicity of the interstellar material is quite heterogeneous.
ABSTRACT NGC 4395 is a bulgeless spiral galaxy, harboring one of the nearest known type 1 Seyfert nuclei. Although there is no consensus on the mass of its central engine, several estimates suggest ...it is one of the lightest massive black holes (MBHs) known. We present the first direct dynamical measurement of the mass of this MBH from a combination of two-dimensional gas kinematic data, obtained with the adaptive optics assisted near-infrared integral field spectrograph Gemini/NIFS and high-resolution multiband photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3. We use the photometric data to model the shape and stellar mass-to-light ratio of the nuclear star cluster (NSC). From the Gemini/NIFS observations, we derive the kinematics of warm molecular hydrogen gas as traced by emission through the H2 1-0 S(1) transition. These kinematics show a clear rotational signal, with a position angle orthogonal to NGC 4395's radio jet. Our best-fitting tilted ring models of the kinematics of the molecular hydrogen gas contain a black hole with mass M (3 uncertainties) embedded in an NSC of mass M . Our black hole mass measurement is in excellent agreement with the reverberation mapping mass estimate of Peterson et al. but shows some tension with other mass measurement methods based on accretion signals.
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