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arXiv · 2410.00099

Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. III: Quiescent Galaxies Loose Angular Momentum as They Evolve in a Mass-dependent Fashion

Zhiyuan Ji·Mauro Giavalisco
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Abstract

We study the evolution of stellar kinematics of a sample of 952 massive quiescent galaxies with $M_*>10^{10.5}M_\odot$ at $0.6 10^{11.3}M_\odot$, the relationship between $\sigma^\prime_{star}$ and $q$ becomes significantly flattened with increasing stellar age. This indicates that, as the very massive galaxy populations continue to evolve after quenching, angular momentum gradually reduces, which eventually transforms them into velocity-dispersion supported systems. We suggest that incoherent, continuous merging and accretion events onto the galaxies are the main drivers of the observed mass-dependent, posting-quenching dynamical evolution, because more massive galaxies are more likely to undergo such interactions. We are witnessing the early formation epoch of fast and slow rotators at $z \sim 0.8$, when the Universe was only half of its age nowadays.

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Zhiyuan Ji, Mauro Giavalisco. 2024-09-30. Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. III: Quiescent Galaxies Loose Angular Momentum as They Evolve in a Mass-dependent Fashion. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fae3d2f

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