Evolution of the optical Tully-Fisher relation up to z=1.3

TL;DR

This paper investigates the evolution of the optical Tully-Fisher relation up to redshift 1.3, addressing measurement challenges and analyzing luminosity and slope changes to understand galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It identifies key issues in measuring the Tully-Fisher relation at high redshift and provides new insights into its luminosity evolution across multiple optical bands.

Findings

Galaxies were brighter in the past at the same rotation velocity.

No significant change in the Tully-Fisher relation's slope with redshift.

Results support the collapse model of galaxy formation.

Abstract

The study of the evolution of the Tully-Fisher relation has been controversial in the past years. The main difficulty is in determining the required parameters for intermediate and high redshift galaxies. This work aims to identify the main problems of the study of the Tully-Fisher relation at high redshift using optical emission lines, in order to draw conclusions about the possible evolution of this relation in the B, R, and I-bands. With this aim, the rotational velocities obtained from the widths of different optical lines using DEEP2 spectra are compared. Morphology has been determined via HST images, using and comparing different methodologies. Instrumental magnitudes are then corrected for K and extinction and the absolute magnitudes derived for the concordance cosmological model. Finally, the optical Tully-Fisher relations in B, R, and I-bands at different redshifts up to z = 1.3 are derived. Although most studies (this one included) find evidence of evolution, the results are not conclusive enough, since the possible luminosity evolution is within the scattering of the relation, and the evolution in slope is difficult to determine because at high redshift only the brightest galaxies can be measured. Nevertheless, our study shows a clear tendency, which is the same for all bands studied, that favours a luminosity evolution where galaxies were brighter in the past for the same rotation velocity. This result also implies that the colour of the Tully-Fisher relation does not change with redshift, supporting the collapse model versus the accretion model of disc galaxy formation.