THE KILOPARSEC-SCALE KINEMATICS OF HIGH-REDSHIFT STAR-FORMING GALAXIES

By D. Law, C. Steidel, D. Erb, J. Larkin, M. Pettini, A. Shapley, S. Wright. 2009

299 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the results of a spectroscopic survey of the kinematic structure of star-forming galaxies at redshift z ∼ 2–3 using Keck/OSIRIS integral field spectroscopy. Our sample is comprised of 12 galaxies between redshifts z ∼ 2.0 and 2.5 and one galaxy at z ∼ 3.3 which are well detected in either Hα or [O iii] emission. These galaxies are generally representative of the mean stellar mass of star-forming galaxies at similar redshifts, although they tend to have star formation rate surface densities slightly higher than the mean. These observations were obtained in conjunction with the Keck laser guide star adaptive optics system, with a typical angular resolution after spatial smoothing ∼0.″15 (approximately 1 kpc at the redshift of the target sample). At most five of these 13 galaxies have spatially resolved velocity gradients consistent with rotation while the remaining galaxies have relatively featureless or irregular velocity fields. All of our galaxies show local velocity dispersions ∼60–100 km s−1 , suggesting that (particularly for those galaxies with featureless velocity fields) rotation about a preferred axis may not be the dominant mechanism of physical support. While some galaxies show evidence for major mergers such evidence is unrelated to the kinematics of individual components (one of our strongest merger candidates also exhibits unambiguous rotational structure), refuting a simple bimodal disk/merger classification scheme. We discuss these data in light of complementary surveys and extant UV-IR spectroscopy and photometry, concluding that the dynamical importance of cold gas may be the primary factor governing the observed kinematics of z ∼ 2 galaxies. We conclude by speculating on the importance of mechanisms for accreting low angular momentum gas and the early formation of quasi-spheroidal systems in the young universe.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/983f6920e3ea008741ac9ef9f1036ee42f316b70

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. R. Dav'e
4. A. Dekel
5. R. Somerville
6. C. Conroy
7. P. V. van Dokkum
8. T. Naab

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. A. Dekel
4. P. V. van Dokkum
5. C. Conroy
6. R. Dav'e
7. R. Somerville
8. M. Franx

