2017/11/09 by O. J. Turner, C. M. Harrison, Turner, O. J. +13 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1711.03604
18 pages (8 figures) + 12 pages appendices, submitted to MNRAS
openalex publication_date 2017/11/09 · arxiv created 2017/11/13 · arxiv updated 2017/11/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We use KMOS Deep Survey (KDS) galaxies, combined with results from a range of spectroscopic studies in the literature, to investigate the evolution of the stellar-mass Tully-Fisher relation since z ~ 4. We determine the slope and normalisation of the local rotation-velocity -- stellar-mass (Vc - M⋆) relationship using a reference sample of local spiral galaxies; thereafter we fix the slope, and focus on the evolution of velocity normalisation with redshift. The rotation-dominated KDS galaxies at z ~ 3.5 have rotation velocities ~ -0.1 dex lower than local reference galaxies at fixed stellar mass. By fitting 16 distant comparison samples spanning 0 < z < 3 (containing ~ 1200 galaxies), we show that the size and sign of the inferred Vc offset depends sensitively on the fraction of the parent samples used in the Tully-Fisher analysis, and how strictly the criterion of 'rotation dominated' is enforced. Confining attention to subsamples of galaxies that are especially 'disky' results in a consistent positive offset in Vc of ~ +0.1 dex, however these galaxies are not representative of the evolving-disk population at z > 1. We investigate the addition of pressure support, traced by intrinsic velocity dispersion (σint) to the KDS dynamical mass budget by adopting a 'total' effective velocity of form Vtot = (Vc2 + 4.0σint2)0.5. The rotation-dominated and dispersion-dominated KDS galaxies fall on the same locus in the total-velocity versus stellar-mass plane, removing the need for debate over the precise selection threshold for rotation-dominated galaxies. The comparison sample offsets are in the range +0.08 to +0.15 dex in total-velocity zero-point (-0.30 to -0.55 dex in stellar-mass zero-point) from the local Tully-Fisher relation at z > 1, consistent with steady evolution of the ratio of dynamical to stellar mass with cosmic time.