Accuracy of Stellar Mass-to-light Ratios of Nearby Galaxies in the Near-Infrared

• Published in: arXiv.org 2024-11
• Main Authors: Kim, Taehyun, Kim, Minjin, Ho, Luis C, Li, Yang A, Jeong, Woong-Seob, Kim, Dohyeong, Kim, Yongjung, Lee, Bomee, Lee, Dongseob, Lee, Jeong Hwan, Pyo, Jeonghyun, Shim, Hyunjin, Son, Suyeon, Song, Hyunmi, Yang, Yujin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Galaxy distribution; Infrared spectra; Missions; Near infrared radiation; Red shift; Scattering; Sky surveys (astronomy); Spectral energy distribution; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation rate; Stellar mass
• ISSN: 2331-8422

Future satellite missions are expected to perform all-sky surveys, thus providing the entire sky near-infrared spectral data and consequently opening a new window to investigate the evolution of galaxies. Specifically, the infrared spectral data facilitate the precise estimation of stellar masses of numerous low-redshift galaxies. We utilize the synthetic spectral energy distribution (SED) of 2853 nearby galaxies drawn from the DustPedia (435) and Stripe 82 regions (2418). The stellar mass-to-light ratio (\(M_*/L\)) estimation accuracy over a wavelength range of \(0.75-5.0\) \(\mu\)m is computed through the SED fitting of the multi-wavelength photometric dataset, which has not yet been intensively explored in previous studies. We find that the scatter in \(M_*/L\) is significantly larger in the shorter and longer wavelength regimes due to the effect of the young stellar population and the dust contribution, respectively. While the scatter in \(M_*/L\) approaches its minimum (\(\sim0.10\) dex) at \(\sim1.6\) \(\mu\)m, it remains sensitive to the adopted star formation history model. Furthermore, \(M_*/L\) demonstrates weak and strong correlations with the stellar mass and the specific star formation rate (SFR), respectively. Upon adequately correcting the dependence of \(M_*/L\) on the specific SFR, the scatter in the \(M_*/L\) further reduces to \(0.02\) dex at \(\sim1.6\) \(\mu\)m. This indicates that the stellar mass can be estimated with an accuracy of \(\sim0.02\) dex with a prior knowledge of SFR, which can be estimated using the infrared spectra obtained with future survey missions.