arXiv subjects

S. N. Richards

Publications and source records attributed to S. N. Richards.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: galaxy spin is more strongly correlated with stellar population age than mass or environment

We use the SAMI Galaxy Survey to examine the drivers of galaxy spin, $λ_{R_e}$, in a multi-dimensional parameter space including stellar mass, stellar population age (or specific star formation rate) and various environmental metrics (local density, halo mass, satellite vs. central). Using a partial correlation analysis we consistently find that age or specific star formation rate is the primary parameter correlating with spin. Light-weighted age and specific star formation rate are more strongly correlated with spin than mass-weighted age. In fact, across our sample, once the relation between light-weighted age and spin is accounted for, there is no significant residual correlation between spin and mass, or spin and environment. This result is strongly suggestive that present-day environment only indirectly influences spin, via the removal of gas and star formation quenching. That is, environment affects age, then age affects spin. Older galaxies then have lower spin, either due to stars being born dynamically hotter at high redshift, or due to secular heating. Our results appear to rule out environmentally dependent dynamical heating (e.g. galaxy-galaxy interactions) being important, at least within $1R_e$ where our kinematic measurements are made. The picture is more complex when we only consider high-mass galaxies ($M_*\gtrsim 10^{11}$M$_{\odot}$). While the age-spin relation is still strong for these high-mass galaxies, there is a residual environmental trend with central galaxies preferentially having lower spin, compared to satellites of the same age and mass. We argue that this trend is likely due to central galaxies being a preferred location for mergers.

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arXiv2022

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Physical drivers of stellar-gas kinematic misalignments in the nearby Universe

Misalignments between the rotation axis of stars and gas are an indication of external processes shaping galaxies throughout their evolution. Using observations of 3068 galaxies from the SAMI Galaxy Survey, we compute global kinematic position angles for 1445 objects with reliable kinematics and identify 169 (12%) galaxies which show stellar-gas misalignments. Kinematically decoupled features are more prevalent in early-type/passive galaxies compared to late-type/star-forming systems. Star formation is the main source of gas ionisation in only 22% of misaligned galaxies; 17% are Seyfert objects, while 61% show Low-Ionisation Nuclear Emission-line Region features. We identify the most probable physical cause of the kinematic decoupling and find that, while accretion-driven cases are dominant, for up to 8% of our sample, the misalignment may be tracing outflowing gas. When considering only misalignments driven by accretion, the acquired gas is feeding active star formation in only $\sim$1/4 of cases. As a population, misaligned galaxies have higher Sérsic indices and lower stellar spin & specific star formation rates than appropriately matched samples of aligned systems. These results suggest that both morphology and star formation/gas content are significantly correlated with the prevalence and timescales of misalignments. Specifically, torques on misaligned gas discs are smaller for more centrally concentrated galaxies, while the newly accreted gas feels lower viscous drag forces in more gas-poor objects. Marginal evidence of star formation not being correlated with misalignment likelihood for late-type galaxies suggests that such morphologies in the nearby Universe might be the result of preferentially aligned accretion at higher redshifts.

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arXiv2021

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: The role of disc fading and progenitor bias in kinematic transitions

We use comparisons between the SAMI Galaxy Survey and equilibrium galaxy models to infer the importance of disc fading in the transition of spirals into lenticular (S0) galaxies. The local S0 population has both higher photometric concentration and lower stellar spin than spiral galaxies of comparable mass and we test whether this separation can be accounted for by passive aging alone. We construct a suite of dynamically self--consistent galaxy models, with a bulge, disc and halo using the GalactICS code. The dispersion-dominated bulge is given a uniformly old stellar population, while the disc is given a current star formation rate putting it on the main sequence, followed by sudden instantaneous quenching. We then generate mock observables (r-band images, stellar velocity and dispersion maps) as a function of time since quenching for a range of bulge/total (B/T) mass ratios. The disc fading leads to a decline in measured spin as the bulge contribution becomes more dominant, and also leads to increased concentration. However, the quantitative changes observed after 5 Gyr of disc fading cannot account for all of the observed difference. We see similar results if we instead subdivide our SAMI Galaxy Survey sample by star formation (relative to the main sequence). We use EAGLE simulations to also take into account progenitor bias, using size evolution to infer quenching time. The EAGLE simulations suggest that the progenitors of current passive galaxies typically have slightly higher spin than present day star-forming disc galaxies of the same mass. As a result, progenitor bias moves the data further from the disc fading model scenario, implying that intrinsic dynamical evolution must be important in the transition from star-forming discs to passive discs.

