Angular Momentum of Early and Late Type Galaxies: Nature or Nurture?

Abstract

We investigate the origin, the shape, the scatter, and the cosmic evolution in the observed relationship between specific angular momentum $j_{\star }$ and the stellar mass $M_{\star }$ in early-type (ETGs) and late-type galaxies (LTGs). Specifically, we exploit the observed star-formation efficiency and chemical abundance to infer the fraction $f_{\inf }$ of baryons that infall toward the central regions of galaxies where star formation can occur. We find $f_{\inf }\approx 1$ for LTGs and $\approx 0.4$ for ETGs with an uncertainty of about $0.25$ dex, consistent with a biased collapse. By comparing with the locally observed $j_{\star }$ vs. $M_{\star }$ relations for LTGs and ETGs we estimate the fraction $f_j$ of the initial specific angular momentum associated to the infalling gas that is retained in the stellar component: for LTGs we find $f_j\approx 1.11_{-0.44}^{+0.75}$, in line with the classic disc formation picture; for ETGs we infer $f_j\approx 0.64_{-0.16}^{+0.20}$, that can be traced back to a $z<1$ evolution via dry mergers. We also show that the observed scatter in the $j_{\star }$ vs. $M_{\star }$ relation for both galaxy types is mainly contributed by the intrinsic dispersion in the spin parameters of the host dark matter halo. The biased collapse plus mergers scenario implies that the specific angular momentum in the stellar components of ETG progenitors at $z\sim 2$ is already close to the local values, in pleasing agreement with observations. All in all, we argue such a behavior to be imprinted by nature and not nurtured substantially by the environment.

19 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Accepted by ApJ

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• An ALMA view of 11 Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at the peak of Cosmic Star Formation History
• The Black Hole Mass Function Across Cosmic Times II. Heavy Seeds and (Super)Massive Black Holes
• The evolutionary pathways of disk galaxies with different sizes
• The Origin of the Relation Between Stellar Angular Momentum and Stellar Mass in Nearby Disk-dominated galaxies
• The Effect of Accretion Environment at Large Radius on Hot Accretion Flows