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Pieter van Dokkum

Publications and source records attributed to Pieter van Dokkum.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources

The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE): ultraviolet to far-infrared catalogs, medium-bandwidth photometric redshifts with improved accuracy, stellar masses, and confirmation of quiescent galaxies to z~3.5

The FourStar galaxy evolution survey (ZFOURGE) is a 45 night legacy program with the FourStar near-infrared camera on Magellan and one of the most sensitive surveys to date. ZFOURGE covers a total of $400\ \mathrm{arcmin}^2$ in cosmic fields CDFS, COSMOS and UDS, overlapping CANDELS. We present photometric catalogs comprising $>70,000$ galaxies, selected from ultradeep $K_s$-band detection images ($25.5-26.5$ AB mag, $5σ$, total), and $>80\%$ complete to $K_s<25.3-25.9$ AB. We use 5 near-IR medium-bandwidth filters ($J_1,J_2,J_3,H_s,H_l$) as well as broad-band $K_s$ at $1.05\ - 2.16\ μm$ to $25-26$ AB at a seeing of $\sim0.5$". Each field has ancillary imaging in $26-40$ filters at $0.3-8\ μm$. We derive photometric redshifts and stellar population properties. Comparing with spectroscopic redshifts indicates a photometric redshift uncertainty $σ_z={0.010,0.009}$, and 0.011 in CDFS, COSMOS, and UDS. As spectroscopic samples are often biased towards bright and blue sources, we also inspect the photometric redshift differences between close pairs of galaxies, finding $σ_{z,pairs}= 0.01-0.02$ at $1 \times15$.

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A High Stellar Velocity Dispersion and ~100 Globular Clusters for the Ultra Diffuse Galaxy Dragonfly 44

Recently a population of large, very low surface brightness, spheroidal galaxies was identified in the Coma cluster. The apparent survival of these Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) in a rich cluster suggests that they have very high masses. Here we present the stellar kinematics of Dragonfly 44, one of the largest Coma UDGs, using a 33.5 hr integration with DEIMOS on the Keck II telescope. We find a velocity dispersion of 47 km/s, which implies a dynamical mass of M_dyn=0.7x10^10 M_sun within its deprojected half-light radius of r_1/2=4.6 kpc. The mass-to-light ratio is M/L=48 M_sun/L_sun, and the dark matter fraction is 98 percent within the half-light radius. The high mass of Dragonfly 44 is accompanied by a large globular cluster population. From deep Gemini imaging taken in 0.4" seeing we infer that Dragonfly 44 has 94 globular clusters, similar to the counts for other galaxies in this mass range. Our results add to other recent evidence that many UDGs are "failed" galaxies, with the sizes, dark matter content, and globular cluster systems of much more luminous objects. We estimate the total dark halo mass of Dragonfly 44 by comparing the amount of dark matter within r=4.6 kpc to enclosed mass profiles of NFW halos. The enclosed mass suggests a total mass of ~10^12 M_sun, similar to the mass of the Milky Way. The existence of nearly-dark objects with this mass is unexpected, as galaxy formation is thought to be maximally-efficient in this regime.

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The Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey. I. Substantial variation in the diffuse stellar halos around spiral galaxies

Galaxies are thought to grow through accretion; as less massive galaxies are disrupted and merge over time, their debris results in diffuse, clumpy stellar halos enveloping the central galaxy. Here we present a study of the variation in the stellar halos of galaxies, using data from the Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies Survey (DNGS). The survey consists of wide field, deep ($μ_{g} > 31$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$) optical imaging of nearby galaxies using the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Our sample includes eight spiral galaxies with stellar masses similar to that of the Milky Way, inclinations of $16-90$ degrees and distances between $7-18$ Mpc. We construct stellar mass surface density profiles from the observed $g$-band surface brightness in combination with the $g-r$ color as a function of radius, and compute the halo fractions from the excess stellar mass (relative to a disk$+$bulge fit) beyond $5$ half-mass radii. We find a mean halo fraction of $0.009 \pm 0.005$ and a large RMS scatter of $1.01^{+0.9}_{-0.26}$ dex. The peak-to-peak scatter is a factor of $>100$ -- while some galaxies feature strongly structured halos resembling that of M31, three of the eight have halos that are completely undetected in our data. We conclude that spiral galaxies as a class exhibit a rich variety in stellar halo properties, implying that their assembly histories have been highly non-uniform. We find no convincing evidence for an environmental or stellar mass dependence of the halo fraction in the sample.

