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The specific angular momentum of disc galaxies and its connection with galaxy morphology, bar structure, and disc gravitational instability

Romeo, Alessandro B. ; Agertz, Oscar LU and Renaud, Florent LU (2023) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 518(1). p.1002-1021
Abstract

The specific angular momenta (j J/M) of stars (j∗), gas (jgas), baryons as a whole (jb) and dark matter haloes (jh) contain clues of vital importance about how galaxies form and evolve. Using one of the largest samples of disc galaxies (S0-BCD) with high-quality rotation curves and near-infrared surface photometry, we perform a detailed comparative analysis of j that stretches across a variety of galaxy properties. Our analysis imposes tight constraints on the 'retained' fractions of specific angular momentum (j∗/jh, jH i/jh, and jb/jh), as well as on their systematic trends with mass fraction and galaxy morphology, thus on how well specific angular momentum is conserved in the process of disc galaxy formation and evolution. In... (More)

The specific angular momenta (j J/M) of stars (j∗), gas (jgas), baryons as a whole (jb) and dark matter haloes (jh) contain clues of vital importance about how galaxies form and evolve. Using one of the largest samples of disc galaxies (S0-BCD) with high-quality rotation curves and near-infrared surface photometry, we perform a detailed comparative analysis of j that stretches across a variety of galaxy properties. Our analysis imposes tight constraints on the 'retained' fractions of specific angular momentum (j∗/jh, jH i/jh, and jb/jh), as well as on their systematic trends with mass fraction and galaxy morphology, thus on how well specific angular momentum is conserved in the process of disc galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, one of the most innovative results of our analysis is the finding that galaxies with larger baryon fractions have also retained larger fractions of their specific angular momentum. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates how challenging it is to characterize barred galaxies from a gravitational instability point of view. This is true not only for the popular Efstathiou, Lake & Negroponte bar instability criterion, which fails to separate barred from non-barred galaxies in about 55 per cent of the cases, but also for the mass-weighted Toomre parameter of atomic gas, <QHi>, which succeeds in separating barred from non-barred galaxies, but only in a statistical sense.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
galaxies: fundamental parameters, galaxies: haloes, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: kinematics and dynamics, galaxies: stellar content, instabilities
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
518
issue
1
pages
20 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85150793049
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stac3074
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
id
93053634-fce3-4422-ba84-e152e2038e24
date added to LUP
2024-01-12 13:44:14
date last changed
2024-04-13 07:12:21
@article{93053634-fce3-4422-ba84-e152e2038e24,
  abstract     = {{<p>The specific angular momenta (j J/M) of stars (j∗), gas (jgas), baryons as a whole (jb) and dark matter haloes (jh) contain clues of vital importance about how galaxies form and evolve. Using one of the largest samples of disc galaxies (S0-BCD) with high-quality rotation curves and near-infrared surface photometry, we perform a detailed comparative analysis of j that stretches across a variety of galaxy properties. Our analysis imposes tight constraints on the 'retained' fractions of specific angular momentum (j∗/jh, jH i/jh, and jb/jh), as well as on their systematic trends with mass fraction and galaxy morphology, thus on how well specific angular momentum is conserved in the process of disc galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, one of the most innovative results of our analysis is the finding that galaxies with larger baryon fractions have also retained larger fractions of their specific angular momentum. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates how challenging it is to characterize barred galaxies from a gravitational instability point of view. This is true not only for the popular Efstathiou, Lake &amp; Negroponte bar instability criterion, which fails to separate barred from non-barred galaxies in about 55 per cent of the cases, but also for the mass-weighted Toomre parameter of atomic gas, &lt;QHi&gt;, which succeeds in separating barred from non-barred galaxies, but only in a statistical sense.</p>}},
  author       = {{Romeo, Alessandro B. and Agertz, Oscar and Renaud, Florent}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{galaxies: fundamental parameters; galaxies: haloes; galaxies: ISM; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; galaxies: stellar content; instabilities}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1002--1021}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{The specific angular momentum of disc galaxies and its connection with galaxy morphology, bar structure, and disc gravitational instability}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3074}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/stac3074}},
  volume       = {{518}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}