Dark matter contraction and stellar-mass-to-light ratio gradients in massive early-type galaxies [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1801.01887


We present models for the dark and luminous mass structure of 12 strong lensing early-type galaxies (ETGs). We combine pixel-based modelling of multiband HST/ACS imaging with Jeans modelling of kinematics obtained from Keck/ESI spectra to disentangle the dark and luminous contributions to the mass. Assuming a gNFW profile for the dark matter halo and a spatially constant stellar-mass-to-light ratio $\Upsilon_{\star}$ for the baryonic mass, we infer distributions for $\Upsilon_{\star}$ consistent with IMFs that are heavier than the Milky Way’s (with a global mean mismatch parameter relative to a Chabrier IMF $\mu_{\alpha c} = 1.80 \pm 0.14$) and halo inner density slopes which span a large range but are generally cuspier than the dark-matter-only prediction ($\mu_{\gamma’} = 2.01_{-0.22}^{+0.19}$). We investigate possible reasons for overestimating the halo slope, including the neglect of spatially varying stellar-mas-to-light ratios and/or stellar orbital anisotropy, and find that a quarter of the systems prefer radially declining stellar-mass-to-light ratio gradients, but that the overall effect on our inference on the halo slope is small. We suggest a coherent explanation of these results in the context of inside-out galaxy growth, and that the relative importance of different baryonic processes in shaping the dark halo may depend on halo environment.

Read this paper on arXiv…

L. Oldham and M. Auger
Tue, 9 Jan 18
81/94

Comments: 20 pages; accepted for publication in MNRAS