Professor Roger Davies

Abstract:

We use the ATLAS3D sample of 260 early-type galaxies to study the apparent kinematic misalignment angle, Ψ, defined as the angle between the photometric and kinematic major axes. We find that 71 per cent of nearby early-type galaxies are strictly aligned systems (Ψ≤ 5°), an additional 14 per cent have 5° < Ψ≤ 10° and 90 per cent of galaxies have Ψ≤ 15°. Taking into account measurement uncertainties, 90 per cent of galaxies can be considered aligned to better than 5°, suggesting that only a small fraction of early-type galaxies (∼10 per cent) are not consistent with the axisymmetry within the projected half-light radius. We identify morphological features such as bars and rings (30 per cent), dust structures (16 per cent), blue nuclear colours (6 per cent) and evidence of interactions (8 per cent) visible on ATLAS3D galaxies. We use kinemetry to analyse the mean velocity maps and separate galaxies into two broad types of regular and non-regular rotators. We find 82 per cent of regular rotators and 17 per cent of non-regular rotators, with two galaxies that we were not able to classify due to the poor data quality. The non-regular rotators are typically found in dense regions and are massive. We characterize the specific features in the mean velocity and velocity dispersion maps. The majority of galaxies do not have any specific features, but we highlight here the frequency of the kinematically distinct cores (7 per cent of galaxies) and the aligned double peaks in the velocity dispersion maps (4 per cent of galaxies). We separate galaxies into five kinematic groups based on the kinemetric features, which are then used to interpret the (Ψ-ε) diagram. Most of the galaxies that are misaligned have complex kinematics and are non-regular rotators. In addition, some show evidence of the interaction and might not be in equilibrium, while some are barred. While the trends are weak, there is a tendency that large values of Ψ are found in galaxies at intermediate environmental densities and among the most massive galaxies in the sample. Taking into account the kinematic alignment and the kinemetric analysis, the majority of early-type galaxies have velocity maps more similar to that of the spiral discs than to that of the remnants of equal-mass mergers. We suggest that the most common formation mechanism for early-type galaxies preserves the axisymmetry of the disc progenitors and their general kinematic properties. Less commonly, the formation process results in a triaxial galaxy with much lower net angular momentum. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

Abstract:

We provide a census of the apparent stellar angular momentum within one effective radius of a volume-limited sample of 260 early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the nearby Universe, using the integral-field spectroscopy obtained in the course of the ATLAS3D project. We exploit the λR parameter (previously used via a constant threshold value of 0.1) to characterize the existence of two families of ETGs: slow rotators which exhibit complex stellar velocity fields and often include stellar kinematically distinct cores, and fast rotators which have regular velocity fields. Our complete sample of 260 ETGs leads to a new criterion to disentangle fast and slow rotators which now includes a dependency on the apparent ellipticity ε. It separates the two classes significantly better than the previous prescription and better than a criterion based on V/σ: slow rotators and fast rotators have λR lower and larger than, respectively, where kFS= 0.31 for measurements made within an effective radius Re. We show that the vast majority of ETGs are fast rotators: these have the regular stellar rotation, with aligned photometric and kinematic axes (Paper II of this series), include discs and often bars and represent 86 ± 2 per cent (224/260) of all ETGs in the volume-limited ATLAS3D sample. Fast rotators span the full range of apparent ellipticities from ε= 0 to 0.85, and we suggest that they cover intrinsic ellipticities from about 0.35 to 0.85, the most flattened having morphologies consistent with spiral galaxies. Only a small fraction of ETGs are slow rotators representing 14 ± 2 per cent (36/260) of the ATLAS3D sample of ETGs. Of all slow rotators, 11 per cent (4/36) exhibit two counter-rotating stellar disc-like components and are rather low-mass objects (Mdyn < 1010.5M⊙). All other slow rotators (32/36) appear relatively round on the sky (εe < 0.4), tend to be massive (Mdyn > 1010.5M⊙), and often (17/32) exhibit kinematically distinct cores. Slow rotators dominate the high-mass end of ETGs in the ATLAS3D sample, with only about one-fourth of galaxies with masses above 1011.5M⊙ being fast rotators. We show that the a4 parameter which quantifies the isophote's disciness or boxiness does not seem to be simply related to the observed kinematics, while our new criterion based on λR and ε is nearly independent of the viewing angles. We further demonstrate that the classification of ETGs into ellipticals and lenticulars is misleading. Slow and fast rotators tend to be classified as ellipticals and lenticulars, respectively, but the contamination is strong enough to affect results solely based on such a scheme: 20 per cent of all fast rotators are classified as ellipticals, and more importantly 66 per cent of all ellipticals in the ATLAS3D sample are fast rotators. Fast and slow rotators illustrate the variety of complex processes shaping galactic systems, such as secular evolution, disc instabilities, interaction and merging, gas accretion, stripping and harassment, forming a sequence from high to low (stellar) baryonic angular momentum. Massive slow rotators represent the extreme instances within the red sequence of galaxies which might have suffered from significant merging without being able to rebuild a fast-rotating component within one effective radius. We therefore argue for a shift in the paradigm for ETGs, where the vast majority of ETGs are galaxies consistent with nearly oblate systems (with or without bars) and where only a small fraction of them (less than 12 per cent) have central (mildly) triaxial structures. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

