Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： The halo stars on highly radial orbits should inevitably pass the center regions of the Milky Way. Under the assumption that the stellar halo is in dynamical equilibrium and axisymmetric, we integrate the orbits of $\sim 10,000$ halo K-giants at $5\leq r \leq 50$ kpc cross-matched from LAMOST DR5 and $Gaia$ DR3. By carefully considering the selection function, we construct the stellar halo distribution at the entire regions of $r \leq 50$ kpc. We find that a double-broken power-law function well describes the stellar halo density distribution with shallower slopes in the inner regions and the two breaks at $r=10$ kpc and $r=25$ kpc, respectively. The stellar halo becomes flatter from outer to inner regions but has $q\sim 0.5$ at $r \lesssim 5$ kpc. The stellar halo becomes isotropic with a slight prograde rotation in the inner 5 kpc, and reaches velocity dispersions of $\sim 250\rm \ km\ s^{-1}$. We get a weak negative metallicity gradient of $-0.005$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ at $5\leq r \leq 50$ kpc, while there is an excess of relative metal-rich stars with [Fe/H]$>-1$ in the inner 10 kpc. The halo interlopers at $r \leq 5$ kpc from integration of our sample has a mass of $\sim1.2 \times 10^8\ M_{\odot}$ ($\sim 4.7 \times 10^7\ M_{\odot}$ at [Fe/H]$<-1.5$), which can explain 50-100% of the metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]$<-1.5$ directly observed in the Galactic central regions.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： Barred structures are important in understanding galaxy evolution, but they were not included explicitly in most dynamical models for nearby galaxies due to their complicated morphological and kinematic properties. We modify the triaxial orbit-superposition Schwarzschild implementation by Van den Bosch et al. (2008) to include barred structures explicitly. The gravitational potential is a combination of a spherical dark matter halo and stellar mass; with the 3D stellar density distribution de-projected from the observed 2D image using a two-component de-projection method, including an axisymmetric disk and a triaxial barred bulge. We consider figure rotation of the galaxy with the bar pattern speed as a free parameter. We validate the method by applying it to a mock galaxy with IFU data created from an N-body simulation with a boxy/peanut or X-shaped bar. Our model fits the observed 2D surface density and all kinematic features well. The bar pattern speed is recovered well with a relative uncertainty smaller than 10%. Based on the internal stellar orbit distribution of the model, we decompose the galaxy into an X-shaped bar, a boxy bulge, a vertically extended structure and a disk, and demonstrate that our model recovers these structures generally well, similar to the true structures in the N-body simulation. Our method provides a realistic way of modelling the bar structure explicitly for nearby barred galaxies with IFU observations.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Ling Zhu
Annalisa Pillepich
Glenn van de Ven
Ryan Leaman
Lars Hernquist
Dylan Nelson
Ruediger Pakmor
Mark Vogelsberger
Le Zhang
Abstract： Galactic dynamical structures are fossil records of the assembly histories of
galaxies. By analyzing the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation TNG50, we
find that a dynamical structure that we call the "hot inner stellar halo,"
defined by stars on dynamically hot orbits with circularity $\lambda_z < 0.5$
at $3.5\,{\rm kpc}
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Min Bao
Yanmei Chen
Pengpei Zhu
Yong Shi
Dmitry Bizyaev
Ling Zhu
Meng Yang
Minje Beom
Joel R. Brownstein
Richard R. Lane
Abstract： Using the integral field unit (IFU) data from Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we select a sample of 101 galaxies with counter-rotating stellar disks and regularly-rotating ionized gas disk. We classify the 101 galaxies into four types based on the features of their stellar velocity fields. The relative fractions and stellar population age radial gradients of the four types are different in blue cloud (BC), green valley (GV) and red sequence (RS) populations. We suggest different formation scenarios for the counter-rotating stellar disks, and the key factors in the formation of counter-rotating stellar disks include: (1) the abundance of pre-existing gas in progenitor, (2) the efficiency in angular momentum consumption.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Ling Zhu
Glenn van de Ven
Ryan Leaman
Annalisa Pillepich
Lodovico Coccato
Yuchen Ding
Jesús Falcón-Barroso
Enrichetta Iodice
Ignacio Martin Navarro
Francesca Pinna
Enrico Maria Corsini
Dimitri A. Gadotti
Katja Fahrion
Mariya Lyubenova
Shude Mao
Richard McDermid
Adriano Poci
Marc Sarzi
Tim de Zeeuw
Abstract： We report the discovery of ancient massive merger events in the early-type galaxies NGC 1380 and NGC 1427, members of the Fornax galaxy cluster. Both galaxies have been observed by the MUSE IFU instrument on the VLT, as part of the Fornax3D project. By fitting recently-developed population-orbital superposition models to the observed surface brightness as well as stellar kinematic, age, and metallicity maps, we obtain the stellar orbits, age and metallicity distributions of each galaxy. We then decompose each galaxy into multiple orbital-based components, including a dynamically hot inner stellar halo component which is identified as the relic of past massive mergers. By comparing to analogues from cosmological galaxy simulations, chiefly TNG50, we find that the formation of such a hot inner stellar halo requires the merger with a now-destroyed massive satellite galaxy of $3.7_{-1.5}^{+2.7} \times 10^{10}$ Msun (about $1/5$ of its current stellar mass) in the case of NGC 1380 and of $1.5_{-0.7}^{+1.6} \times10^{10}$ Msun (about $1/4$ of its current stellar mass) in the case of NGC 1427. Moreover, we infer that the last massive merger in NGC 1380 happened $\sim10$ Gyr ago based on the stellar age distribution of the re-grown dynamically cold disk, whereas the merger in NGC 1427 ended $t\lesssim 8$ Gyr ago based on the stellar populations in its hot inner stellar halo. The major merger event in NGC 1380 is the first one with both merger mass and merger time quantitatively inferred in a galaxy beyond the Local Volume. Moreover, it is the oldest and most massive merger uncovered in nearby galaxies so far.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Wenting Wang
