A Shallow Slope for the Stellar Mass--Angular Momentum Relation of Star-Forming Galaxies at $1.5<z<2.5$

Abstract

We present measurements of the specific angular momentum $j_{\star }$ of 41 star-forming galaxies at $1.5<z<2.5$. These measurements are based on radial profiles inferred from near-IR \textit{HST} photometry, along with multi-resolution emission-line kinematic modelling using integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data from KMOS, SINFONI, and OSIRIS. We identified 24 disks (disk fraction of $58.6\pm 7.7\%$) and used them to parametrize the $j_{\star }$ \textit{vs} stellar mass $M_{\star }$ relation (Fall relation) as $j_{\star }\propto M_{\star }^{\beta }$. We measure a power-law slope $\beta =0.25\pm 0.15$, which deviates by approximately $3\sigma$ from the commonly adopted local value $\beta =0.67$, indicating a statistically significant difference. We find that two key systematic effects could drive the steep slopes in previous high-redshift studies: first, including irregular (non-disk) systems due to limitations in spatial resolution and second, using the commonly used approximation ${\tilde{j}}_{\star }\approx k_n{v}_s{r}_{\mathrm{eff}}$, which depends on global unresolved quantities. In our sample, both effects lead to steeper slopes of $\beta =0.48\pm 0.21$ and $\beta =0.61\pm 0.21$, respectively. To understand the shallow slope, we discuss observational effects and systematic uncertainties and analyze the retention of $j_{\star }$ relative to the angular momentum of the halo $j_h$ (angular momentum retention factor $f_j=j_{\star }/j_h$). For the $M_{\star }$ range covered by the sample $9.5<{\log }_{10}(M_{\star }/M_{\odot })<11.5$ (halo mass $11.5<{\log }_{10}(M_h/M_{\odot })<14$), we find large $f_j$ values ($>1$ in some cases) in low-mass haloes that decrease with increasing mass, suggesting a significant role of efficient angular momentum transport in these gas-rich systems, aided by the removal of low-$j_{\star }$ gas via feedback-driven outflows in low-mass galaxies.

29 pages, 18 figures, 24 appendix figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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