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arXiv2021

A SAMI and MaNGA view on the stellar kinematics of galaxies on the star-forming main sequence

Galaxy internal structure growth has long been accused of inhibiting star formation in disc galaxies. We investigate the potential physical connection between the growth of dispersion-supported stellar structures (e.g. classical bulges) and the position of galaxies on the star-forming main sequence at $z\sim0$. Combining the might of the SAMI and MaNGA galaxy surveys, we measure the $λ_{Re}$ spin parameter for 3781 galaxies over $9.5 < \log M_{\star} [\rm{M}_{\odot}] < 12$. At all stellar masses, galaxies at the locus of the main sequence possess $λ_{Re}$ values indicative of intrinsically flattened discs. However, above $\log M_{\star}[\rm{M}_{\odot}]\sim10.5$ where the main sequence starts bending, we find tantalising evidence for an increase in the number of galaxies with dispersion-supported structures, perhaps suggesting a connection between bulges and the bending of the main sequence. Moving above the main sequence, we see no evidence of any change in the typical spin parameter in galaxies once gravitationally-interacting systems are excluded from the sample. Similarly, up to 1 dex below the main sequence, $λ_{Re}$ remains roughly constant and only at very high stellar masses ($\log M_{\star}[\rm{M}_{\odot}]>11$), do we see a rapid decrease in $λ_{Re}$ once galaxies decline in star formation activity. If this trend is confirmed, it would be indicative of different quenching mechanisms acting on high- and low-mass galaxies. The results suggest that while a population of galaxies possessing some dispersion-supported structure is already present on the star-forming main sequence, further growth would be required after the galaxy has quenched to match the kinematic properties observed in passive galaxies at $z\sim0$.

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arXiv2020

Centrally concentrated molecular gas driving galactic-scale ionised gas outflows in star-forming galaxies

We perform a joint-analysis of high spatial resolution molecular gas and star-formation rate (SFR) maps in main-sequence star-forming galaxies experiencing galactic-scale outflows of ionised gas. Our aim is to understand the mechanism that determines which galaxies are able to launch these intense winds. We observed CO(1-0) at 1" resolution with ALMA in 16 edge-on galaxies, which also have 2" spatial resolution optical integral field observations from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. Half the galaxies in the sample were previously identified as harbouring intense and large-scale outflows of ionised gas ("outflow-types"), the rest serve as control galaxies. The dataset is complemented by integrated CO(1-0) observations from the IRAM 30-m telescope to probe the total molecular gas reservoirs. We find that the galaxies powering outflows do not possess significantly different global gas fractions or star-formation efficiencies when compared with a control sample. However, the ALMA maps reveal that the molecular gas in the outflow-type galaxies is distributed more centrally than in the control galaxies. For our outflow-type objects, molecular gas and star-formation is largely confined within their inner effective radius ($\rm r_{eff}$), whereas in the control sample the distribution is more diffuse, extending far beyond $\rm r_{eff}$. We infer that outflows in normal star-forming galaxies may be caused by dynamical mechanisms that drive molecular gas into their central regions, which can result in locally-enhanced gas surface density and star-formation.

