The Heavy Metal Survey: Star Formation Constraints and Dynamical Masses of 21 Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z=1.3-2.3$

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Kriek, Mariska, Beverage, Aliza G., Price, Sedona H., Suess, Katherine A., Barro, Guillermo, Bezanson, Rachel S., Conroy, Charlie, Cutler, Sam E., Franx, Marijn, Lin, Jamie, Lorenz, Brian, Ma, Yilun, Momcheva, Ivelina G., Mowla, Lamiya A., Pasha, Imad, van Dokkum, Pieter, Whitaker, Katherine E.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Kriek, Mariska
Beverage, Aliza G.
Price, Sedona H.
Suess, Katherine A.
Barro, Guillermo
Bezanson, Rachel S.
Conroy, Charlie
Cutler, Sam E.
Franx, Marijn
Lin, Jamie
Lorenz, Brian
Ma, Yilun
Momcheva, Ivelina G.
Mowla, Lamiya A.
Pasha, Imad
van Dokkum, Pieter
Whitaker, Katherine E.
author_facet Kriek, Mariska
Beverage, Aliza G.
Price, Sedona H.
Suess, Katherine A.
Barro, Guillermo
Bezanson, Rachel S.
Conroy, Charlie
Cutler, Sam E.
Franx, Marijn
Lin, Jamie
Lorenz, Brian
Ma, Yilun
Momcheva, Ivelina G.
Mowla, Lamiya A.
Pasha, Imad
van Dokkum, Pieter
Whitaker, Katherine E.
contents In this paper, we present the Heavy Metal Survey, which obtained ultradeep medium-resolution spectra of 21 massive quiescent galaxies at $1.3<z<2.3$ with Keck/LRIS and MOSFIRE. With integration times of up to 16\,hr per band per galaxy, we observe numerous Balmer and metal absorption lines in atmospheric windows. We successfully derive spectroscopic redshifts for all 21 galaxies and for 19 we also measure stellar velocity dispersions ($σ_v$), ages, and elemental abundances, as detailed in an accompanying paper. Except for one emission-line active galactic nucleus, all galaxies are confirmed as quiescent through their faint or absent H$α$ emission and evolved stellar spectra. For most galaxies exhibiting faint H$α$, elevated [NII]/H$α$ suggests a non-star-forming origin. We calculate dynamical masses ($M_{\rm dyn}$) by combining $σ_v$ with structural parameters obtained from HST/COSMOS(-DASH), and compare them with stellar masses ($M_*$) derived using spectrophotometric modeling, considering various assumptions. For a fixed initial mass function (IMF), we observe a strong correlation between $M_{\rm dyn}/M_*$ and $σ_v$. This correlation may suggest that a varying IMF, with high-$σ_v$ galaxies being more bottom heavy, was already in place at $z\sim2$. When implementing the $σ_v$-dependent IMF found in the cores of nearby early-type galaxies \textit{and} correcting for biases in our stellar mass and size measurements, we find a low scatter in $M_{\rm dyn}/M_*$ of 0.14 dex. However, these assumptions result in unphysical stellar masses, which exceed the dynamical masses by 34%. This tension suggests that distant quiescent galaxies do not simply grow inside-out into today's massive early-type galaxies and the evolution is more complicated.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_16232
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Heavy Metal Survey: Star Formation Constraints and Dynamical Masses of 21 Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z=1.3-2.3$
Kriek, Mariska
Beverage, Aliza G.
Price, Sedona H.
Suess, Katherine A.
Barro, Guillermo
Bezanson, Rachel S.
Conroy, Charlie
Cutler, Sam E.
Franx, Marijn
Lin, Jamie
Lorenz, Brian
Ma, Yilun
Momcheva, Ivelina G.
Mowla, Lamiya A.
Pasha, Imad
van Dokkum, Pieter
Whitaker, Katherine E.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
In this paper, we present the Heavy Metal Survey, which obtained ultradeep medium-resolution spectra of 21 massive quiescent galaxies at $1.3<z<2.3$ with Keck/LRIS and MOSFIRE. With integration times of up to 16\,hr per band per galaxy, we observe numerous Balmer and metal absorption lines in atmospheric windows. We successfully derive spectroscopic redshifts for all 21 galaxies and for 19 we also measure stellar velocity dispersions ($σ_v$), ages, and elemental abundances, as detailed in an accompanying paper. Except for one emission-line active galactic nucleus, all galaxies are confirmed as quiescent through their faint or absent H$α$ emission and evolved stellar spectra. For most galaxies exhibiting faint H$α$, elevated [NII]/H$α$ suggests a non-star-forming origin. We calculate dynamical masses ($M_{\rm dyn}$) by combining $σ_v$ with structural parameters obtained from HST/COSMOS(-DASH), and compare them with stellar masses ($M_*$) derived using spectrophotometric modeling, considering various assumptions. For a fixed initial mass function (IMF), we observe a strong correlation between $M_{\rm dyn}/M_*$ and $σ_v$. This correlation may suggest that a varying IMF, with high-$σ_v$ galaxies being more bottom heavy, was already in place at $z\sim2$. When implementing the $σ_v$-dependent IMF found in the cores of nearby early-type galaxies \textit{and} correcting for biases in our stellar mass and size measurements, we find a low scatter in $M_{\rm dyn}/M_*$ of 0.14 dex. However, these assumptions result in unphysical stellar masses, which exceed the dynamical masses by 34%. This tension suggests that distant quiescent galaxies do not simply grow inside-out into today's massive early-type galaxies and the evolution is more complicated.
title The Heavy Metal Survey: Star Formation Constraints and Dynamical Masses of 21 Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z=1.3-2.3$
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16232