MAGNUS. I. A MUSE-DEEP Sample of Early-type Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift

Abstract

We present a sample of 213 early-type galaxies (ETGs) at redshifts 0.25 < z < 0.75. We combine deep integral-field spectroscopy from the MUSE-DEEP survey with high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging to study the structure, kinematics, and stellar populations of these galaxies. We measure spatially resolved stellar kinematics and use the specific angular momentum proxy, λR, to classify galaxies into fast and slow rotators. The kinematic and photometric axes of fast rotators are generally well aligned, similar to their local counterparts. We find that global stellar population properties, such as age, metallicity, and mass-to-light ratio (M*/L), correlate strongly with the central velocity dispersion (σe), following trends established for local ETGs. Slow rotators are typically more massive, have higher σe, and are more metal rich than fast rotators. We also find a slow rotator fraction consistent with local Universe samples. Our findings indicate that the fundamental structural, kinematic, and stellar population scaling relations of massive ETGs were already in place by z ∼ 0.75, suggesting their evolutionary pathways have remained stable over the last ∼7 Gyr.