English

Beyond galaxy bimodality: the complex interplay between kinematic morphology and star formation in the local Universe

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2022-10-12 v1

Abstract

It is generally assumed that galaxies are a bimodal population in both star formation and structure: star-forming galaxies are disks, while passive galaxies host large bulges or are entirely spheroidal. Here, we test this scenario by presenting a full census of the kinematic morphologies of a volume-limited sample of galaxies in the local Universe extracted from the MaNGA galaxy survey. We measure the integrated stellar line-of-sight velocity to velocity dispersion ratio (V/σV/\sigma) for 4574 galaxies in the stellar mass range 9.75<logM[M]<11.759.75 < \log M_{\star}[\rm{M}_{\odot}] < 11.75. We show that at fixed stellar mass, the distribution of V/σV/\sigma is not bimodal, and that a simple separation between fast and slow rotators is over-simplistic. Fast rotators are a mixture of at least two populations, referred to here as dynamically-cold disks and intermediate systems, with disks dominating in both total stellar mass and number. When considering star-forming and passive galaxies separately, the star-forming population is almost entirely made up of disks, while the passive population is mixed, implying an array of quenching mechanisms. Passive disks represent \sim30% (both in number and mass) of passive galaxies, nearly a factor of two higher than that of slow rotators, reiterating that these are an important population for understanding galaxy quenching. These results paint a picture of a local Universe dominated by disky galaxies, most of which become somewhat less rotation-supported upon or after quenching. While spheroids are present to a degree, they are certainly not the evolutionary end-point for the majority of galaxies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.01936,
  title  = {Beyond galaxy bimodality: the complex interplay between kinematic morphology and star formation in the local Universe},
  author = {A. Fraser-McKelvie and L. Cortese},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.01936},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

17 pages (incl. 5 of appendix), accepted for publication in ApJ