The MASSIVE Survey - III. Molecular gas and a broken Tully-Fisher relation in the most massive early-type galaxies

Abstract

In this work we present CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) observations of a pilot sample of 15 early-type galaxies (ETGs) drawn from the MASSIVE galaxy survey, a volume-limited integral-field spectroscopic study of the most massive ETGs ($M_{\ast }>10^{11.5}{M}_{\odot }$) within 108 Mpc. These objects were selected because they showed signs of an interstellar medium and/or star formation. A large amount of gas ($>$2$\times$10${}^8$ M${}_{\odot }$) is present in 10 out of 15 objects, and these galaxies have gas fractions higher than expected based on extrapolation from lower mass samples. We tentatively interpret this as evidence that stellar mass loss and hot halo cooling may be starting to play a role in fuelling the most massive galaxies. These MASSIVE ETGs seem to have lower star-formation efficiencies (SFE=SFR/M${}_{H2}$) than spiral galaxies, but the SFEs derived are consistent with being drawn from the same distribution found in other lower mass ETG samples. This suggests that the SFE is not simply a function of stellar mass, but that local, internal processes are more important for regulating star formation. Finally we used the CO line profiles to investigate the high-mass end of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). We find that there is a break in the slope of the TFR for ETGs at high masses (consistent with previous studies). The strength of this break correlates with the stellar velocity dispersion of the host galaxies, suggesting it is caused by additional baryonic mass being present in the centre of massive ETGs. We speculate on the root cause of this change and its implications for galaxy formation theories.

13 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (20)

• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• A systematic variation of the stellar initial mass function in early-type galaxies
• COLD GASS, an IRAM Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas in Massive Galaxies: II. The non-universality of the Molecular Gas Depletion Timescale
• The Atlas3D project -- XXIX. The new look of early-type galaxies and surrounding fields disclosed by extremely deep optical images
• The impact of interactions, bars, bulges, and AGN on star formation efficiency in local massive galaxies
• The luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Implications for formation history
• The MASSIVE Survey - I. A Volume-Limited Integral-Field Spectroscopic Study of the Most Massive Early-Type Galaxies within 108 Mpc
• Molecular Gas and Star Formation in the SAURON Early-type Galaxies
• The ATLAS3D Project - XXVIII. Dynamically-driven star formation suppression in early-type galaxies
• The Atlas3D project - XXIV. The intrinsic shape distribution of early-type galaxies
• Small scatter and nearly-isothermal mass profiles to four half-light radii from two-dimensional stellar dynamics of early-type galaxies
• The Tully-Fisher relation for S0 galaxies
• Hunting for Supermassive Black Holes in Nearby Galaxies with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
• The high mass end of the Tully-Fisher relation
• The Cool ISM in Elliptical Galaxies. I. A Survey of Molecular Gas
• The CO Tully-Fisher Relation and Implications for the Host Galaxies of High-Redshift Quasars
• Molecular and atomic gas in dust lane early-type galaxies - I: Low star-formation efficiencies in minor merger remnants
• The HI Tully-Fisher Relation of Early-Type Galaxies
• Filamentary Star Formation in NGC 1275
• Cold gas in group-dominant elliptical galaxies

Cited by in corpus (44)

