Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/1503

Download PDF (Author's final draft) (Adobe Acrobat PDF, -1 bytes)

Title

The fundamental plane of isolated early-type galaxies

Author(s)

Reda, Fatma M.;  Forbes, Duncan A.;  Hau, George K. T.

Abstract

Here we present new measurements of effective radii, surface brightnesses and internal velocity dispersions for 23 isolated early-type galaxies. The photometric properties are derived from new multicolour imaging of ten galaxies, whereas the central kinematics for seven galaxies are taken from forthcoming work by Hau & Forbes. These are supplemented with data from the literature. We reproduce the colour–magnitude and Kormendy relations and strengthen the result of the recent work of Reda et al. that isolated galaxies follow the same photometric relations as galaxies in high-density environments. We also find that some isolated galaxies reveal fine structure indicative of a recent merger, while others appear undisturbed. We examine the Fundamental Plane both in the traditional Re, μe, σ space and also in κ space. Most isolated galaxies follow the same Fundamental Plane tilt and scatter for galaxies in high-density environments. However, a few galaxies notably deviate from the Plane in the sense of having smaller M/L ratios. This can be understood in terms of their younger stellar populations, which are presumably induced by a gaseous merger. Overall, isolated galaxies have similar properties to those in groups and clusters with a slight enhancement in the frequency of recent mergers/interactions.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.

Source

Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 360, no. 2 (2005), pp. 693-702

Publication year

2005

Publisher

Blackwell Publishers

ISSN

0035-8711

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09058.x

Copyright

Copyright © 2005 Royal Astronomical Society. The accepted manuscript of this paper is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. The definitive publication is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.

Full text

Peer reviewed