Modeling Nearly Spherical Pure-bulge Galaxies with a Stellar Mass-to-Light Ratio Gradient under the $\Lambda$CDM and MOND Paradigms: I. Methodology, Dynamical Stellar Mass, and Fundamental Mass Plane

TL;DR

This study models nearly spherical pure-bulge galaxies using spherical Jeans equations, incorporating stellar mass-to-light ratio gradients, under both $ m f ext{Lambda}$CDM and MOND paradigms, to analyze dynamical mass and fundamental mass plane relations.

Contribution

It introduces a method to include $M_ ext{star}/L$ gradients in spherical Jeans modeling and compares results within $ m f ext{Lambda}$CDM and MOND frameworks, providing new insights into galaxy mass scaling.

Findings

Mass scales with gradient strength $K$ as $ ext{log}_{10}$ ratio with reported coefficients.

Fundamental mass plane coefficients align with virial expectations, only zero-point varies with $K$.

Median $K$ for ATLAS$^{3D}$ galaxies is approximately 0.53.

Abstract

We carry out spherical Jeans modeling of nearly round pure-bulge galaxies selected from the ATLAS$^{\rm 3D}$ sample. Our modeling allows for gradients in the stellar mass-to-light ratio ($M_\star/L$) through analytic prescriptions parameterized with a `gradient strength' $K$ introduced to accommodate any viable gradient. We use a generalized Osipkov-Merritt model for the velocity dispersion (VD) anisotropy. We produce Monte Carlo sets of models based on the stellar VD profiles under both the $\Lambda$CDM and MOND paradigms. Here, we describe the galaxy data, the empirical inputs, and the modeling procedures of obtaining the Monte Carlo sets. We then present the projected dynamical stellar mass, $M_{\rm \star e}$, within the effective radius $R_{\rm e}$, and the fundamental mass plane (FMP) as a function of $K$. We find the scaling of the $K$-dependent mass with respect to the ATLAS$^{\rm 3D}$ reported mass as: $\log_{10} \left[M_{\star{\rm e}}(K)/M_{\star{\rm e}}^{\rm A3D} \right] = a' + b' K$ with $a'=-0.019\pm 0.012$ and $b'=-0.18\pm 0.02$ ($\Lambda$CDM), or $a'=-0.023\pm 0.014$ and $b'=-0.23\pm 0.03$ (MOND), for $0\le K < 1.5$. The FMP has coefficients consistent with the virial expectation and only the zero-point scales with $K$. The median value of $K$ for the ATLAS$^{\rm 3D}$ galaxies is $\langle K\rangle =0.53^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$. We perform a similar analysis of the much larger SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample. In this case, only the VD within a single aperture is available, so we impose the additional requirement that the VD slope be similar to that in the ATLAS$^{\rm 3D}$ galaxies. Our analysis of the SDSS galaxies suggests a positive correlation of $K$ with stellar mass.