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- Title
- Radial kinematics of isolated elliptical galaxies
- Author(s)
- Hau, G. K. T.; Forbes, Duncan A.
- Abstract
- Ellipticals in very low-density environments are extremely rare but hold important clues about galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper, we continue our study of isolated elliptical galaxies, presenting results on the radial stellar kinematics for 13 isolated early-type galaxies. We derive radial rotation velocity, velocity dispersion and hermite terms to ~1 effective radius. We observe a dichotomy in kinematic properties similar to that in the elliptical population as a whole, where low-luminosity ellipticals tend to be rotationally supported. For all galaxies the V/σ ratio increases with radius. We find kinematically distinct cores (KDCs), or velocity substructure, in ~40 per cent of the galaxies for which we have major axis spectra. Such a fraction is similar to that observed for ellipticals in higher-density environments. Most galaxies in the sample reveal kinematic evidence for a nuclear disc. The non-relaxed kinematics in several galaxies suggests that they have undergone a merger or accretion event. Isolated ellipticals generally follow the Fundamental Plane defined by cluster ellipticals – exceptions being those galaxies with evidence for young stellar populations. Overall, we find isolated ellipticals have similar kinematic properties to their counterparts in higher-density environments.
- 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. 371, no. 2 (2006), p. 633-642
- Publication year
- 2006
- Keyword(s)
- Elliptical and lenticular galaxies; cD; Galaxies; Fundamental parameters; Galaxy kinematics and dynamics
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing
- ISSN
- 0035-8711
- Publisher URL
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10461.x
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2006 Royal Astronomical Society. Author's final draft reproduced here on 08 January 2009 in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.
- Full text
- Peer reviewed
