The SAMI Galaxy Survey: the link between [α/Fe] and kinematic morphology

• Published in: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Main Authors: Watson, Peter J, Davies, Roger L, van de Sande, Jesse, Brough, Sarah, Croom, Scott M, D’Eugenio, Francesco, Glazebrook, Karl, Groves, Brent, López-Sánchez, Ángel R, Scott, Nicholas, Vaughan, Sam P, Walcher, C Jakob, Bland-Hawthorn, Joss, Bryant, Julia J, Goodwin, Michael, Lawrence, Jon S, Lorente, Nuria P F, Owers, Matt S, Richards, Samuel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2022
• Subjects: Space and Planetary Science; Astronomy and Astrophysics; Lambda; sami
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1221; https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/mnras/stac1221/43520817/stac1221.pdf; https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-pdf/513/4/5076/43802480/stac1221.pdf

ABSTRACT We explore a sample of 1492 galaxies with measurements of the mean stellar population properties and the spin parameter proxy, $\lambda _{R_{\rm {e}}}$, drawn from the SAMI Galaxy Survey. We fit a global $[\alpha /\rm {Fe}]$–σ relation, finding that ${[\alpha /\rm {Fe}]}=(0.395\pm 0.010)\rm {log}_{10}(\sigma)-(0.627\pm 0.002)$. We observe an anti-correlation between the residuals $\Delta [\alpha /\rm {Fe}]$ and the inclination-corrected $\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}$, which can be expressed as ${\Delta [\alpha /\rm {Fe}]}=(-0.057\pm 0.008){\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}}+(0.020\pm 0.003)$. The anti-correlation appears to be driven by star-forming galaxies, with a gradient of ${\Delta [\alpha /\rm {Fe}]}\sim (-0.121\pm 0.015){\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}}$, although a weak relationship persists for the subsample of galaxies for which star formation has been quenched. We take this to be confirmation that disc-dominated galaxies have an extended duration of star formation. At a reference velocity dispersion of 200 km s−1, we estimate an increase in half-mass formation time from ∼0.5 Gyr to ∼1.2 Gyr from low- to high-$\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}$ galaxies. Slow rotators do not appear to fit these trends. Their residual α-enhancement is indistinguishable from other galaxies with ${\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}}\lessapprox 0.4$, despite being both larger and more massive. This result shows that galaxies with ${\lambda _{\, R_{\rm {e}}}^{\rm {\, eo}}}\lessapprox 0.4$ experience a similar range of star formation histories, despite their different physical structure and angular momentum.