2001/08/01 by Timothy A. McKay, McKay, Timothy A., E. Sheldon +39
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Scientific Research and Discoveries
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0108013
openalex publication_date 2001/08/01 · openalex created_date 2023/02/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present new measurements of scaling laws relating the luminosity of\ngalaxies to the amplitude and shape of their dark matter halos. Early imaging\nand spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are used to make weak\nlensing measurements of the surface mass density contrast Delta Sigma+ around\nclasses of lens objects. This surface mass density contrast as a function of\nradius is a measure of the galaxy-mass correlation function (GMCF). Because\nspectroscopic redshifts are available for all lens objects, the mass and\ndistance scales are well constrained. The GMCF measured around ~31,000 lenses\nis well fit by a power law of the form\n Delta Sigma+ = (2.5+0.7-0.6) (R/1 Mpc)-0.8+-0.2 h Msun pc-2.\n We compare this GMCF to galaxy luminosity, type, and environment, and find\nthat it varies strongly with all three. We quantify these variations by\ncomparing the normalization of a fit to the inner 260 h-1 kpc, M260, to the\ngalaxy luminosity. While M260 is not strongly related to luminosity in bluest\nband u', there is a simple, linear relation between M260 and luminosity in\nredder bands (g', r', i', and z'). We test the universality of these\nmass-to-light scalings by independently measuring them for spiral and\nelliptical galaxies,and for galaxies in a variety of environments. We find\nremarkable consistency in these determinations in the red bands, especially i'\nand z'. This consistency across a wide range of systems suggests that the\nmeasured scaling represents an excellent cosmic average, and that the\nintegrated star formation history of galaxies is strongly related to the dark\nmatter environments in which they form.\n