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arXiv2019

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: First detection of a transition in spin orientation with respect to cosmic filaments in the stellar kinematics of galaxies

We present the first detection of mass dependent galactic spin alignments with local cosmic filaments with over 2 sigma confidence using IFS kinematics. The 3D network of cosmic filaments is reconstructed on Mpc scales across GAMA fields using the cosmic web extractor DisPerSe. We assign field galaxies from the SAMI survey to their nearest filament segment in 3D and estimate the degree of alignment between SAMI galaxies kinematic spin axis and their nearest filament in projection. Low-mass galaxies align their spin with their nearest filament while higher mass counterparts are more likely to display an orthogonal orientation. The stellar transition mass from the first trend to the second is bracketed between log stellar masses 10.4 and 10.9, with hints of an increase with filament scale. Consistent signals are found in the HorizonAGN cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. This supports a scenario of early angular momentum build-up in vorticity rich quadrants around filaments at low stellar mass followed by progressive flip of spins orthogonal to the cosmic filaments through mergers at high stellar mass. Conversely, we show that dark-matter only simulations post-processed with a semi-analytic model treatment of galaxy formation struggles to reproduce this alignment signal. This suggests that gas physics is key in enhancing the galaxy-filament alignment.

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arXiv2019

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Stellar population radial gradients in early-type galaxies

We study the internal radial gradients of the stellar populations in a sample comprising 522 early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the SAMI (Sydney- AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph) Galaxy Survey. We stack the spectra of individual spaxels in radial bins, and derive basic stellar population properties: total metallicity ([Z/H]), [Mg/Fe], [C/Fe] and age. The radial gradient ($\nabla$) and central value of the fits (evaluated at R$_e$/4) are compared against a set of six possible drivers of the trends. We find that velocity dispersion ($σ$) - or, equivalently gravitational potential - is the dominant driver of the chemical composition gradients. Surface mass density is also correlated with the trends, especially with stellar age. The decrease of $\nabla$[Mg/Fe] with increasing $σ$ is contrasted by a rather shallow dependence of $\nabla$[Z/H] with $σ$ (although this radial gradient is overall rather steep). This result, along with a shallow age slope at the massive end, imposes stringent constraints on the progenitors of the populations that contribute to the formation of the outer envelopes of ETGs. The SAMI sample is split between a 'field' sample and a cluster sample. Only weak environment-related differences are found, most notably a stronger dependence of central total metallicity ([Z/H]$_{e4}$) with $σ$, along with a marginal trend of $\nabla$[Z/H] to steepen in cluster galaxies, a result that is not followed by [Mg/Fe]. The results presented here serve as constraints on numerical models of the formation and evolution of ETGs.

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arXiv2019

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Satellite galaxies undergo little structural change during their quenching phase

At fixed stellar mass, satellite galaxies show higher passive fractions than centrals, suggesting that environment is directly quenching their star formation. Here, we investigate whether satellite quenching is accompanied by changes in stellar spin (quantified by the ratio of the rotational to dispersion velocity V/$σ$) for a sample of massive ($M_{*}>$10$^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$) satellite galaxies extracted from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. These systems are carefully matched to a control sample of main sequence, high $V/σ$ central galaxies. As expected, at fixed stellar mass and ellipticity, satellites have lower star formation rate (SFR) and spin than the control centrals. However, most of the difference is in SFR, whereas the spin decreases significantly only for satellites that have already reached the red sequence. We perform a similar analysis for galaxies in the EAGLE hydro-dynamical simulation and recover differences in both SFR and spin similar to those observed in SAMI. However, when EAGLE satellites are matched to their `true' central progenitors, the change in spin is further reduced and galaxies mainly show a decrease in SFR during their satellite phase. The difference in spin observed between satellites and centrals at $z\sim$0 is primarily due to the fact that satellites do not grow their angular momentum as fast as centrals after accreting into bigger halos, not to a reduction of $V/σ$ due to environmental effects. Our findings highlight the effect of progenitor bias in our understanding of galaxy transformation and they suggest that satellites undergo little structural change before and during their quenching phase.

