Environment and mass dependencies of galactic $\lambda$ spin parameter: cosmological simulations and observed galaxies compared

Abstract

We use a sample of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to search for correlations between the $\lambda$ spin parameter and the environment and mass of galaxies. In order to calculate the total value of $\lambda$ for each observed galaxy, we employed a simple model of the dynamical structure of the galaxies, which allows a rough estimate of the value of $\lambda$ using only readily obtainable observables from the luminous galaxies. Use of a large volume-limited sample (upwards of 11,000) allows reliable inferences of mean values and dispersions of $\lambda$ distributions. We find, in agreement with some N-body cosmological simulations, no significant dependence of $\lambda$ on the environmental density of the galaxies. For the case of mass, our results show a marked correlation with $\lambda$, in the sense that low-mass galaxies present both higher mean values of $\lambda$ and associated dispersions, than high-mass galaxies. These results provide interesting constrain on the mechanisms of galaxy formation and acquisition of angular momentum, a valuable test for cosmological models.

11 pages, 5 figures. Matches MNRAS published version

References in corpus (45)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• The Formation of Galactic Disks
• The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Structure of Dark Matter Haloes in Hierarchical Clustering Models
• Concentration, Spin and Shape of Dark Matter Haloes: Scatter and the Dependence on Mass and Environment
• The Formation of Disk Galaxies
• Properties of Dark Matter Haloes in Clusters, Filaments, Sheets and Voids
• The spin and shape of dark matter haloes in the Millennium simulation of a LambdaCDM universe
• The Morphology-Density Relation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The origin of angular momentum in dark matter halos
• Environmental Dependence of Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Origin and Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relationship for Galaxies: Results from Cosmological N-Body Simulations
• Spin alignment of dark matter haloes in filaments and walls
• The Angular Momentum of Gas in Proto-Galaxies I. Implications for the Formation of Disk Galaxies
• Internal and Collective Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Statistics of Physical Properties of Dark Matter Clusters
• The effects of feedback on the morphology of galaxy discs
• The Formation of Disk-Bulge-Halo Systems and the Origin of the Hubble Sequence
• Morphology Segregation of Galaxies in the Color-Color Gradient Space
• Stellar and Dynamical Masses of Ellipticals in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The baryon fraction of LambdaCDM haloes
• Modeling Angular-Momentum History in Dark-Matter Halos
• The dependence on environment of Cold Dark Matter Halo properties
• Angular momentum transport and disk morphology in SPH simulations of galaxy formation
• Dark and Baryonic Matter in Bright Spiral Galaxies: II. Radial Distributions for 34 Galaxies
• Bulges versus disks: the evolution of angular momentum in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation
• The Tully-Fisher Relation and H_not
• Structure and kinematics of edge-on galaxy discs -- V. The dynamics of the stellar discs
• Testing linear-theory predictions of galaxy formation
• Semi-Analytical Models for the Formation of Disk Galaxies II. Dark Matter versus Modified Newtonian Dynamics
• First Structure Formation: A Simulation of Small Scale Structure at High Redshift
• Transformation of Morphology and Luminosity Classes of the SDSS Galaxies
• {Chemo-spectrophotometric evolution of spiral galaxies: IV. Star formation efficiency and effective ages of spirals
• The Formation of Galaxy Disks
• Empirical distributions of galactic $\lambda$ spin parameters from the SDSS
• 3D Spectroscopy with VLT/GIRAFFE - IV: Angular Momentum and Dynamical Support of Intermediate Redshift Galaxies
• A New Halo Finding Method for N-Body Simulations
• Measuring the Spin of Spiral Galaxies
• A Dimensional study of Disk Galaxies
• The Cosmological Dependence of Galactic Specific Angular Momenta
• The Tully-Fisher Relation as a Measure of Luminosity Evolution: A Low Redshift Baseline for Evolving Galaxies
• A Subhalo-Galaxy Correspondence Model of Galaxy Formation
• A cosmological study of the star formation history in the solar neighbourhood
• On the origin of the Tully-Fisher relation
• The Origin of the Correlation between the Spin Parameter and the Baryon Fraction of Galactic Disks

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Angular momentum and galaxy formation revisited
• The impact of bars on disk breaks as probed by S4G imaging
• The cosmic history of the spin of dark matter haloes within the large scale structure
• On the baryonic, stellar, and luminous scaling relations of disk galaxies
• Radial distribution of stars, gas and dust in SINGS galaxies. III. Modeling the evolution of the stellar component in galaxy disks
• Density profile slope in Dwarfs and environment
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The kinematic-morphology of galaxies on the mass vs star-formation relation in different environments
• The Most Bound Halo Particle-Galaxy Correspondence Model: Comparison between Models with Different Merger Timescales
• Stochastic angular momentum slews and flips and their effect on discs in galaxy formation models
• Angular momentum and clustering properties of early dark matter halos
• The role of spin in the formation and evolution of galaxies
• On the galactic spin of barred disk galaxies
• Wobbling galaxy spin axes in dense environments
• A Study of Environmental Effects on Galaxy Spin Using MaNGA Data
• Spin and structural halo properties at high redshift in a LCDM Universe
• Gravitational Potential Environment of Galaxies: I. Simulation
• Stochastic Model of the Spin Distribution of Dark Matter Halos
• The galactic spin of AGN galaxies