Ling Zhu
Zhaozhou Li
Yang Chen
Jiaxin Han
Feihong He
Xiaohu Yang
Yipeng Jing
Carlos Frenk
Jialu Nie
Hao Tian
Chao Liu
Yanan Cao
Xiaoqing Qiu
John Helly
Robert J. J. Grand
Facundo A. Gomez
Abstract： Mock member stars for 28 dwarf galaxies are constructed from the cosmological Auriga simulation, which reflect the dynamical status of realistic stellar tracers. The axis-symmetric Jeans Anisotropic Multi-Gaussian Expansion (JAM) modeling is applied to 6,000 star particles for each system, to recover the underlying matter distribution. The stellar or dark matter component individually is poorly recovered, but the total profile is constrained more reasonably. The mass within the half-mass radius of tracers is recovered the tightest, and the mass between 200 and 300 pc, $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$, is constrained ensemble unbiasedly, with a scatter of 0.167 dex. If using 2,000 particles and only line-of-sight velocities with typical errors, the scatter in $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$ is increased by $\sim$50%. Quiescent Sagittarius dSph-like systems and star-forming systems with strong outflows show distinct features, with $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$ mostly under-estimated for the former, and likely over-estimated for the latter. The biases correlate with the dynamical status, which is a result of contraction motions due to tidal effects in quiescent systems or galactic winds in star-forming systems, driving them out of equilibrium. After including Gaia DR3 proper motion errors, we find proper motions can be as useful as line-of-sight velocities for nearby systems at $<\sim$60 kpc. By extrapolating the actual density profiles and the dynamical constraints down to scales below the resolution, we find the mass within 150 pc can be constrained ensemble unbiasedly, with a scatter of $\sim$0.255 dex. In the end, we show that the contraction of member stars in nearby systems is detectable based on Gaia DR3 proper motion errors.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Abstract： The halo stars on highly radial orbits should inevitably pass the center regions of the Milky Way. Under the assumption that the stellar halo is in dynamical equilibrium and axisymmetric, we integrate the orbits of $\sim 10,000$ halo K-giants at $5\leq r \leq 50$ kpc cross-matched from LAMOST DR5 and $Gaia$ DR3. By carefully considering the selection function, we construct the stellar halo distribution at the entire regions of $r \leq 50$ kpc. We find that a double-broken power-law function well describes the stellar halo density distribution with shallower slopes in the inner regions and the two breaks at $r=10$ kpc and $r=25$ kpc, respectively. The stellar halo becomes flatter from outer to inner regions but has $q\sim 0.5$ at $r \lesssim 5$ kpc. The stellar halo becomes isotropic with a slight prograde rotation in the inner 5 kpc, and reaches velocity dispersions of $\sim 250\rm \ km\ s^{-1}$. We get a weak negative metallicity gradient of $-0.005$ dex kpc$^{-1}$ at $5\leq r \leq 50$ kpc, while there is an excess of relative metal-rich stars with [Fe/H]$>-1$ in the inner 10 kpc. The halo interlopers at $r \leq 5$ kpc from integration of our sample has a mass of $\sim1.2 \times 10^8\ M_{\odot}$ ($\sim 4.7 \times 10^7\ M_{\odot}$ at [Fe/H]$<-1.5$), which can explain 50-100% of the metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]$<-1.5$ directly observed in the Galactic central regions.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Wenting Wang
Ling Zhu
Zhaozhou Li
Yang Chen
Jiaxin Han
Feihong He
Xiaohu Yang
Yipeng Jing
Carlos Frenk
Jialu Nie
Hao Tian
Chao Liu
Yanan Cao
Xiaoqing Qiu
John Helly
Robert J. J. Grand
Facundo A. Gomez
Abstract： Mock member stars for 28 dwarf galaxies are constructed from the cosmological Auriga simulation, which reflect the dynamical status of realistic stellar tracers. The axis-symmetric Jeans Anisotropic Multi-Gaussian Expansion (JAM) modeling is applied to 6,000 star particles for each system, to recover the underlying matter distribution. The stellar or dark matter component individually is poorly recovered, but the total profile is constrained more reasonably. The mass within the half-mass radius of tracers is recovered the tightest, and the mass between 200 and 300 pc, $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$, is constrained ensemble unbiasedly, with a scatter of 0.167 dex. If using 2,000 particles and only line-of-sight velocities with typical errors, the scatter in $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$ is increased by $\sim$50%. Quiescent Sagittarius dSph-like systems and star-forming systems with strong outflows show distinct features, with $M(200-300\mathrm{pc})$ mostly under-estimated for the former, and likely over-estimated for the latter. The biases correlate with the dynamical status, which is a result of contraction motions due to tidal effects in quiescent systems or galactic winds in star-forming systems, driving them out of equilibrium. After including Gaia DR3 proper motion errors, we find proper motions can be as useful as line-of-sight velocities for nearby systems at $<\sim$60 kpc. By extrapolating the actual density profiles and the dynamical constraints down to scales below the resolution, we find the mass within 150 pc can be constrained ensemble unbiasedly, with a scatter of $\sim$0.255 dex. In the end, we show that the contraction of member stars in nearby systems is detectable based on Gaia DR3 proper motion errors.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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