2006/09/04 by Benjamin J. Weiner, Christopher N. A. Willmer, S. M. Faber +10 · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Galaxy rotation curve #Luminosity #Physics #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #Redshift #Star formation #Stars #Tully–Fisher relation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/508922
published as Astrophys.J.653:1049-1069,2006 · ApJ in press. 23 pages, 17 figures, with an appendix on least-squares fitting. Full data tables and least-squares fitting programs available from http://www.astro.umd.edu/~bjw/tkrs_kinematics/
arxiv created 2006/09/04 · openalex publication_date 2006/12/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We use kinematic measurements of a large sample of galaxies from the Team Keck Redshift Survey in the GOODS-N field to measure evolution in the optical and near-IR Tully-Fisher (TF) relations to z = 1.2. We construct TF relations with integrated line-of-sight velocity widths of ~1000 galaxies in B and ~670 in J ; these relations have large scatter, and we derive a maximum likelihood least-squares method for fitting in the presence of scatter. The B -band TF relations, from z = 0.4 to 1.2, show evolution of ~1.0-1.5 mag internal to our sample without requiring calibration to a local TF relation. There is evolution in both TF intercept and slope, suggesting differential luminosity evolution. In J band, there is evolution in slope but little evolution in overall luminosity. The slope measurements imply that bright, massive blue galaxies fade more strongly than fainter blue galaxies from z ~ 1.2 to now. This conclusion runs counter to some previous measurements and to our naive expectations, but we present a simple set of star formation histories to show that it arises naturally if massive galaxies have shorter timescales of star formation, forming most of their stars before z ~ 1, while less massive galaxies form stars at more slowly declining rates. This model predicts that the higher global star formation rate at z ~ 1 is mostly due to higher star formation rate in massive galaxies. The amount of fading in B constrains star formation timescale more strongly than redshift of formation. TF and color-magnitude relations can provide global constraints on the luminosity evolution and star formation history of blue galaxies.