Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Stellar-to-dynamical Mass Relation. I. Constraining the Precision of Stellar Mass Estimates

Abstract In this empirical work, we aim to quantify the systematic uncertainties in stellar-mass ( M ⋆ ) estimates made from spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting through stellar population synthesis (SPS) for galaxies local Universe by using dynamical mass dyn estimator as an SED-independent check on mass. We first construct a statistical model of high-dimensional space galaxy properties; including size R e ), velocity dispersion σ surface brightness I mass-to-light ratio / L rest-frame color, Sérsic index n and accounting selection effects covariant errors. disentangle correlations among properties find that variation is driven , color. use these parameters calibrate estimator, M ˆ ⋆ . random scatter relation ${M}_{\star }-{\hat{M}}_{\star − be 0.108 dex 0.147 quiescent star-forming galaxies, respectively. Finally, inspect residuals function SPS (dust, age, metallicity, star formation rate) indices (H α H δ D 4000). For ∼65% can explained uncertainty parameters, with dust age being largest sources uncertainty. while metallicity are leading factors, account only ∼13% scatter. These results leave us remaining unmodelled scatters 0.055 0.122 This interpreted conservative limit precision achieved via simple modeling.