MUSE surveys intermediate-redshift galaxies

We did not measure any galaxy with {lambda}_R_<0.1 in the sample, and we found only one potential (but uncertain) low-mass slow rotator at z~0.3, more similar to the z=0 low-mass slow rotators characterized by counter-rotation than to massive ellipticals. Moreover, we do not see an evident evolution or trend in the stellar angular momentum with redshift. We characterized the galaxy environment using two different indicators: a local estimator based on the Voronoi tesselation method, and a global estimator derived by the use of the friends-of-friends (FoF) algorithm.

We find no correlation between the environment and {lambda}_R_ given that we are not probing dense regions or massive galaxy structures. We also analysed the kinematic maps of the sample finding that about 40% of the galaxies are consistent with being regular rotators (RRs), having rotating stellar discs with flat velocity dispersion maps, while ~20% have complex velocity maps and can be identified as non-regular rotators in spite of their {lambda}_R_ values.

For the remaining galaxies the classification is uncertain. As we lack galaxies with {lambda}_R_<0.1 in the sample, we are not able to identify when galaxies lose their angular momentum and become slow rotators within the surveyed environments, area, and redshift range.