Citations in the corpus

• THE KMOS3D SURVEY: DESIGN, FIRST RESULTS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF GALAXY KINEMATICS FROM 0.7 ⩽ z ⩽ 2.7 (2014, methodology): “…the MASSIV survey (logMavg∗ [M⊙] = 10.2; Epinat et al. 2012), SINS/zC-SINF survey (logMavg∗ [M⊙] = 10.6; Förster Schreiber et al. 2009, Förster Schreiber et al. 2014b), OSIRIS survey from Law et al. (2009) (logMavg∗ [M⊙] = 10.3), and AMAZE-LSD surveys (logMavg∗ [M⊙] = 10.1; Gnerucci et al. 2011).”
• Rotational support of giant clumps in high-z disc galaxies (2011, background): “…discs that are highly perturbed by transient elongated features and giant clumps (Genzel et al. 2006; Elmegreen & Elmegreen ⋆ E-mail: ceverino@phys.huji.ac.il † E-mail: dekel@phys.huji.ac.il 2006; Genzel et al. 2008; Stark et al. 2008; Law et al. 2009; Förster Schreiber et al. 2009, 2011).”
• The KMOS Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS):dynamical properties, gas and dark matter fractions of typical z~1 star-forming galaxies (2016, background): “…galaxies Stellar population and Dynamics (LSD)]; Queyrel et al. 2012; Epinat et al. 2012; Contini et al. 2012 [Mass Assembly Survey with SINFONI in VVDS (MASSIV)]; Swinbank et al. 2012a,b [SINFONI observations of High-Z Emission Line Survey (SHiZELS) galaxies]; Law et al. 2009; Wright et al. 2009).”
• THE SINS SURVEY OF z ∼ 2 GALAXY KINEMATICS: PROPERTIES OF THE GIANT STAR-FORMING CLUMPS (2010, background): “…figure is available in the online journal.) few 109 M ) from the survey of z ∼ 1–3 lensed SFGs by Jones et al. (2010), and from mostly lower mass (Mdyn ∼ (0.3–3) × 1010 M ) and compact (R1/2 ∼ 0.9–2 kpc) but wellresolved (with AO) “dispersion dominated” z ∼ 1.5–3 SFGs taken from Law et al. (2009).”
• 3D-HST: A WIDE-FIELD GRISM SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY WITH THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2012, background): “Groundbased integral-field spectroscopy has demonstrated the power of spatially-resolved spectroscopy for galaxies at z > 1 (e.g., Förster Schreiber et al. 2009; Law et al. 2009), but it has been typically limited to more luminous, rare objects or relatively small samples.”
• Resolved spectroscopy of gravitationally lensed galaxies: recovering coherent velocity fields in subluminous z ~ 2-3 galaxies (2009, background): “Integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy of nebular emission lines is now yielding valuable kinematic data for a growing sample of luminous high-redshift star forming galaxies (Genzel et al. 2006, 2008; Förster Schreiber et al. 2006, 2009; Law et al. 2007b, 2009).”
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey final data release: a spectroscopic sample of 35 016 galaxies and AGN out to z ~ 6.7 selected with 17.5 ≤ iAB ≤ 24.75 (2013, unknown): “…of integral field spectroscopy studies of high-redshift galaxies at z ∼> 1 using the Hα line redshifted into the infrared (e.g. Forster-Schreiber et al. 2009; Epinat et al. 2009; Law et al. 2009; Contini et al. 2012) fully depends on the quality of the parent spectroscopic redshift survey.”
• Self-regulated star formation in galaxies via momentum input from massive stars (2011, background): “This morphology resembles the clumpy systems observed at z ∼ 2–3 (Tacconi et al. 2006; Genzel et al. 2008; Law et al. 2009).”
• SHORT-LIVED STAR-FORMING GIANT CLUMPS IN COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS OF z ≈ 2 DISKS (2010, background): “…spectrally resolved line emissions reveal ordered rotation andhigh velocity dispersions, widespread across the disks at≈ 50− 80 kms−1 (Genzel et al. 2006, 2008; Förster Schreiber et al. 2006, 2009; Shapiro et al. 2008; Cresci et al. 2009; Law et al. 2009; Jones et al. 2010; Swinbank et al. 2010).”
• OVERVIEW OF THE SDSS-IV MaNGA SURVEY: MAPPING NEARBY GALAXIES AT APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY (2014, background): “…diversity of kinematic structure, including large rotating disks, compact dispersiondominated objects, and major mergers (e.g., Shapiro et al. 2008; Förster Schreiber et al. 2009; Law et al. 2009), not to mention evidence for winds and outflows (e.g., Steidel et al. 2010; Genzel et al. 2011).”
• THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE DATA: PANCHROMATIC FAINT OBJECT COUNTS FOR 0.2–2 μm WAVELENGTH (2010, background): “At redshifts >∼ 2–3, deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging surveys and ground-based spectroscopy have revealed a paucity of massive galaxies and few classical disks or spheroids (e.g., Law et al. 2007, 2009).”
• Ionized gas outflows and global kinematics of low-z luminous star-forming galaxies (2014, background): “…et al. 2006, 2009; Genzel et al. 2006, 2008; Cresci et al. 2009; Wright et al. 2007; Starkenburg et al 2009; Epinat et al. 2009; LemoineBusserolle & Lamareille 2010; Law et al. 2009; Jones et al. 2010), sampling a wide range of dynamical masses, sizes, and star formation densities.”
• Galaxy formation theory (2010, background): “Additionally, recent observations (Law et al. 2009; Schreiber et al. 2009) have demonstrated that massive disks are already in place as long ago asz = 2.”
• EVIDENCE FOR WIDE-SPREAD ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS-DRIVEN OUTFLOWS IN THE MOST MASSIVE z ∼ 1–2 STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2014, methodology): “…SFGs as observed in our SINS/zC-SINF and KMOS3D surveys (or other SFG samples observed with near-IR integral field spectrographs, e.g., Law et al. 2009; Épinat et al. 2009, 2012), this statement is conservative since the orbital motions in most of the galaxies would be smaller than…”
• STRONG NEBULAR LINE RATIOS IN THE SPECTRA of z ∼ 2–3 STAR FORMING GALAXIES: FIRST RESULTS FROM KBSS-MOSFIRE (2014, methodology): “…inferred to have lower ionized gas metallicities at a given M∗, has been observed for relatively small samples of z > 2 galaxies (Erb et al. 2006a; Maiolino et al. 2008; Law et al. 2009; Förster Schreiber et al. 2009; Henry et al. 2013; Newman et al. 2013; Wuyts et al. 2014; Kewley et al. 2013b).”
• THE MOSFIRE DEEP EVOLUTION FIELD (MOSDEF) SURVEY: REST-FRAME OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY FOR ∼1500 H-SELECTED GALAXIES AT 1.37 ≤ z ≤ 3.8 ?> (2014, background): “However, there are also striking differences, such as the large diversity among massive galaxies (e.g., Kriek et al. 2009a; van Dokkum et al. 2011; Muzzin et al. 2013b) and the absence of cold, quiescent disk galaxies (e.g., Förster Schreiber et al. 2009; Law et al. 2009).”
• Integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI of VVDS galaxies I. Galaxy dynamics and mass assembly at 1.2 < z < 1.6 (2009, methodology): “We thank David R. Law for kindly providing us before publication their velocity and velocity dispersion maps (Law et al. 2009).”
• THE IMPACT OF COLD GAS ACCRETION ABOVE A MASS FLOOR ON GALAXY SCALING RELATIONS (2009, background): “…that 30%–50% of SFGs with M⋆ ∼ 10 10.5–11.5 are gas-rich thick rotating disks (see also van Starkenburg et al. 2008; Wright et al. 2007), with the rest either dominated by dispersion velocities or showing the signature of recent mergers (e.g. Law et al. 2007, 2009; Förster Schreiber et al. 2009).”
• THE CHARACTERISTIC STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF GALAXIES AT REDSHIFTS z ∼ 2–7 (2012, background): “…of 50Myr is adopted to reflect the dynamical timescale as inferred from velocity dispersion and size measurements of z ∼ 2 LBGs (Erb et al. 2006a; Law et al. 2009, 2012); the imposition of this age limit precludes galaxies from having unrealistic ages that are substantially younger than the…”