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arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Exploring the gas-phase Mass-Metallicity Relation

We present a detailed exploration of the stellar mass vs. gas-phase metallicity relation (MZR) using integral field spectroscopy data obtained from ~1000 galaxies observed by the SAMI Galaxy survey. These spatially resolved spectroscopic data allow us to determine the metallicity within the same physical scale (Reff) for different calibrators. The shape of the MZ relations is very similar between the different calibrators, while there are large offsets in the absolute values of the abundances. We confirm our previous results derived using the spatially resolved data provided by the CALIFA and MaNGA surveys: (1) we do not find any significant secondary relation of the MZR with either the star formation rate (SFR) nor the specific SFR (SFR/Mass) for any of the calibrators used in this study, based on the analysis of the {individual} residuals, (2) if there is a dependence with the SFR, it is weaker than the reported one ($r_c\sim -$0.3), it is confined to the low mass regime (M*<10$^9$Msun) or high SFR regimes, and it does not produce any significant improvement in the {description of the average population of galaxies. The aparent disagreement with published results based on single fiber spectroscopic data could be due to (i) the interpretation of the secondary relation itself, (ii) the lower number of objects sampled at the low mass regime by the current study, or (iii) the presence of extreme star-forming galaxies that drive the secondary relation in previous results

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arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Observing the environmental quenching of star formation in GAMA groups

We explore the radial distribution of star formation in galaxies in the SAMI Galaxy Survey as a function of their local group environment. Using a sample of galaxies in groups (with halo masses less than $ \simeq 10^{14} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly Survey, we find signatures of environmental quenching in high-mass groups ($M_{G} > 10^{12.5} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$). The mean integrated specific star formation rate of star-forming galaxies in high-mass groups is lower than for galaxies in low-mass groups or that are ungrouped, with $Δ\log(sSFR/\mathrm{yr^{-1}}) = 0.45 \pm 0.07$. This difference is seen at all galaxy stellar masses. In high-mass groups, star-forming galaxies more massive than $M_{*} \sim 10^{10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ have centrally-concentrated star formation. These galaxies also lie below the star-formation main sequence, suggesting they may be undergoing outside-in quenching. Lower mass galaxies in high-mass groups do not show evidence of concentrated star formation. In groups less massive than $M_{G} = 10^{12.5} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ we do not observe these trends. In this regime we find a modest correlation between centrally-concentrated star formation and an enhancement in total star formation rate, consistent with triggered star formation in these galaxies.

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arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Stellar and gas misalignments and the origin of gas in nearby galaxies

Misalignment of gas and stellar rotation in galaxies can give clues to the origin and processing of accreted gas. Integral field spectroscopic observations of 1213 galaxies from the SAMI Galaxy Survey show that 11% of galaxies with fitted gas and stellar rotation are misaligned by more than 30 degrees in both field/group and cluster environments. Using SAMI morphological classifications and Sersic indices, the misalignment fraction is 45+/-6% in early-type galaxies, but only 5+/-1% in late-type galaxies. The distribution of position angle offsets is used to test the physical drivers of this difference. Slower dynamical settling time of the gas in elliptical stellar mass distributions accounts for a small increase in misalignment in early-type galaxies. However, gravitational dynamical settling time is insufficient to fully explain the observed differences between early- and late-type galaxies in the distributions of the gas/stellar position angle offsets. LTGs have primarily accreted gas close to aligned rather than settled from misaligned based on analysis of the skewed distribution of PA offsets compared to a dynamical settling model. Local environment density is less important in setting the misalignment fractions than morphology, suggesting that mergers are not the main source of accreted gas in these disks. Cluster environments are found to have gas misalignment driven primarily by cluster processes not by gas accretion.

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arXiv2018

SOFIA Community Science I: HAWC+ Polarimetry of 30 Doradus

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to accommodate a 2.7 meter gyro-stabilized telescope, which is mainly focused to studying the Universe at infrared wavelengths. As part of the Strategic Director's Discretionary Time (S-DDT) program, SOFIA performs observations of relevant science cases and immediately offers science-ready data products to the astronomical community. We present the first data release of the S-DDT program on far-infrared imaging polarimetric observations of 30 Doradus using the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (HAWC+) at 53, 89, 154, and 214 micron. We present the status and quality of the observations, an overview of the SOFIA data products, and examples of working with HAWC+ polarimetric data that will enhance the scientific analysis of this, and future, data sets. These observations illustrate the potential influence of magnetic fields and turbulence in a star-forming region within the Tarantula Nebula.

