Applying the Tremaine–Weinberg Method to Nearby Galaxies: Stellar-mass-based Pattern Speeds and Comparisons with ISM Kinematics

• Published in: The Astronomical journal 2021-04, Vol.161 (4), p.185
• Main Authors: Williams, Thomas G., Schinnerer, Eva, Emsellem, Eric, Meidt, Sharon, Querejeta, Miguel, Belfiore, Francesco, Bešlić, Ivana, Bigiel, Frank, Chevance, Mélanie, Dale, Daniel A., Glover, Simon C. O., Grasha, Kathryn, Klessen, Ralf S., Diederik Kruijssen, J. M., Leroy, Adam K., Pan, Hsi-An, Pety, Jérôme, Pessa, Ismael, Rosolowsky, Erik, Saito, Toshiki, Santoro, Francesco, Schruba, Andreas, Sormani, Mattia C., Sun, Jiayi, Watkins, Elizabeth J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; Astrophysics; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; CARBON MONOXIDE; Clumps; Corotation; DENSITY; EMISSION; GALAXIES; Interstellar matter; Interstellar medium; Kinematics; Lindblad resonance; Mathematical analysis; Physics; Polls & surveys; RESONANCE; ROTATION; SIGNALS; Stellar mass; SURFACES; Tracers
• ISSN: 0004-6256; 1538-3881; 1538-3881
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/abe243

We apply the Tremaine–Weinberg method to 19 nearby galaxies using stellar mass surface densities and velocities derived from the PHANGS-MUSE survey, to calculate (primarily bar) pattern speeds (Ω P ). After quality checks, we find that around half (10) of these stellar-mass-based measurements are reliable. For those galaxies, we find good agreement between our results and previously published pattern speeds, and we use rotation curves to calculate major resonance locations (corotation radii and Lindblad resonances). We also compare these stellar-mass-derived pattern speeds with H α (from MUSE) and CO( J = 2 − 1) emission from the PHANGS-ALMA survey. We find that in the case of these clumpy interstellar medium (ISM) tracers, this method erroneously gives a signal that is simply the angular frequency at a representative radius set by the distribution of these clumps (Ω clump ), and that this Ω clump is significantly different from Ω P (∼20% in the case of H α , and ∼50% in the case of CO). Thus, we conclude that it is inadvisable to use “pattern speeds” derived from ISM kinematics. Finally, we compare our derived pattern speeds and corotation radii, along with bar properties, to the global parameters of these galaxies. Consistent with previous studies, we find that galaxies with a later Hubble type have a larger ratio of corotation radius to bar length, more molecular-gas-rich galaxies have higher Ω P , and more bulge-dominated galaxies have lower Ω P . Unlike earlier works, however, there are no clear trends between the bar strength and Ω P , nor between the total stellar mass surface density and the pattern speed.