Why do different early-type-galaxies have different amounts of rotational support?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bilek, Michal, Duc, Pierre-Alain, Sola, Elisabeth
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bilek, Michal
Duc, Pierre-Alain
Sola, Elisabeth
author_facet Bilek, Michal
Duc, Pierre-Alain
Sola, Elisabeth
contents Early-type galaxies (ETGs, i.e. elliptical and lenticular galaxies) differ in their amount of rotational support -- some are purely supported by velocity dispersion, while others show pronounced ordered rotation. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations show that the progenitors of all ETGs were first rotating quickly, but then mergers decreased their rotational support. In the presented work, we studied this process using an observational archaeological approach. Namely, we inspected the correlations of 23 merger-sensitive characteristics of local ETGs with a parameter quantifying the rotational support. We used a volume-limited sample of local ETGs, that are not in galaxy clusters, from the MATLAS survey. We found, for example, that slowly rotating galaxies have tidal features and kinematically distinct components more often and have lower metallicities. We sought for mutual interpretation of the correlations among all 23 quantities, together with literature results on high-redshift massive galaxies. There seems to be only one interpretation possible: on average, ETGs lose their rotational support through multiple minor wet mergers happening at the redshifts above about two.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_04663
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Why do different early-type-galaxies have different amounts of rotational support?
Bilek, Michal
Duc, Pierre-Alain
Sola, Elisabeth
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Early-type galaxies (ETGs, i.e. elliptical and lenticular galaxies) differ in their amount of rotational support -- some are purely supported by velocity dispersion, while others show pronounced ordered rotation. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations show that the progenitors of all ETGs were first rotating quickly, but then mergers decreased their rotational support. In the presented work, we studied this process using an observational archaeological approach. Namely, we inspected the correlations of 23 merger-sensitive characteristics of local ETGs with a parameter quantifying the rotational support. We used a volume-limited sample of local ETGs, that are not in galaxy clusters, from the MATLAS survey. We found, for example, that slowly rotating galaxies have tidal features and kinematically distinct components more often and have lower metallicities. We sought for mutual interpretation of the correlations among all 23 quantities, together with literature results on high-redshift massive galaxies. There seems to be only one interpretation possible: on average, ETGs lose their rotational support through multiple minor wet mergers happening at the redshifts above about two.
title Why do different early-type-galaxies have different amounts of rotational support?
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.04663