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arXiv2018

KROSS-SAMI: A Direct IFS Comparison of the Tully-Fisher Relation Across 8 Gyr Since $z \approx 1$

We construct Tully-Fisher relations (TFRs), from large samples of galaxies with spatially-resolved H$α$ emission maps from the K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) Redshift One Spectroscopic Survey (KROSS) at $z\approx1$. We compare these to data from the Sydney-Australian-Astronomical-Observatory Multi-object Integral-Field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey at $z\approx0$. We stringently match the data quality of the latter to the former, and apply identical analysis methods and sub-sample selection criteria to both to conduct a direct comparison of the absolute $K$-band magnitude and stellar mass TFRs at $z\approx1$ and $z\approx0$. We find that matching the quality of the SAMI data to that of KROSS results in TFRs that differ significantly in slope, zero-point and (sometimes) scatter in comparison to the corresponding original SAMI relations. These differences are in every case as large or larger than the differences between the KROSS $z\approx1$ and matched SAMI $z\approx0$ relations. Accounting for these differences, we compare the TFRs at $z\approx1$ and $z\approx0$. For disk-like, star-forming galaxies we find no significant difference in the TFR zero-points between the two epochs. This suggests the growth of stellar mass and dark matter in these types of galaxies is intimately linked over this $\approx8$ Gyr period.

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arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: embedded discs and radial trends in outer dynamical support across the Hubble sequence

We study the balance in dynamical support of 384 galaxies with stellar kinematics out to >1.5R_e in the Sydney AAO Multi-object Integral Field (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. We present radial dynamical profiles of the local rotation dominance parameter, V/sigma, and local spin, lambda_loc. Although there is a broad range in amplitude, most kinematic profiles monotonically increase across the probed radial range. We do not find many galaxies with kinematic transitions such as those expected between the inner in-situ and outer accreted stars within the radial range probed. We compare the V/sigma gradient and maximum values to the visual morphologies of the galaxies to better understand the link between visual and kinematic morphologies. We find that the radial distribution of dynamical support in galaxies is linked to their visual morphology. Late-type systems have higher rotational support at all radii and steeper V/sigma gradients compared to early-type galaxies. We perform a search for embedded discs, which are rotationally supported discy structures embedded within large scale slowly or non-rotating structures. Visual inspection of the kinematics reveals at most three galaxies (out of 384) harbouring embedded discs. This is more than an order of magnitude fewer than the observed fraction in some local studies. Our tests suggest that this tension can be attributed to differences in the sample selection, spatial sampling and beam smearing due to seeing.

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arXiv2018

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: gas content and interaction as the drivers of kinematic asymmetry

In order to determine the causes of kinematic asymmetry in the H$α$ gas in the SAMI Galaxy Survey sample, we investigate the comparative influences of environment and intrinsic properties of galaxies on perturbation. We use spatially resolved H$α$ velocity fields from the SAMI Galaxy Survey to quantify kinematic asymmetry ($\overline{v_{asym}}$) in nearby galaxies and environmental and stellar mass data from the GAMA survey. {We find that local environment, measured as distance to nearest neighbour, is inversely correlated with kinematic asymmetry for galaxies with $\mathrm{\log(M_*/M_\odot)}>10.0$, but there is no significant correlation for galaxies with $\mathrm{\log(M_*/M_\odot)}<10.0$. Moreover, low mass galaxies ($\mathrm{\log(M_*/M_\odot)}<9.0$) have greater kinematic asymmetry at all separations, suggesting a different physical source of asymmetry is important in low mass galaxies.} We propose that secular effects derived from gas fraction and gas mass may be the primary causes of asymmetry in low mass galaxies. High gas fraction is linked to high $\frac{σ_{m}}{V}$ (where $σ_m$ is H$α$ velocity dispersion and $V$ the rotation velocity), which is strongly correlated with $\overline{v_{asym}}$, and galaxies with $\log(M_*/M_\odot)<9.0$ have offset $\overline{\frac{σ_{m}}{V}}$ from the rest of the sample. Further, asymmetry as a fraction of dispersion decreases for galaxies with $\log(M_*/M_\odot)<9.0$. Gas mass and asymmetry are also inversely correlated in our sample. We propose that low gas masses in dwarf galaxies may lead to asymmetric distribution of gas clouds, leading to increased relative turbulence.

