On the Origin of the Variety of Velocity Dispersion Profiles of Galaxies

Abstract

Observed and simulated galaxies exhibit a significant variation in their velocity dispersion profiles. We examine the inner and outer slopes of stellar velocity dispersion profiles using integral field spectroscopy data from two surveys, SAMI (for $z < 0.115$) and CALIFA (for $z < 0.03$), comparing them with results from two cosmological hydrodynamic simulations: Horizon-AGN (for $z = 0.017$) and NewHorizon (for $z\lesssim1$). The simulated galaxies closely reproduce the variety of velocity dispersion slopes and stellar mass dependence of both inner and outer radii ($0.5\,r_{50}$ and $3\,r_{50}$) as observed, where $r_{50}$ stands for half-light radius. The inner slopes are mainly influenced by the relative radial distribution of the young and old stars formed in-situ: a younger center shows a flatter inner profile. The presence of accreted (ex-situ) stars has two effects on the velocity dispersion profiles. First, because they are more dispersed in spatial and velocity distributions compared to in-situ formed stars, it increases the outer slope of the velocity dispersion profile. It also causes the velocity anisotropy to be more radial. More massive galaxies have a higher fraction of stars formed ex-situ and hence show a higher slope in outer velocity dispersion profile and a higher degree of radial anisotropy. The diversity in the outer velocity dispersion profiles reflects the diverse assembly histories among galaxies.