On the depletion and accretion time-scales of cold gas in local early-type galaxies

Davis, Timothy A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9379 and Bureau, Martin 2016. On the depletion and accretion time-scales of cold gas in local early-type galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 457 (1) , pp. 272-280. 10.1093/mnras/stv2998

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Abstract

We consider what can be learnt about the processes of gas accretion and depletion from the kinematic misalignment between the cold/warm gas and stars in local early-type galaxies. Using simple analytic arguments and a toy model of the processes involved, we show that the lack of objects with counter-rotating gas reservoirs strongly constrains the relaxation, depletion and accretion time-scales of gas in early-type galaxies. Standard values of the accretion rate, star-formation efficiency and relaxation rate are not simultaneously consistent with the observed distribution of kinematic misalignments. To reproduce that distribution, both fast gas depletion (tdep ≲ 108 yr; e.g. more efficient star formation) and fast gas destruction (e.g. by active galactic nucleus feedback) can be invoked, but both also require a high rate of gas-rich mergers (>1 Gyr−1). Alternatively, the relaxation of misaligned material could happen over very long time-scales (≃100 dynamical times or ≈1–5 Gyr). We explore the various physical processes that could lead to fast gas depletion and/or slow gas relaxation, and discuss the prospects of using kinematic misalignments to probe gas-rich accretion processes in the era of large integral-field spectroscopic surveys.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Additional Information:	First published online 20 January 2016 PDF uploaded in accordance with publisher's policies at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0035-8711/ (accessed 21.01.16).
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Funders:	STFC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	22 December 2015
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2024 16:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/85466

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