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arXiv2017

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: The Low-Redshift Stellar Mass Tully-Fisher Relation

We investigate the Tully-Fisher Relation (TFR) for a morphologically and kine- matically diverse sample of galaxies from the SAMI Galaxy Survey using 2 dimensional spatially resolved Halpha velocity maps and find a well defined relation across the stellar mass range of 8.0 < log(M*) < 11.5. We use an adaptation of kinemetry to parametrise the kinematic Halpha asymmetry of all galaxies in the sample, and find a correlation between scatter (i.e. residuals off the TFR) and asymmetry. This effect is pronounced at low stellar mass, corresponding to the inverse relationship between stellar mass and kinematic asymmetry found in previous work. For galaxies with log(M*) < 9.5, 25 +/- 3% are scattered below the root mean square (RMS) of the TFR, whereas for galaxies with log(M*) > 9.5 the fraction is 10 +/- 1% We use 'simulated slits' to directly compare our results with those from long slit spectroscopy and find that aligning slits with the photometric, rather than the kinematic, position angle, increases global scatter below the TFR. Further, kinematic asymmetry is correlated with misalignment between the photometric and kinematic position angles. This work demonstrates the value of 2D spatially resolved kinematics for accurate TFR studies; integral field spectroscopy reduces the underestimation of rotation velocity that can occur from slit positioning off the kinematic axis.

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arXiv2017

Self-consistent bulge/disk/halo galaxy dynamical modeling using integral field kinematics

We introduce a method for modeling disk galaxies designed to take full advantage of data from integral field spectroscopy (IFS). The method fits equilibrium models to simultaneously reproduce the surface brightness, rotation and velocity dispersion profiles of a galaxy. The models are fully self-consistent 6D distribution functions for a galaxy with a Sersic-profile stellar bulge, exponential disk and parametric dark matter halo, generated by an updated version of GalactICS. By creating realistic flux-weighted maps of the kinematic moments (flux, mean velocity and dispersion), we simultaneously fit photometric and spectroscopic data using both maximum-likelihood and Bayesian (MCMC) techniques. We apply the method to a GAMA spiral galaxy (G79635) with kinematics from the SAMI Galaxy Survey and deep $g$- and $r$-band photometry from the VST-KiDS survey, comparing parameter constraints with those from traditional 2D bulge-disk decomposition. Our method returns broadly consistent results for shared parameters, while constraining the mass-to-light ratios of stellar components and reproducing the HI-inferred circular velocity well beyond the limits of the SAMI data. While the method is tailored for fitting integral field kinematic data, it can use other dynamical constraints like central fibre dispersions and \HI circular velocities, and is well-suited for modelling galaxies with a combination of deep imaging and HI and/or optical spectra (resolved or otherwise). Our implementation (MagRite) is computationally efficient and can generate well-resolved models and kinematic maps in under a minute on modern processors.

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arXiv2017

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: the intrinsic shape of kinematically selected galaxies

Using the stellar kinematic maps and ancillary imaging data from the Sydney AAO Multi Integral field (SAMI) Galaxy Survey, the intrinsic shape of kinematically-selected samples of galaxies is inferred. We implement an efficient and optimised algorithm to fit the intrinsic shape of galaxies using an established method to simultaneously invert the distributions of apparent ellipticities and kinematic misalignments. The algorithm output compares favourably with previous studies of the intrinsic shape of galaxies based on imaging alone and our re-analysis of the ATLAS3D data. Our results indicate that most galaxies are oblate axisymmetric. We show empirically that the intrinsic shape of galaxies varies as a function of their rotational support as measured by the "spin" parameter proxy Lambda_Re. In particular, low spin systems have a higher occurrence of triaxiality, while high spin systems are more intrinsically flattened and axisymmetric. The intrinsic shape of galaxies is linked to their formation and merger histories. Galaxies with high spin values have intrinsic shapes consistent with dissipational minor mergers, while the intrinsic shape of low-spin systems is consistent with dissipationless multi-merger assembly histories. This range in assembly histories inferred from intrinsic shapes is broadly consistent with expectations from cosmological simulations.

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