From light to baryonic mass: the effect of the stellar mass-to-light ratio on the Baryonic Tully-Fisher relation

In this paper, we investigate the statistical properties of the Baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFr) for a sample of 32 galaxies with accurate distances based on n Cepheids and/or TRGB stars. We make use of homogeneously analysed photometry in 18 bands ranging from the far-ultraviolet to 160 μm, allowing us to investigate the effect of the inferred stellar mass-to-light ratio (ϒ⋆) on the statistical properties of the BTFr. Stellar masses of our sample galaxies are derived with four different methods based on full SED fitting, studies of stellar dynamics, near-infrared colours, and the assumption of the same Υ[3.6]⋆ for all galaxies. In addition, we use high-quality, resolved H I kinematics to study the BTFr based on three kinematic measures: Wi50 from the global H I profile, and Vmax and Vflat from the rotation curve. We find the intrinsic perpendicular scatter, or tightness, of our BTFr to be σ⊥ = 0.026 ± 0.013 dex, consistent with the intrinsic tightness of the 3.6 μm luminosity-based Tully-Fisher relation (TFr). However, we find the slope of the BTFr to be 2.99 ± 0.2 instead of 3.7 ± 0.1 for the luminosity-based TFr at 3.6 μm. We use our BTFr to place important observational constraints on theoretical models of galaxy formation and evolution by making comparisons with theoretical predictions based on either the Λ cold dark matter framework or modified Newtonian dynamics.AB acknowledges financial support from the CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales – France). EP is supported by a NOVA postdoctoral fellowship of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA). MV acknowledges the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research support through VICI grant 016.130.338. We acknowledge the Leids Kerkhoven–Bosscha Fonds (LKBF) for travel support. We acknowledge financial support from the DAGAL network from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/ under REA grant agreement number PITNGA-2011-289313. We thank Elisabete da Cunha for making the MAGPHYS SED-fitting code publicly available