Abstract:

We have carried out a survey for CO J= 1-0 and J= 2-1 emission in the 260 early-type galaxies of the volume-limited ATLAS3D sample, with the goal of connecting their star formation and assembly histories to their cold gas content. This is the largest volume-limited CO survey of its kind and is the first to include many Virgo cluster members. Sample members are dynamically hot galaxies with a median stellar mass ∼3 × 1010 M⊙; they are selected by their morphology rather than colour, and the bulk of them lie on the red sequence. The overall CO detection rate is 56/259 = 0.22 ± 0.03, with no dependence on the K luminosity and only a modest dependence on the dynamical mass. There are a dozen CO detections among the Virgo cluster members; statistical analysis of their H2 mass distributions and their dynamical status within the cluster shows that the cluster's influence on their molecular masses is subtle at best, even though (unlike spirals) they seem to be virialized within the cluster. We suggest that the cluster members have retained their molecular gas through several Gyr residences in the cluster. There are also a few extremely CO-rich early-type galaxies with H2 masses ≳109 M⊙ and these are in low-density environments. We do find a significant trend between the molecular content and stellar specific angular momentum. The galaxies of low angular momentum also have low CO detection rates, suggesting that their formation processes were more effective at destroying the molecular gas or preventing its re-accretion. We speculate on the implications of these data for the formation of various subclasses of early-type galaxies. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

Abstract:

We demonstrate here using both single-dish and interferometric observations that CO molecules are an excellent kinematic tracer, even in high-mass galaxies, allowing us to investigate for the first time the CO Tully-Fisher relation (CO-TFR) of early-type galaxies. We compare the TFRs produced using both single-dish and interferometric data and various inclination estimation methods, and evaluate the use of the velocity profile shape as a criterion for selecting galaxies in which the molecular gas extends beyond the peak of the rotation curve. We show that the gradient and zero-point of the best-fitting relations are robust, independent of the velocity measure and inclination used, and agree with those of relations derived using stellar kinematics. We also show that the early-type CO-TFR is offset from the CO-TFR of spirals by 0.98 ± 0.22 mag at Ks band, in line with other results. The intrinsic scatter of the relation is found to be ≈0.4 mag, similar to the level found in the spiral galaxy population. Next-generation facilities such as the Large Millimeter Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array should allow this technique to be used in higher redshift systems, providing a simple new tool to trace the mass-to-light ratio evolution of the most massive galaxies over cosmic time. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.

Abstract:

The mass assembly of galaxies leaves imprints in their outskirts, such as shells and tidal tails. The frequency and properties of such fine structures depend on the main acting mechanisms - secular evolution, minor or major mergers - and on the age of the last substantial accretion event. We use this to constrain the mass assembly history of two apparently relaxed nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs) selected from the ATLAS3D sample, NGC 680 and 5557. Our ultra-deep optical images obtained with MegaCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope reach 29 magarcsec-2 in thegband. They reveal very low surface brightness (LSB) filamentary structures around these ellipticals. Among them, a gigantic 160kpc long, narrow, tail east of NGC 5557 hosts three gas-rich star-forming objects, previously detected in Hi with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and in UV withGALEX. NGC 680 exhibits two major diffuse plumes apparently connected to extended Hi tails, as well as a series of arcs and shells. Comparing the outer stellar and gaseous morphology of the two ellipticals with that predicted from models of colliding galaxies, we argue that the LSB features are tidal debris and that each of these two ETGs was assembled during a relatively recent, major wet merger, which most likely occurred after the redshiftz≃ 0.5 epoch. Had these mergers been older, the tidal features should have already fallen back or be destroyed by more recent accretion events. However, the absence of molecular gas and of a prominent young stellar population in the core region of the galaxies indicates that the merger is at least 1-2 Gyr old: the memory of any merger-triggered nuclear starburst has indeed been lost. The star-forming objects found towards the collisional debris of NGC 5557 are then likely tidal dwarf galaxies. Such recycled galaxies here appear to be long-lived and continue to form stars while any star formation activity has stopped in their parent galaxy. The inner kinematics of NGC 680 is typical for fast rotators which make the bulk of nearby ETGs in the ATLAS3D sample. On the other hand, NGC 5557 belongs to the poorly populated class of massive, round, slow rotators that are predicted by semi-analytic models and cosmological simulations to be the end-product of a complex mass accretion history, involving ancient major mergers and more recent minor mergers. Our observations suggest that under specific circumstances a single binary merger may dominate the formation history of such objects and thus that at least some massive ETGs may form at relatively low redshift. Whether the two galaxies studied here are representative of their own sub-class of ETGs is still an open question that will be addressed by an on-going deep optical survey of ATLAS3D galaxies. © 2011 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2011 RAS.