Central velocity dispersion catalog of LAMOST-DR7 galaxies

TL;DR

This paper presents the first catalog of central velocity dispersions for approximately 86,000 galaxies from LAMOST-DR7, demonstrating the spectra's suitability for galaxy kinematic studies and providing a basis for future research.

Contribution

It introduces a new large-scale velocity dispersion catalog from LAMOST data, validated against SDSS and BOSS, and establishes preliminary galaxy scaling relations.

Findings

Good agreement between LAMOST and SDSS/BOSS velocity dispersions.

LAMOST spectra are suitable for galaxy kinematic measurements.

Preliminary Mass-$\sigma$ relation consistent with previous studies.

Abstract

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) is a major facility to carry out spectroscopic surveys for cosmology and galaxy evolution studies. The seventh data release of the LAMOST ExtraGAlactic Survey (LEGAS) is currently available and including redshifts of 193\,361 galaxies. These sources are spread over $\sim 11\,500$ deg$^2$ of the sky, largely overlapping with other imaging (SDSS, HSC) and spectroscopic (BOSS) surveys. The estimated depth of the galaxy sample, $r\sim17.8$, the high signal-to-noise ratio, and the spectral resolution $R=1800$, make the LAMOST spectra suitable for galaxy velocity dispersion measurements, which are invaluable to study the structure and formation of galaxies and to determine their central dark matter (DM) content. We present the first estimates of central velocity dispersion of $\sim86\,000$ galaxies in LAMOST footprint. We have used a wrap-up procedure to perform the spectral fitting using \textsc{pPXF}, and derive velocity dispersion measurements. Statistical errors are also assessed by comparing LAMOST velocity dispersion estimates with the ones of SDSS and BOSS over a common sample of $\sim51\,000$ galaxies. The two datasets show a good agreement, within the statistical errors, in particular when velocity dispersion values are corrected to 1 effective radius aperture. We also present a preliminary Mass-$\sigma$ relation and find consistency with previous analyses based on local galaxy samples. These first results suggest that LAMOST spectra are suitable for galaxy velocity dispersion measurements to complement the available catalogs of galaxy internal kinematics in the northern hemisphere. We plan to expand this analysis to next LAMOST data releases.