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The Relation Between [OIII]/H$β$ and Specific Star Formation Rate in Galaxies at $z \sim 2$

Recent surveys have identified a seemingly ubiquitous population of galaxies with elevated [OIII]/H$β$ emission line ratios at $z > 1$, though the nature of this phenomenon continues to be debated. The [OIII]/H$β$ line ratio is of interest because it is a main component of the standard diagnostic tools used to differentiate between active galactic nuclei (AGN) and star-forming galaxies, as well as the gas-phase metallicity indicators $O_{23}$ and $R_{23}$. Here, we investigate the primary driver of increased [OIII]/H$β$ ratios by median-stacking rest-frame optical spectra for a sample of star-forming galaxies in the 3D-HST survey in the redshift range $z\sim1.4-2.2$. Using $N = 4220$ star-forming galaxies, we stack the data in bins of mass and specific star formation rates (sSFR) respectively. After accounting for stellar Balmer absorption, we measure [OIII]$\lambda5007$Å/H$β$ down to $\mathrm{M} \sim 10^{9.2} \ \mathrm{M_\odot}$ and sSFR $\sim 10^{-9.6} \ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$, more than an order of magnitude lower than previous work at similar redshifts. We find an offset of $0.59\pm0.05$ dex between the median ratios at $z\sim2$ and $z\sim0$ at fixed stellar mass, in agreement with existing studies. However, with respect to sSFR, the $z \sim 2$ stacks all lie within 1$σ$ of the median SDSS ratios, with an average offset of only $-0.06\pm 0.05$. We find that the excitation properties of galaxies are tightly correlated with their sSFR at both $z\sim2$ and $z\sim0$, with a relation that appears to be roughly constant over the last 10 Gyr of cosmic time.

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The evolution in the stellar mass of Brightest Cluster Galaxies over the past 10 billion years

Using a sample of 98 galaxy clusters recently imaged in the near infra-red with the ESO NTT, WIYN and WHT telescopes, supplemented with 33 clusters from the ESO archive, we measure how the stellar mass of the most massive galaxies in the universe, namely Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCG), increases with time. Most of the BCGs in this new sample lie in the redshift range $0.2<z<0.6$, which has been noted in recent works to mark an epoch over which the growth in the stellar mass of BCGs stalls. From this sample of 132 clusters, we create a subsample of 102 systems that includes only those clusters that have estimates of the cluster mass. We combine the BCGs in this subsample with BCGs from the literature, and find that the growth in stellar mass of BCGs from 10 billion years ago to the present epoch is broadly consistent with recent semi-analytic and semi-empirical models. As in other recent studies, tentative evidence indicates that the stellar mass growth rate of BCGs may be slowing in the past 3.5 billion years. Further work in collecting larger samples, and in better comparing observations with theory using mock images is required if a more detailed comparison between the models and the data is to be made.

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Ages of massive galaxies at $0.5 < z < 2.0$ from 3D-HST rest-frame optical spectroscopy

We present low-resolution near-infrared stacked spectra from the 3D-HST survey up to $z=2.0$ and fit them with commonly used stellar population synthesis models: BC03 (Bruzual & Charlot, 2003), FSPS10 (Flexible Stellar Population Synthesis, Conroy & Gunn 2010), and FSPS-C3K (Conroy, Kurucz, Cargile, Castelli, in prep). The accuracy of the grism redshifts allows the unambiguous detection of many emission and absorption features, and thus a first systematic exploration of the rest-frame optical spectra of galaxies up to $z=2$. We select massive galaxies ($\rm log(M_{*} / M_{\odot}) > 10.8$), we divide them into quiescent and star-forming via a rest-frame color-color technique, and we median-stack the samples in 3 redshift bins between $z=0.5$ and $z=2.0$. We find that stellar population models fit the observations well at wavelengths below $\rm 6500 Å$ rest-frame, but show systematic residuals at redder wavelengths. The FSPS-C3K model generally provides the best fits (evaluated with a $χ^2_{red}$ statistics) for quiescent galaxies, while BC03 performs the best for star-forming galaxies. The stellar ages of quiescent galaxies implied by the models, assuming solar metallicity, vary from 4 Gyr at $z \sim 0.75$ to 1.5 Gyr at $z \sim 1.75$, with an uncertainty of a factor of 2 caused by the unknown metallicity. On average the stellar ages are half the age of the Universe at these redshifts. We show that the inferred evolution of ages of quiescent galaxies is in agreement with fundamental plane measurements, assuming an 8 Gyr age for local galaxies. For star-forming galaxies the inferred ages depend strongly on the stellar population model and the shape of the assumed star-formation history.