• Star formation is boosted (and quenched) from the inside out: radial star formation profiles from MaNGA
• A massive stellar bulge in a regularly rotating galaxy 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang
• The MASSIVE Survey IV.: The X-ray halos of the most massive early-type galaxies in the nearby Universe
• The MASSIVE Survey - V. Spatially-Resolved Stellar Angular Momentum, Velocity Dispersion, and Higher Moments of the 41 Most Massive Local Early-Type Galaxies
• Fast rotating and low-turbulence discs at $z\simeq 4.5$: Dynamical evidence of their evolution into local early-type galaxies
• Massive quenched galaxies at z~0.7 retain large molecular gas reservoirs
• The MASSIVE Survey - VIII. Stellar Velocity Dispersion Profiles and Environmental Dependence of Early-Type Galaxies
• Molecular Gas Contents and Scaling Relations for Massive Passive Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts from the LEGA-C Survey
• The MASSIVE survey - XI. What drives the molecular gas properties of early-type galaxies
• ALMA measures rapidly depleted molecular gas reservoirs in massive quiescent galaxies at z~1.5
• The impact of quenching on galaxy profiles in the Simba simulation
• Formation of S0 galaxies through mergers. Evolution in the Tully-Fisher relation since $z\sim 1$
• Ubiquitous Molecular Outflows in z > 4 Massive, Dusty Galaxies II. Momentum-Driven Winds Powered by Star Formation in the Early Universe
• WISDOM Project -- X. The morphology of the molecular ISM in galaxy centres and its dependence on galaxy structure
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in a Compact, Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.522
• Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances for MASSIVE and Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies
• Evolution of the cold gas properties of simulated post-starburst galaxies
• Rotation curves and scaling relations of extremely massive spiral galaxies
• Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age. Secondary distance indicators
• The Diverse Molecular Gas Content of Massive Galaxies Undergoing Quenching at z~1
• The MASSIVE SURVEY XVI. The Stellar Initial Mass Function in the Center of MASSIVE Early-Type Galaxies
• The MASSIVE Survey IX: Photometric Analysis of 35 High Mass Early-Type Galaxies with HST WFC3/IR
• The MASSIVE Survey -- XV. A Stellar Dynamical Mass Measurement of the Supermassive Black Hole in Massive Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1453
• The MASSIVE Survey VI: The Spatial Distribution and Kinematics of Warm Ionized Gas in the Most Massive Local Early-type Galaxies
• The Tully-Fisher Relation of COLD GASS Galaxies
• VLA Radio Study of a Sample of Nearby X-ray and Optically Bright Early-Type Galaxies
• Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $\mathrm{z}\sim 0.7$ Linked to Late Time Star Formation
• The MBHBM${}^{\star }$ Project -- II. Molecular Gas Kinematics in the Lenticular Galaxy NGC 3593 Reveal a Supermassive Black Hole
• A General Precipitation-Limited L_X-T-R Relation Among Early-Type Galaxies
• Double-peak emission line galaxies in the SDSS catalogue. A minor merger sequence
• The Impact of Type Ia Supernovae in Quiescent Galaxies: I. Formation of the Multiphase Interstellar medium
• WISDOM project -- VI. Exploring the relation between supermassive black hole mass and galaxy rotation with molecular gas
• The local universe in the era of large surveys. I. Spectral classification of S0 galaxies
• The large molecular gas fraction of post-starburst galaxies at z > 1
• Dynamical modelling and origin of gas turbulence in z $\sim$ 4.5 galaxies
• The fate of the interstellar medium in early-type galaxies. III. The mechanism of ISM removal and quenching of star formation
• SDSS IV MaNGA: Discovery of an $H_{\alpha }$ blob associated with a dry galaxy pair -- ejected gas or a `dark' galaxy candidate?
• Optical emission lines in the most massive galaxies: morphology, kinematics and ionisation properties
• The MASSIVE survey -- XIX. Molecular gas measurements of the supermassive black hole masses in the elliptical galaxies NGC 1684 and NGC 0997
• The ALMaQUEST Survey XIV: do radial molecular gas flows affect the star-forming ability of barred galaxies?
• Tracing the evolutionary pathways of dust and cold gas in high-z quiescent galaxies with SIMBA
• Parametrized Asymmetric Neutral hydrogen Disk Integrated Spectrum Characterization (PANDISC) I: Introduction to A Physically Motivated H I Model
• Observations of cold gas and star formation in dwarf S0 galaxies
• ALMA survey of a massive node of the Cosmic Web at $z\sim 3$. II. A dynamically cold and massive disk galaxy in the proximity of a hyperluminous quasar