Angular momentum in MAGIC. I. Environment

We investigate whether the environment has an impact on the galaxies' stellar angular momentum and identify underlying driving physical mechanisms. We derive robust estimates of the stellar angular momentum using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images combined with spatially resolved ionised gas kinematics from the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) for a sample of ~200 galaxies in groups and in the field at z~0.7 drawn from the MAGIC survey.

Using various environmental tracers, we study the position of the galaxies in the the angular momentum-stellar mass (Fall) relation as a function of environment. We measure a 0.12dex (2{sigma} significant) depletion of stellar angular momentum for low-mass galaxies (M*<10^10^M_{sun}_) located in groups with respect to the field. Massive galaxies located in dense environments have less angular momentum than expected from the low-mass Fall relation but, without a comparable field sample, we cannot infer whether this effect is mass- or environmentally-driven.