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The evolution of metallicity and metallicity gradients from z=2.7-0.6 with KMOS3D

We present measurements of the [NII]/Ha ratio as a probe of gas-phase oxygen abundance for a sample of 419 star-forming galaxies at z=0.6-2.7 from the KMOS3D near-IR multi-IFU survey. The mass-metallicity relation (MZR) is determined consistently with the same sample selection, metallicity tracer, and methodology over the wide redshift range probed by the survey. We find good agreement with long-slit surveys in the literature, except for the low-mass slope of the relation at z~2.3, where this sample is less biased than previous samples based on optical spectroscopic redshifts. In this regime we measure a steeper slope than some literature results. Excluding the AGN contribution from the MZR reduces sensitivity at the high mass end, but produces otherwise consistent results. There is no significant dependence of the [NII]/Ha ratio on SFR or environment at fixed redshift and stellar mass. The IFU data allow spatially resolved measurements of [NII]/Ha, from which we can infer abundance gradients for 180 galaxies, thus tripling the current sample in the literature. The observed gradients are on average flat, with only 15 gradients statistically offset from zero at >3sigma. We have modelled the effect of beam-smearing, assuming a smooth intrinsic radial gradient and known seeing, inclination and effective radius for each galaxy. Our seeing-limited observations can recover up to 70% of the intrinsic gradient for the largest, face-on disks, but only 30% for the smaller, more inclined galaxies. We do not find significant trends between observed or corrected gradients and any stellar population, dynamical or structural galaxy parameters, mostly in agreement with existing studies with much smaller sample sizes. In cosmological simulations, strong feedback is generally required to produce flat gradients at high redshift.

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Pixel Color Magnitude Diagrams for Semi-Resolved Stellar Populations: The Star Formation History of Regions within the Disk and Bulge of M31

The analysis of stellar populations has, by and large, been developed for two limiting cases: spatially-resolved stellar populations in the color-magnitude diagram, and integrated light observations of distant systems. In between these two extremes lies the semi-resolved regime, which encompasses a rich and relatively unexplored realm of observational phenomena. Here we develop the concept of pixel color magnitude diagrams (pCMDs) as a powerful technique for analyzing stellar populations in the semi-resolved regime. pCMDs show the distribution of imaging data in the plane of pixel luminosity vs. pixel color. A key feature of pCMDs is that they are sensitive to all stars, including both the evolved giants and the unevolved main sequence stars. An important variable in this regime is the mean number of stars per pixel, $N_{\rm pix}$. Simulated pCMDs demonstrate a strong sensitivity to the star formation history (SFH) and allow one to break degeneracies between age, metallicity and dust based on two filter data for values of $N_{\rm pix}$ up to at least $10^4$. We extract pCMDs from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical imaging of M31 and derive non-parametric SFHs from $10^6$ yr to $10^{10}$ yr for both the crowded disk and bulge regions (where $N_{\rm pix}\approx30-10^3$). From analyzing a small region of the disk we find a non-parametric SFH that is smooth and consistent with an exponential decay timescale of 4 Gyr. The bulge SFH is also smooth and consistent with a 2 Gyr decay timescale. pCMDs will likely play an important role in maximizing the science returns from next generation ground and space-based facilities.

