Merger-driven evolution of the effective stellar initial mass function of massive early-type galaxies

Abstract: The stellar initial mass function (IMF) of early-type galaxies is the combination of the IMF of the stellar population formed in-situ and that of accreted stellar populations. Using as an observable the effective IMF $\alpha_{IMF}$, defined as the ratio between the true stellar mass of a galaxy and the stellar mass inferred assuming a Salpeter IMF, we present a theoretical model for its evolution as a result of dry mergers. We use a simple dry merger evolution model, based on cosmological $N$-body simulations, together with empirically motivated prescriptions for the IMF to make predictions for how the effective IMF of massive early-type galaxies changes from $z=2$ to $z=0$. We find that the IMF normalization of individual galaxies becomes lighter with time. At fixed velocity dispersion, $\alpha_{IMF}$ is predicted to be constant with redshift. Current constraints on the evolution of the IMF are in slight tension with this prediction, even though systematic uncertainties prevent a conclusive statement. The correlation of $\alpha_{IMF}$ with stellar mass becomes shallower with time, while the correlation between $\alpha_{IMF}$ and velocity dispersion is mostly preserved by dry mergers. We also find that dry mergers can mix the dependence of the IMF on stellar mass and velocity dispersion, making it challenging to infer, from $z=0$ observations of global galactic properties, what is the quantity that is originally coupled with the IMF.