Which galaxy mass estimator can we trust?
Abstract
We address the problem that dynamical masses of high-redshift massive galaxies, derived using virial scaling, often come out lower than stellar masses inferred from population fitting to multi-band photometry. We compare dynamical and stellar masses for various samples spanning ranges of mass, compactness and redshift, including the SDSS. The discrepancy between dynamical and stellar masses occurs both at low and high redshifts, and systematically increases with galaxy compactness. Because it is unlikely that stellar masses show systematic errors with galaxy compactness, the correlation of mass discrepancy with compactness points to errors in the dynamical mass estimates which assume homology with massive, nearby ellipticals. We quantify the deviations from homology and propose specific non-virial scaling of dynamical mass with effective radius and velocity dispersion.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1501.05947,
title = {Which galaxy mass estimator can we trust?},
author = {Luis Peralta de Arriba and Marc Balcells and Jesús Falcón-Barroso and Ignacio Trujillo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.05947},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures. Updated to match the published version in Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics VIII, Proceedings of the XI Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society held on September 8-12, 2014, in Teruel, Spain. A. J. Cenarro, F. Figueras, C. Hern\'andez-Monteagudo, J. Trujillo Bueno, and L. Valdivielso (eds.)