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Ubiquitous Time Variability of Integrated Stellar Populations

Long period variable stars arise in the final stages of the asymptotic giant branch phase of stellar evolution. They have periods of up to ~1000d and amplitudes that can exceed a factor of three in the I-band flux. These stars pulsate predominantly in their fundamental mode, which is a function of mass and radius, and so the pulsation periods are sensitive to the age of the underlying stellar population. The overall number of long period variables in a population is directly related to their lifetime, which is difficult to predict from first principles because of uncertainties associated with stellar mass-loss and convective mixing. The time variability of these stars has not been previously taken into account when modeling the spectral energy distributions of galaxies. Here we construct time-dependent stellar population models that include the effects of long period variable stars, and report the ubiquitous detection of this expected `pixel shimmer' in the massive metal-rich galaxy M87. The pixel light curves display a variety of behaviors, including linearly rising and falling curves, semi-periodic curves, and sudden increases or decreases in the flux level. The observed variation of 0.1-1% is very well matched to the predictions of our models. The data provide a strong and novel constraint on the properties of variable stars in an old and metal-rich stellar population, and we infer that the lifetime of long period variables in M87 is shorter by approximately 30% compared to predictions from the latest stellar evolution models.

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Satellite Quenching and Galactic Conformity at 0.3 < z < 2.5

We measure the evolution of the quiescent fraction and quenching efficiency of satellites around star-forming and quiescent central galaxies with stellar mass $\log(M_{\mathrm{cen}}/M_{\odot})>10.5$ at $0.3 9.3$. Satellites for both star-forming and quiescent central galaxies have higher quiescent fractions compared to field galaxies matched in stellar mass at all redshifts. We also observe "galactic conformity": satellites around quiescent centrals are more likely to be quenched compared to the satellites around star-forming centrals. In our sample, this conformity signal is significant at $\gtrsim3σ$ for $0.6<z<1.6$, whereas it is only weakly significant at $0.3<z<0.6$ and $1.6<z<2.5$. Therefore, conformity (and therefore satellite quenching) has been present for a significant fraction of the age of the universe. The satellite quenching efficiency increases with increasing stellar mass of the central, but does not appear to depend on the stellar mass of the satellite to the mass limit of our sample. When we compare the satellite quenching efficiency of star-forming centrals with stellar masses 0.2 dex higher than quiescent centrals (which should account for any difference in halo mass), the conformity signal decreases, but remains statistically significant at $0.6<z<0.9$. This is evidence that satellite quenching is connected to the star-formation properties of the central as well as to the mass of the halo. We discuss physical effects that may contribute to galactic conformity, and emphasize that they must allow for continued star-formation in the central galaxy even as the satellites are quenched.

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Episodic molecular outflow in the very young protostellar cluster Serpens South

The loss of mass from protostars, in the form of a jet or outflow, is a necessary counterpart to protostellar mass accretion. Outflow ejection events probably vary in their velocity and/or in the rate of mass loss. Such `episodic' ejection events have been observed during the Class 0 protostellar phase (the early accretion stage), and continue during the subsequent class I phase that marks the first one million years of star formation. Previously observed episodic-ejection sources were relatively isolated; however, the most common sites of star formation are clusters. Outflows link protostars with their environment and provide a viable source of turbulence that is necessary for regulating star formation in clusters, but it is not known how an accretion-driven jet or outflow in a clustered environment manifests itself in its earliest stage. This early stage is important in establishing the initial conditions for momentum and energy transfer to the environment as the protostar and cluster evolve. Here we report that an outflow from a very young class 0 protostar, at the hub of the very active and filamentary Serpens South protostellar cluster, shows unambiguous episodic events. The $^{12}$CO (J=2-1) emission from the protostar reveals 22 distinct features of outflow ejecta, the most recent having the highest velocity. The outflow forms bipolar lobes --- one of the first detectable signs of star formation --- which originate from the peak of 1-mm continuum emission. Emission from the surrounding C$^{18}$O envelope shows kinematics consistent with rotation and an infall of material onto the protostar. The data suggest that episodic accretion-driven outflow begins in the earliest phase of protostellar evolution, and that the outflow remains intact in a very clustered environment, probably providing efficient momentum transfer for driving turbulence.

