A Full Accounting of the Visible Mass in SDSS MaNGA Disk Galaxies

Abstract

We present a study of the ratio of visible mass to total mass in spiral galaxies to better understand the relative amount of dark matter present in galaxies of different masses and evolutionary stages. Using the velocities of the H α emission line measured in spectroscopic observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) MaNGA Data Release 17 (DR 17), we evaluate the rotational velocity of over 5500 disk galaxies at their 90% elliptical Petrosian radii, R _90 . We compare this to the velocity expected from the total visible mass, which we compute from the stellar, H i , H _2 , and heavy metals and dust masses. H _2 mass measurements are available for only a small subset of galaxies observed in SDSS MaNGA DR17, so we derive a parameterization of the H _2 mass as a function of absolute magnitude in the r band using galaxies observed as part of SDSS DR7. With these parameterizations, we calculate the fraction of visible mass within R _90 that corresponds to the observed velocity. Based on statistically analyzing the likelihood of this fraction, we conclude that the null hypothesis (no dark matter) cannot be excluded at a confidence level better than 95% within the visible extent of the disk galaxies. We also find that when all mass components are included, the ratio of visible to total mass within the visible extent of star-forming disk galaxies increases with galaxy luminosity.

Keywords

• Disk galaxies
• Late-type galaxies
• Galaxy dynamics
• Galaxy masses
• Galaxy dark matter halos
• Galaxy rotation curves