Matthew D. Covington et al. 2010 ApJ 710 279 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/710/1/279
Matthew D. Covington1,7, Susan A. Kassin2, Aaron A. Dutton3, Benjamin J. Weiner4, Thomas J. Cox5, Patrik Jonsson6, Joel. R. Primack1,7, Sandra M. Faber3 and David C. Koo3
Show affiliationsThere is a large observational scatter toward low velocities in the stellar mass Tully-Fisher (TF) relation if disturbed and compact objects are included. However, this scatter can be eliminated if one replaces rotation velocity with S 0.5, a quantity that includes a velocity dispersion term added in quadrature with the rotation velocity. In this work, we use a large suite of hydrodynamic N-body galaxy merger simulations to explore a possible mechanism for creating the observed relations. Using mock observations of the simulations, we test for the presence of observational effects and explore the relationship between S 0.5 and intrinsic properties of the galaxies. We find that galaxy mergers can explain the scatter in the TF as well as the tight S 0.5-stellar mass relation. Furthermore, S 0.5 is correlated with the total central mass of a galaxy, including contributions due to dark matter.
galaxies: evolution; galaxies: formation; galaxies: interactions; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
Issue 1 (2010 February 10)
Received 2009 February 3, accepted for publication 2009 December 9
Published 2010 January 18
Matthew D. Covington et al. 2010 ApJ 710 279
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