SDSS-IV MaNGA: How the stellar populations of passive central galaxies depend on stellar and halo mass

Oyarzun, Grecco A.; Bundy, Kevin; Westfall, Kyle B.; Tinker, Jeremy L.; Belfiore, Francesco; Argudo-Fernandez, Maria; Zheng, Zheng; Conroy, Charlie; Masters, Karen L.; Wake, David; Law, David R.; McDermid, Richard M.; Aragon-Salamanca, Alfonso; Parikh, Taniya; Yan, Renbin; Bershady, Matthew; Sanchez, Sebastian F.; Andrews, Brett H.; Fernández-Trincado, Jose G.; Lane, Richard R.; Bizyaev, D.; Fraser Boardman, Nicholas; Lacerna, Ivan; Brownstein, J.R.; Drory, Niv; Zhang, Kai

Abstract

We analyze spatially resolved and co-added SDSS-IV MaNGA spectra with signal-to-noise ratio ∼100 from 2200 passive central galaxies (z ∼ 0.05) to understand how central galaxy assembly depends on stellar mass (M*) and halo mass (Mh). We control for systematic errors in Mh by employing a new group catalog from Tinker and the widely used Yang et al. catalog. At fixed M*, the strengths of several stellar absorption features vary systematically with Mh. Completely model-free, this is one of the first indications that the stellar populations of centrals with identical M* are affected by the properties of their host halos. To interpret these variations, we applied full spectral fitting with the code alf. At fixed M*, centrals in more massive halos are older, show lower [Fe/H], and have higher [Mg/Fe] with 3.5σ confidence. We conclude that halos not only dictate how much M* galaxies assemble but also modulate their chemical enrichment histories. Turning to our analysis at fixed Mh, high-M* centrals are older, show lower [Fe/H], and have higher [Mg/Fe] for Mh > 1012 h−1 M⊙ with confidence >4σ. While massive passive galaxies are thought to form early and rapidly, our results are among the first to distinguish these trends at fixed Mh. They suggest that high-M* centrals experienced unique early formation histories, either through enhanced collapse and gas fueling or because their halos were early forming and highly concentrated, a possible signal of galaxy assembly bias.

Citation

Oyarzun, G. A., Bundy, K., Westfall, K. B., Tinker, J. L., Belfiore, F., Argudo-Fernandez, M., …Zhang, K. (2022). SDSS-IV MaNGA: How the stellar populations of passive central galaxies depend on stellar and halo mass. Astrophysical Journal, 933(1), Article 88. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7048

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 15, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jul 6, 2022
• Publication Date: Jul 6, 2022
• Deposit Date: May 30, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2022
• Journal: Astrophysical Journal
• Print ISSN: 0004-637X
• Electronic ISSN: 1538-4357
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 933
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 88
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7048
• Keywords: Space and Planetary Science; Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/8305432
• Publisher URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7048