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NIHAO XXIV: rotation- or pressure-supported systems? Simulated Ultra Diffuse Galaxies show a broad distribution in their stellar kinematics.

Authors :
Cardona-Barrero, Salvador
Di Cintio, Arianna
Brook, Christopher B A
Ruiz-Lara, Tomas
Beasley, Michael A
Falcón-Barroso, Jesus
Macciò, Andrea V
Source :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Oct2020, Vol. 497 Issue 4, p4282-4292. 11p.
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

In recent years, a new window on galaxy evolution opened, thanks to the increasing discovery of galaxies with a low-surface brightness, such as Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs). The formation mechanism of these systems is still a much debated question and so are their kinematical properties. In this work, we address this topic by analysing the stellar kinematics of isolated UDGs formed in the hydrodynamical simulation suite Numerical Investigation of a Hundred Astrophysical Objects (NIHAO). We construct projected line-of-sight velocity and velocity dispersion maps to compute the projected specific angular momentum, λR, to characterize the kinematical support of the stars in these galaxies. We found that UDGs cover a broad distribution, ranging from dispersion to rotation-supported galaxies, with similar abundances in both regimes. The degree of rotation support of simulated UDGs correlates with several properties such as galaxy morphology, higher H  i fractions, and larger effective radii with respect to the dispersion-supported group, while the dark matter halo spin and mass accretion history are similar among the two populations. We demonstrate that the alignment of the infalling baryons into the protogalaxy at early z is the principal driver of the z  = 0 stellar kinematic state: pressure-supported isolated UDGs form via misaligned gas accretion while rotation-supported ones build up their baryons in an ordered manner. Accounting for random inclination effects, we predict that a comprehensive survey will find nearly half of field UDGs to have rotationally supported stellar discs, when selecting UDGs with effective radius larger than 1 kpc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
00358711
Volume :
497
Issue :
4
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
145521040
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2094