xGASS: The connection between angular momentum, mass and atomic gas fraction in nearby galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between angular momentum, mass, and atomic gas fraction in nearby disc galaxies, revealing a broader scatter and discrepancies with existing models, highlighting galaxy diversity.

Contribution

It provides an extensive analysis of baryonic angular momentum and gas fraction in a large galaxy sample, comparing observations with theoretical predictions and identifying key differences.

Findings

Confirmed tight correlation between angular momentum and gas fraction, with increased scatter.

Found weaker dependence of angular momentum on gas fraction at fixed mass.

Observed shallower slope in angular momentum vs. mass relation than models predict.

Abstract

We use a sample of 559 disc galaxies extracted from the eXtended GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (xGASS) to study the connection between baryonic angular momentum, mass and atomic gas fraction in the local Universe. Baryonic angular momenta are determined by combining HI and H$_{2}$ integrated profiles with two-dimensional stellar mass surface density profiles. In line with previous work, we confirm that specific angular momentum and atomic gas fraction are tightly correlated, but we find a larger scatter than previously observed. This is most likely due to the wider range of galaxy properties covered by our sample. We compare our findings with the predictions of the analytical stability model developed by Obreschkow et al. and find that, while the model provides a very good first-order approximation for the connection between baryonic angular momentum, mass and gas fraction, it does not fully match our data. Specifically, we find that at fixed baryonic mass, the dependence of specific angular momentum on gas fraction is significantly weaker, and at fixed gas fraction, the slope of the angular momentum vs. mass relation is shallower than what was predicted by the model. The reasons behind this tension remain unclear, but we speculate that multiple factors may simultaneously play a role, all related to the fact that the model is not able to encapsulate the full diversity of galaxy properties in our sample.