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Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Existence of Large, Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

We recently identified a population of low surface brightness objects in the field of the z=0.023 Coma cluster, using the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. Here we present Keck spectroscopy of one of the largest of these "ultra-diffuse galaxies" (UDGs), confirming that it is a member of the cluster. The galaxy has prominent absorption features, including the Ca II H+K lines and the G-band, and no detected emission lines. Its radial velocity of cz=6280 +- 120 km/s is within the 1 sigma velocity dispersion of the Coma cluster. The galaxy has an effective radius of 4.3 +- 0.3 kpc and a Sersic index of 0.89 +- 0.06, as measured from Keck imaging. We find no indications of tidal tails or other distortions, at least out to a radius of ~2 r_e. We show that UDGs are located in a previously sparsely populated region of the size - magnitude plane of quiescent stellar systems, as they are ~6 magnitudes fainter than normal early-type galaxies of the same size. It appears that the luminosity distribution of large quiescent galaxies is not continuous, although this could largely be due to selection effects. Dynamical measurements are needed to determine whether the dark matter halos of UDGs are similar to those of galaxies with the same luminosity or to those of galaxies with the same size.

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The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation

Massive, quiescent galaxies at high redshift have been found to be considerably more compact than galaxies of similar mass in the local universe. How these compact galaxies formed has yet to be determined, though several progenitor populations have been proposed. Here we investigate the formation processes and quantify the assembly histories of such galaxies in Illustris, a suite of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations encompassing a sufficiently large volume to include rare objects, while simultaneously resolving the internal structure of galaxies. We select massive (~10^11 solar masses) and compact (stellar half-mass radius < 2 kpc) galaxies from the simulation at z=2. Within the Illustris suite, we find that these quantities are not perfectly converged, but are reasonably reliable for our purposes. The resulting population is composed primarily of quiescent galaxies, but we also find several star-forming compact galaxies. The simulated compact galaxies are similar to observed galaxies in star formation activity and appearance. We follow their evolution at high redshift in the simulation and find that there are multiple pathways to form these compact galaxies, dominated by two mechanisms: (i) intense, centrally concentrated starbursts generally triggered by gas-rich major mergers between z~2-4, reducing the galaxies' half-mass radii by a factor of a few to below 2 kpc, and (ii) assembly at very early times when the universe was much denser; the galaxies formed compact and remained so until z~2.

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Preventing Star Formation in Early-Type Galaxies with Late-Time Stellar Heating

We revisit previous suggestions that the heating provided by the winds of dying low-mass stars plays an important role in preventing star formation in quiescent galaxies. At the end of their asymptotic giant branch phase, intermediate and low-mass stars eject their envelopes rapidly in a super-wind phase, usually giving rise to planetary nebulae. In spheroidal galaxies with high stellar velocity dispersions, the interaction of these ejected envelopes with the ambient diffuse gas can lead to significant, isotropic and steady-state heating that scales as $\dot{M}_\astσ_\ast^2$. We show that cooling of the central regions of the hot diffuse halo gas can be delayed for a Hubble time for halos more massive than $\sim10^{12.5}M_{\odot}$ at $0<z<2$, although stellar heating alone is unlikely to forestall cooling in the most massive clusters at $z=0$. This mechanism provides a natural explanation for the strong trend of galaxy quiescence with stellar surface density and velocity dispersion. In addition, since the ejected material will thermalize to $kT\simσ_\ast^2$, this mechanism provides an explanation for the observed similarity between the central temperature of the hot diffuse gas and $σ_\ast^2$, a result which is not trivial in light of the short inferred cooling times of the hot gas. The main uncertainty in this analysis is the ultimate fate of the stellar ejecta. Preventing accumulation of the ejecta in the central regions may require energy input from another source, such as Type Ia supernovae. Detailed simulations of the interaction of the stellar wind with the ambient gas are required to better quantify the net effect of AGB heating.

