TY - JOUR
T1 - The SAMI galaxy survey
T2 - Detection of environmental dependence of galaxy spin in observations and simulations using marked correlation functions
AU - Rutherford, Tomas H.
AU - Croom, Scott M.
AU - van de Sande, Jesse
AU - del Lagos, Claudia P.
AU - Bland-Hawthorn, Joss
AU - Brough, S.
AU - Bryant, Julia J.
AU - D’Eugenio, Francesco
AU - Owers, Matt S.
PY - 2021/9/10
Y1 - 2021/9/10
N2 - The existence of a kinematic morphology–density relation remains uncertain, and instead stellar mass appears the more dominant driver of galaxy kinematics. We investigate the dependence of the stellar spin parameter proxy lRe on environment using a marked cross-correlation method with data from the Sydney Australian Astronomical Observatory Multi-object Integral-field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. Our sample contains 710 galaxies with spatially resolved stellar velocity and velocity dispersion measurements. By utilizing the highly complete spectroscopic data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly Survey, we calculate marked cross-correlation functions for SAMI galaxies using a pair count estimator and marks based on stellar mass and lRe. We detect an anticorrelation of stellar kinematics with environment at the 3.2σ level, such that galaxies with low lRe values are preferably located in denser galaxy environments. However, a significant correlation between stellar mass and environment is also found (correlation at 2.4σ), as found in previous works. We compare these results to mock observations from the cosmological Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations, where we find a similar significant lRe anticorrelation with environment, and a mass and environment correlation. We demonstrate that the environmental correlation of lRe is not caused by the mass–environment relation. The significant relationship between lRe and environment remains when we exclude slow rotators. The signals in SAMI and EAGLE are strongest on small scales (10–100 kpc) as expected from galaxy interactions and mergers. Our work demonstrates that the technique of marked correlation functions is an effective tool for detecting the relationship between lRe and environment.
AB - The existence of a kinematic morphology–density relation remains uncertain, and instead stellar mass appears the more dominant driver of galaxy kinematics. We investigate the dependence of the stellar spin parameter proxy lRe on environment using a marked cross-correlation method with data from the Sydney Australian Astronomical Observatory Multi-object Integral-field Spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey. Our sample contains 710 galaxies with spatially resolved stellar velocity and velocity dispersion measurements. By utilizing the highly complete spectroscopic data from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly Survey, we calculate marked cross-correlation functions for SAMI galaxies using a pair count estimator and marks based on stellar mass and lRe. We detect an anticorrelation of stellar kinematics with environment at the 3.2σ level, such that galaxies with low lRe values are preferably located in denser galaxy environments. However, a significant correlation between stellar mass and environment is also found (correlation at 2.4σ), as found in previous works. We compare these results to mock observations from the cosmological Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) simulations, where we find a similar significant lRe anticorrelation with environment, and a mass and environment correlation. We demonstrate that the environmental correlation of lRe is not caused by the mass–environment relation. The significant relationship between lRe and environment remains when we exclude slow rotators. The signals in SAMI and EAGLE are strongest on small scales (10–100 kpc) as expected from galaxy interactions and mergers. Our work demonstrates that the technique of marked correlation functions is an effective tool for detecting the relationship between lRe and environment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115908582&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac0e8d
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac0e8d
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115908582
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 918
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 84
ER -