The KMOS Deep Survey (KDS) – I. Dynamical measurements of typical star-forming galaxies at z ≃ 3.5

Abstract

We present dynamical measurements from the KMOS (K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph) Deep Survey (KDS), which is comprised of 77 typical star-forming galaxies at z z ≃ 3.5 in the mass range 9.0 < log(M⋆/M⊙) < 10.5. These measurements constrain the internal dynamics, the intrinsic velocity dispersions (σint) and rotation velocities (VC) of galaxies in the high-redshift Universe. The mean velocity dispersion of the galaxies in our sample is σint=70.8+3.3−3.1kms−1 σint=70.8−3.1+3.3kms−1 , revealing that the increasing average σint with increasing redshift, reported for z ≲ 2, continues out to z ≃ 3.5. Only 36 ± 8% of our galaxies are rotation-dominated (VC/σint > 1), with the sample average VC/σint value much smaller than at lower redshift. After carefully selecting comparable star-forming samples at multiple epochs, we find that the rotation-dominated fraction evolves with redshift with a z−0.2 dependence. The rotation-dominated KDS galaxies show no clear offset from the local rotation velocity-stellar mass (i.e. VC − M⋆) relation, although a smaller fraction of the galaxies are on the relation due to the increase in the dispersion-dominated fraction. These observations are consistent with a simple equilibrium model picture, in which random motions are boosted in high-redshift galaxies by a combination of the increasing gas fractions, accretion efficiency, specific star-formation rate and stellar feedback and which may provide significant pressure support against gravity on the galactic disk scale.