Abstract
We present the KMOS3D survey, a new integral field survey of over 600 galaxies at 0.7 < z < 2.7 using KMOS at the Very Large Telescope. The KMOS3D survey utilizes synergies with multi-wavelength ground- and space-based surveys to trace the evolution of spatially resolved kinematics and star formation from a homogeneous sample over 5 Gyr of cosmic history. Targets, drawn from a mass-selected parent sample from the 3D-HST survey, cover the star formation-stellar mass (M *) and rest-frame (U – V) – M * planes uniformly. We describe the selection of targets, the observations, and the data reduction. In the first-year of data we detect Hα emission in 191 M * = 3 × 109-7 × 1011 M ☉ galaxies at z = 0.7-1.1 and z = 1.9-2.7. In the current sample 83% of the resolved galaxies are rotation dominated, determined from a continuous velocity gradient and v rot/σ0 > 1, implying that the star-forming "main sequence" is primarily composed of rotating galaxies at both redshift regimes. When considering additional stricter criteria, the Hα kinematic maps indicate that at least ~70% of the resolved galaxies are disk-like systems. Our high-quality KMOS data confirm the elevated velocity dispersions reported in previous integral field spectroscopy studies at z gsim 0.7. For rotation-dominated disks, the average intrinsic velocity dispersion decreases by a factor of two from 50 km s–1at z ~ 2.3 to 25 km s–1at z ~ 0.9. Combined with existing results spanning z ~ 0-3, we show that disk velocity dispersions follow an evolution that is consistent with the dependence of velocity dispersion on gas fractions predicted by marginally stable disk theory.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 209 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-27 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 799 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 30 Jan 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2015 |
Keywords
- galaxies: evolution
- galaxies: high-redshift
- galaxies: kinematics and dynamics
- infrared: galaxies