Effects of Stellar Feedback on Stellar and Gas Kinematics of Star-forming Galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0

Recent zoom-in cosmological simulations have shown that stellar feedback can flatten the inner density profile of the dark matter halo in low-mass galaxies. A correlation between the stellar/gas velocity dispersion (σ star, σ gas) and the specific star formation rate (sSFR) is predicted as an observational test of the role of stellar feedback in re-shaping the dark matter density profile. In this work we test the validity of this prediction by studying a sample of star-forming galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0 from the LEGA-C survey, which provides high signal-to-noise measurements of stellar and gas kinematics. We find that a weak but significant correlation between σ star (and σ gas) and sSFR indeed exists for galaxies in the lowest mass bin (M ∗ ∼ 1010 M o˙). This correlation, albeit with a ∼35% scatter, holds for different tracers of star formation, and becomes stronger with redshift. This result generally agrees with the picture that at higher redshifts star formation rate was generally higher, and galaxies at M ∗ ≲ 1010 M o˙ have not yet settled into a disk. As a consequence, they have shallower gravitational potentials more easily perturbed by stellar feedback. The observed correlation between σ star (and σ gas) and sSFR supports the scenario predicted by cosmological simulations, in which feedback-driven outflows cause fluctuations in the gravitation potential that flatten the density profiles of low-mass galaxies

Discovery of Strongly Inverted Metallicity Gradients in Dwarf Galaxies at zz∼\sim2

We report the first sub-kiloparsec spatial resolution measurements of strongly inverted gas-phase metallicity gradients in two dwarf galaxies at $z$$\sim$2. The galaxies have stellar masses $\sim$$10^9M_\odot$, specific star-formation rate $\sim$20 Gyr$^{-1}$, and global metallicity $12+\log({\rm O/H})\sim8.1$ (1/4 solar), assuming the Maiolino et al. (2008) strong line calibrations of OIII/Hb and OII/Hb. Their metallicity radial gradients are measured to be highly inverted, i.e., 0.122$\pm$0.008 and 0.111$\pm$0.017 dex/kpc, which is hitherto unseen at such small masses in similar redshift ranges. From the Hubble Space Telescope observations of the source nebular emission and stellar continuum, we present the 2-dimensional spatial maps of star-formation rate surface density, stellar population age, and gas fraction, which show that our galaxies are currently undergoing rapid mass assembly via disk inside-out growth. More importantly, using a simple chemical evolution model, we find that the gas fractions for different metallicity regions cannot be explained by pure gas accretion. Our spatially resolved analysis based on a more advanced gas regulator model results in a spatial map of net gaseous outflows, triggered by active central starbursts, that potentially play a significant role in shaping the spatial distribution of metallicity by effectively transporting stellar nucleosynthesis yields outwards. The relation between wind mass loading factors and stellar surface densities measured in different regions of our galaxies shows that a single type of wind mechanism, driven by either energy or momentum conservation, cannot explain the entire galaxy. These sources present a unique constraint on the effects of gas flows on the early phase of disk growth from the perspective of spatially resolved chemical evolution within individual systems.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted to ApJ. The accepted version includes a detailed description of extracting and fitting grism 1D/2D spectra (Appendix A) and a comparative study of deriving metallicity gradients using different strong line calibrations (Appendix C

The OSIRIS Lens-amplified Survey (OLAS). I. Dynamical Effects of Stellar Feedback in Low-mass Galaxies at z ∼ 2

We introduce the OSIRIS Lens-Amplified Survey (OLAS), a kinematic survey of gravitationally lensed galaxies at cosmic noon taken with Keck adaptive optics. In this paper, we present spatially resolved spectroscopy and nebular emission kinematic maps for 17 star-forming galaxies with stellar masses 8 < log(M ∗/M o) < 9.8 and redshifts 1.2 < z < 2.3. OLAS is designed to probe the stellar mass (M ∗) and specific star formation rate (sSFR) range where simulations suggest that stellar feedback is most effective at driving gaseous outflows that create galaxy-wide potential fluctuations, which can generate dark matter cores. We compare our kinematic data with the trend among sSFR, M ∗, and Hα velocity dispersion, σ, from the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) simulations. Our observations reveal a correlation between sSFR and σ at fixed M ∗ that is similar to the trend predicted by simulations: feedback from star formation drives star-forming gas and newly formed stars into more dispersion-dominated orbits. The observed magnitude of this effect is in good agreement with the FIRE simulations, in which feedback alters the central density profiles of low-mass galaxies, converting dark matter cusps into cores over time. Our data support the scenario that stellar feedback drives gaseous outflows and potential fluctuations, which in turn drive dark matter core formation in dwarf galaxies

Effects of Stellar Feedback on Stellar and Gas Kinematics of Star-forming Galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0

Recent zoom-in cosmological simulations have shown that stellar feedback can flatten the inner density profile of the dark matter halo in low-mass galaxies. A correlation between the stellar/gas velocity dispersion (σ star, σ gas) and the specific star formation rate (sSFR) is predicted as an observational test of the role of stellar feedback in re-shaping the dark matter density profile. In this work we test the validity of this prediction by studying a sample of star-forming galaxies at 0.6 < z < 1.0 from the LEGA-C survey, which provides high signal-to-noise measurements of stellar and gas kinematics. We find that a weak but significant correlation between σ star (and σ gas) and sSFR indeed exists for galaxies in the lowest mass bin (M ∗ ∼ 1010 M o˙). This correlation, albeit with a ∼35% scatter, holds for different tracers of star formation, and becomes stronger with redshift. This result generally agrees with the picture that at higher redshifts star formation rate was generally higher, and galaxies at M ∗ ≲ 1010 M o˙ have not yet settled into a disk. As a consequence, they have shallower gravitational potentials more easily perturbed by stellar feedback. The observed correlation between σ star (and σ gas) and sSFR supports the scenario predicted by cosmological simulations, in which feedback-driven outflows cause fluctuations in the gravitation potential that flatten the density profiles of low-mass galaxies