The ALHAMBRA survey: tight dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5^⋆

¹ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón, Unidad Asociada al IAA-CSIC, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
e-mail: clsj@cefca.es
² Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), 39005 Santander, Spain
³ Unidad Asociada Observatorio Astronómico (IFCA-UV), 46980 Paterna, Spain
⁴ Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Rua do Matão 1226, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
⁵ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Glorieta de la astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
⁶ Observatori Astronòmic, Universitat de València, C/Catedrático José Beltrán 2, 46980 Paterna, Spain
⁷ Departament d’Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València, 46100 Burjassot, Spain
⁸ APC, AstroParticule et Cosmologie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/lrfu, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
⁹ Institut of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer Can Magrans, s/n, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
¹⁰ Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08193 Barcelona, Spain
¹¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC/INTA), 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain
¹² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Vía Láctea s/n, La Laguna, 38200 Tenerife, Spain
¹³ Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI), Entoto Observatory and Research Center (EORC), Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Division, PO Box 33679, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Received: 9 May 2018
Accepted: 20 September 2018

Abstract

Aims. Our goal is to characterise the dependence of the optical mass-to-light ratio on galaxy colour up to z = 1.5, expanding the redshift range explored in previous work.

Methods. From the redshifts, stellar masses, and rest-frame luminosities of the ALHAMBRA multi-filter survey, we derive the mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation for quiescent and for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic relation and its physical dispersion are derived with a Bayesian inference model.

Results. The rest-frame i-band mass-to-light ratio of quiescent and star-forming galaxies presents a tight correlation with the rest-frame (g − i) colour up to z = 1.5. The mass-to-light ratio versus colour relation is linear for quiescent galaxies and quadratic for star-forming galaxies. The intrinsic dispersion in these relations is 0.02 dex for quiescent galaxies and 0.06 dex for star-forming ones. The derived relations do not present a significant redshift evolution and are compatible with previous local results in the literature. Finally, these tight relations also hold for g- and r-band luminosities.

Conclusions. The derived mass-to-light ratio versus colour relations in ALHAMBRA can be used to predict the mass-to-light ratio from a rest-frame optical colour up to z = 1.5. These tight correlations do not change with redshift, suggesting that galaxies have evolved along the derived relations during the last 9 Gyr.