The Mass-to-light Ratios and the Star Formation Histories of Disk Galaxies

Abstract

We combine new data from the main sequence (M_* versus SFR) of star-forming galaxies and galaxy colors (from GALEX to Spitzer) with a flexible stellar population scheme to deduce the mass-to-light ratio (Υ_*) of star-forming galaxies from the SPARC and S^4G samples. We find that the main sequence for galaxies, particular the low-mass end, combined with the locus of galaxy colors, constrains the possible star formation histories of disk and dwarf galaxies to a similar shape found by Speagle et al. (2014). Combining the deduced star formation history with stellar population models in the literature produces reliable Υ_* values as a function of galaxy color with an uncertainty of only 0.05 dex. We provide prescriptions to deduce Υ_* for optical and near-IR bandpasses, with near-IR bandpasses having the least uncertainty (Υ_* from 0.40 to 0.55). We also provide the community with a webtool, with flexible stellar population parameters, to generate their own Υ_* values over the wavelength range for most galaxy surveys.

17 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (15)

• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• The Radial Acceleration Relation in Rotationally Supported Galaxies
• Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies
• Emergent Gravity and the Dark Universe
• Bimetric MOND gravity
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Spatially Resolved Stellar Initial Mass Function in $\sim$400 Early-Type Galaxies
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Spatially Resolving the Main Sequence of Star Formation
• Spitzer Local Volume Legacy (LVL) SEDs and Physical Properties
• Phylogeny of the Milky Way's inner disk and bulge populations: Implications for gas accretion, (the lack of) inside-out thick disk formation, and quenching
• The role of atomic hydrogen in regulating the scatter of the mass-metallicity relation
• An Isochrone Database and a Rapid Model for Stellar Population Synthesis
• Being WISE II: Reducing the Influence of Star Formation History on the Mass-to-Light Ratio of Quiescent Galaxies
• The ALHAMBRA survey: tight dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5
• Color Dispersion as an Indicator of Stellar Population Complexity: Insights from the Pixel Color-Magnitude Diagrams of 32 Bright Galaxies in Abell 1139 and Abell 2589

Cited by in corpus (35)

• The baryonic Tully-Fisher relation for different velocity definitions and implications for galaxy angular momentum
• From galactic bars to the Hubble tension: weighing up the astrophysical evidence for Milgromian gravity
• A comprehensive catalog of dark matter halo models for SPARC galaxies
• Testing the Strong Equivalence Principle: Detection of the External Field Effect in Rotationally Supported Galaxies
• Using The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation to Measure $H_o$
• Predictions and Outcomes for the Dynamics of Rotating Galaxies
• Mini-quenching of $z=4-8$ galaxies by bursty star formation
• Testing the Strong Equivalence Principle. II. Relating the External Field Effect in Galaxy Rotation Curves to the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
• Appreciating mergers for understanding the non-linear $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{spheroid}}$ and $M_{\mathrm{bh}}$-$M_{\ast ,\mathrm{galaxy}}$ relations, updated herein, and the implications for the (reduced) role of AGN feedback
• A cuspy dark matter halo
• The global stability of M33: still a puzzle
• Stellar Mass-to-light Ratios: Composite Bulge+Disk Models and the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation
• Dark matter halos and scaling relations of extremely massive spiral galaxies from extended HI rotation curves
• Cosmicflows-4: The Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation Providing ~10,000 Distances
• The Turn-Down of the Baryonic Tully-Fisher Relation and Changing Baryon Fractions at Low Galaxy Masses
• On the Presence of a Universal Acceleration Scale in Elliptical Galaxies
• Radial acceleration relation of galaxies with joint kinematic and weak-lensing data
• From dwarf galaxies to galaxy clusters: Self-Interacting Dark Matter over 7 orders of magnitude in halo mass
• Disc cloaking: Establishing a lower limit to the number density of local compact massive spheroids/bulges and the potential fate of some high-z red nuggets
• The cosmological star formation history from the Local Cosmological Volume of galaxies and constraints on the matter homogeneity
• WISDOM Project -- XIII. Feeding molecular gas to the supermassive black hole in the starburst AGN-host galaxy Fairall 49
• A cautionary tale in fitting galaxy rotation curves with Bayesian techniques: does Newton's constant vary from galaxy to galaxy?
• Quashing a suspected selection bias in galaxy samples having dynamically-measured supermassive black holes
• A universal relationship between stellar masses and binding energies of galaxies
• Galaxy rotation curves disfavor traditional and self-interacting dark matter halos, preferring a disk component or Einasto function
• Stellar population synthesis models with a physically varying IMF
• Refining the mass estimate for the intermediate-mass black hole candidate in NGC 3319
• Disk galaxies are self-similar: the universality of the HI-to-Halo mass ratio for isolated disks
• The GMRT archive atomic gas survey -- II. Mass modelling and dark matter halo properties across late-type spirals
• ΛCDM with baryons vs. MOND: the time evolution of the universal acceleration scale in the Magneticum simulations
• Bar formation in submaximal discs: a challenge for ΛCDM
• Anomalous Stellar Populations in LSB Galaxies
• The information on halo properties contained in spectroscopic observations of late-type galaxies
• Assessing stellar yields in Galaxy chemical evolution: observational stellar abundance patterns
• Bounding the Cosmological Constant using Galactic Rotation Curves from the SPARC Dataset