Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

As the earliest relics of star formation episodes of the Universe, the most massive galaxies are the key to our understanding of the stellar population, cosmic structure, and supermassive black hole (SMBH) evolution. However, the details of their formation histories remain uncertain. We address these problems by planning a large survey sample of 101 ultramassive galaxies (z ≤ 0.3, |δ + 24°| < 45°, |b| > 8°), including 76  per cent ellipticals, 17  per cent lenticulars, and 7  per cent spirals brighter than M_K ≤ −27 mag (stellar mass 2 × 10¹² ≲ M_⋆ ≲ 5 × 10¹² M_⊙) with ELT/HARMONI. Our sample comprises diverse galaxy environments ranging from isolated to dense-cluster galaxies. The primary goals of the project are to (1) explore the stellar dynamics inside galaxy nuclei and weigh SMBHs, (2) constrain the black hole scaling relations at the highest mass, and (3) probe the late-time assembly of these most massive galaxies through the stellar population and kinematical gradients. We describe the survey, discuss the distinct demographics and environmental properties of the sample, and simulate their HARMONI I_z-, I_z + J-, and H + K-band observations by combining the inferred stellar-mass models from Pan-STARRS observations, an assumed synthetic spectrum of stars, and SMBHs with masses estimated based on different black hole scaling relations. Our simulations produce excellent state-of-the-art integral field spectrography and stellar kinematics (ΔV_rms ≲ 1.5 per cent) in a relatively short exposure time. We use these stellar kinematics in combination with the Jeans anisotropic model to reconstruct the SMBH mass and its error using a Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. Thus, these simulations and modellings can be benchmarks to evaluate the instrument models and pipelines dedicated to HARMONI to exploit the unprecedented capabilities of ELT.

Abstract:

Observations indicate that the central gas discs are smoother in early-type galaxies than their late-type counterparts, while recent simulations predict that the dynamical suppression of star formation in spheroid-dominated galaxies is preceded by the suppression of fragmentation of their interstellar media. The mass surface density power spectrum is a powerful tool to constrain the degree of structure within a gas reservoir. Specifically here, we focus on the power spectrum slope and aim to constrain whether the shear induced by a dominant spheroidal potential can induce sufficient turbulence to suppress fragmentation, resulting in the smooth central gas discs observed. We compute surface density power spectra for the nuclear gas reservoirs of fourteen simulated isolated galaxies and twelve galaxies observed as part of the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM) project. Both simulated and observed galaxies range from disc-dominated galaxies to spheroids, with central stellar mass surface densities, a measure of bulge dominance, varying by more than an order of magnitude. For the simulations, the power spectra steepen with increasing central stellar mass surface density, thereby clearly linking the suppression of fragmentation to the shear-driven turbulence induced by the spheroid. The WISDOM observations show a different (but potentially consistent) picture: while there is no correlation between the power spectrum slopes and the central stellar mass surface densities, the slopes scatter around a value of 2.6. This is similar to the behaviour of the slopes of the simulated galaxies with high central stellar mass surface densities, and could indicate that high shear eventually drives incompressible turbulence.