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Forty-Seven Milky Way-Sized, Extremely Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

We report the discovery of 47 low surface brightness objects in deep images of a 3 x 3 degree field centered on the Coma cluster, obtained with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. The objects have central surface brightness mu(g,0) ranging from 24 - 26 mag/arcsec^2 and effective radii r_e = 3"-10", as measured from archival Canada France Hawaii Telescope images. From their spatial distribution we infer that most or all of the objects are galaxies in the Coma cluster. This relatively large distance is surprising as it implies that the galaxies are very large: with r_e = 1.5 - 4.6 kpc their sizes are similar to those of L* galaxies even though their median stellar mass is only ~6 x 10^7 Solar masses. The galaxies are relatively red and round, with = 0.8 and = 0.74. One of the 47 galaxies is fortuitously covered by a deep Hubble Space Telescope ACS observation. The ACS imaging shows a large spheroidal object with a central surface brightness mu(g,0) = 25.8 mag/arcsec^2, a Sersic index n=0.6, and an effective radius of 7", corresponding to 3.4 kpc at the distance of Coma. The galaxy is not resolved into stars, consistent with expectations for a Coma cluster object. We speculate that UDGs may have lost their gas supply at early times, possibly resulting in very high dark matter fractions.

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Reconciling the observed star-forming sequence with the observed stellar mass function

We examine the connection between the observed star-forming sequence (SFR $\propto$ $M^α$) and the observed evolution of the stellar mass function between $0.2 < z < 2.5$. We find the star-forming sequence cannot have a slope $α$ $\lesssim$ 0.9 at all masses and redshifts, as this would result in a much higher number density at $10 < \log(\mathrm{M/M_{\odot}}) < 11$ by $z=1$ than is observed. We show that a transition in the slope of the star-forming sequence, such that $α=1$ at $\log(\mathrm{M/M_{\odot}})<10.5$ and $α=0.7-0.13z$ ({Whitaker} {et~al.} 2012) at $\log(\mathrm{M/M_{\odot}})>10.5$, greatly improves agreement with the evolution of the stellar mass function. We then derive a star-forming sequence which reproduces the evolution of the mass function by design. This star-forming sequence is also well-described by a broken-power law, with a shallow slope at high masses and a steep slope at low masses. At $z=2$, it is offset by $\sim$0.3 dex from the observed star-forming sequence, consistent with the mild disagreement between the cosmic SFR and recent observations of the growth of the stellar mass density. It is unclear whether this problem stems from errors in stellar mass estimates, errors in SFRs, or other effects. We show that a mass-dependent slope is also seen in other self-consistent models of galaxy evolution, including semi-analytical, hydrodynamical, and abundance-matching models. As part of the analysis, we demonstrate that neither mergers nor hidden low-mass quiescent galaxies are likely to reconcile the evolution of the mass function and the star-forming sequence. These results are supported by observations from {Whitaker} {et~al.} (2014).

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One Plane for All: Massive Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies Lie on the Same Mass Fundamental Plane at z~0 and z~0.7

Scaling relations between galaxy structures and dynamics have been studied extensively for early and late-type galaxies, both in the local universe and at high redshifts. The abundant differences between the properties of disky and elliptical, or star-forming and quiescent, galaxies seem to be characteristic of the local Universe; such clear distinctions begin to disintegrate as observations of massive galaxies probe higher redshifts. In this Paper, we investigate the existence the mass fundamental plane of all massive galaxies ($σ\gtrsim$ 100 km/s). This work includes local galaxies (0.05<z<0.07) from the SDSS, in addition to 31 star-forming and 72 quiescent massive galaxies at intermediate redshift (z~0.7) with absorption line kinematics from deep Keck-DEIMOS spectra and structural parameters from HST imaging. In two parameter scaling relations, star-forming and quiescent galaxies differ structurally and dynamically. However, we show that massive star-forming and quiescent galaxies lie on nearly the same mass fundamental plane, or the relationship between stellar mass surface density, stellar velocity dispersion, and effective radius. The scatter in this relation (measured about $\logσ$) is low: 0.072 dex (0.055 dex intrinsic) at z~0 and 0.10 dex (0.08 dex intrinsic) at z~0.7. This three dimensional surface is not unique: virial relations, with or without a dependence on luminosity profile shapes, can connect galaxy structures and stellar dynamics with similar scatter. This result builds on the recent finding that mass fundamental plane has been stable for early-type galaxies since z~2 (Bezanson et al. 2013). As we now find this also holds for star-forming galaxies to z~0.7, this implies that these scaling relations of galaxies will be minimally susceptible to progenitor biases due to the evolving stellar populations, structures, and dynamics of galaxies through cosmic time.

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