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Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): mass-size relations of z < 0.1 galaxies subdivided by Sérsic index, colour and morphology

Lange, R.; Driver, S.P.; Robotham, A.S.G.; Kelvin, L.S.; Graham, A.W.; Alpaslan, M.; Andrews, S.K.; Baldry, I.K.; Bamford, S.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Brough, S.; Cluver, M.E.; Conselice, C.J.; Davies, L.J.M.; Haeussler, B.; Konstantopoulos, I.S.; Loveday, J.; Moffett, A.J.; Norberg, P.; Phillipps, S.; Taylor, E.N.; López-Sánchez, Á. R.; Wilkins, S.M.

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): mass-size relations of z < 0.1 galaxies subdivided by Sérsic index, colour and morphology Thumbnail


Authors

R. Lange

S.P. Driver

A.S.G. Robotham

L.S. Kelvin

A.W. Graham

M. Alpaslan

S.K. Andrews

I.K. Baldry

S. Bamford

J. Bland-Hawthorn

S. Brough

M.E. Cluver

C.J. Conselice

L.J.M. Davies

B. Haeussler

I.S. Konstantopoulos

J. Loveday

A.J. Moffett

S. Phillipps

E.N. Taylor

Á. R. López-Sánchez

S.M. Wilkins



Abstract

We use data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey in the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.1 (8399 galaxies in g to Ks bands) to derive the stellar mass–half-light radius relations for various divisions of ‘early’- and ‘late’-type samples. We find that the choice of division between early and late (i.e. colour, shape, morphology) is not particularly critical; however, the adopted mass limits and sample selections (i.e. the careful rejection of outliers and use of robust fitting methods) are important. In particular, we note that for samples extending to low stellar mass limits (<10 10 M ⊙ <1010M⊙ ) the Sérsic index bimodality, evident for high-mass systems, becomes less distinct and no-longer acts as a reliable separator of early- and late-type systems. The final set of stellar mass–half-light radius relations are reported for a variety of galaxy population subsets in 10 bands (ugrizZY JHKs) and are intended to provide a comprehensive low-z benchmark for the many ongoing high-z studies. Exploring the variation of the stellar mass–half-light radius relations with wavelength, we confirm earlier findings that galaxies appear more compact at longer wavelengths albeit at a smaller level than previously noted: at 10 10 M ⊙ 1010M⊙ both spiral systems and ellipticals show a decrease in size of 13 per cent from g to Ks (which is near linear in log wavelength). Finally, we note that the sizes used in this work are derived from 2D Sérsic light profile fitting (using galfit3), i.e. elliptical semimajor half-light radii, improving on earlier low-z benchmarks based on circular apertures.

Citation

Lange, R., Driver, S., Robotham, A., Kelvin, L., Graham, A., Alpaslan, M., …Wilkins, S. (2015). Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): mass-size relations of z < 0.1 galaxies subdivided by Sérsic index, colour and morphology. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 447(3), 2603-2630. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2467

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 21, 2014
Publication Date Mar 1, 2015
Deposit Date Feb 3, 2016
Publicly Available Date Feb 11, 2016
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 447
Issue 3
Pages 2603-2630
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2467
Keywords Galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD, Galaxies: formation, Galaxies: fundamental parameters, Galaxies: spiral, Galaxies: statistics.

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Author Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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