Journal article
Restoration of the Tully–Fisher Relation by Statistical Rectification
Astrophysical journal. Letters, Vol.963(1), L19
03/01/2024
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2856
Abstract
I employ the Lucy rectification algorithm to recover the inclination-corrected distribution of local disk galaxies in the plane of absolute magnitude (Mi) and H i velocity width (W20). By considering the inclination angle as a random variable with a known probability distribution, the novel approach eliminates one major source of uncertainty in studies of the Tully–Fisher relation: inclination angle estimation from axial ratio. Leveraging the statistical strength derived from the entire sample of 28,264 H i-selected disk galaxies at z < 0.06 from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey, I show that the restored distribution follows a sharp correlation that is approximately a power law between −16 > Mi > −22: Mi=M0−2.5β[log(W20/250km/s)], with M0 = −19.77± 0.04 and β = 4.39 ± 0.06. At the brighter end (Mi < −22), the slope of the correlation decreases to β ≈ 3.3, confirming previous results. Because the method accounts for measurement errors, the intrinsic dispersion of the correlation is directly measured: σ(logW20)≈0.06 dex between −17 > Mi > −23, while σ(Mi) decreases from ∼0.8 in slow rotators to ∼0.4 in fast rotators. The statistical rectification method holds significant potential, especially in the studies of intermediate-to-high-redshift samples, where limited spatial resolution hinders precise measurements of inclination angles.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Restoration of the Tully–Fisher Relation by Statistical Rectification
- Creators
- Hai Fu
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Astrophysical journal. Letters, Vol.963(1), L19
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- DOI
- 10.3847/2041-8213/ad2856
- ISSN
- 2041-8205
- eISSN
- 2041-8213
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: National Science Foundation, award: AST-2103251
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/01/2024
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984563557602771
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