The shape of the dark matter halo in the early-type galaxy NGC 2974

Abstract

We present HI observations of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2974, obtained with the Very Large Array. These observations reveal that the previously detected HI disc in this galaxy (Kim et al. 1988) is in fact a ring. By studying the harmonic expansion of the velocity field along the ring, we constrain the elongation of the halo and find that the underlying gravitational potential is consistent with an axisymmetric shape. We construct mass models of NGC 2974 by combining the HI rotation curve with the central kinematics of the ionised gas, obtained with the integral-field spectrograph SAURON. We introduce a new way of correcting the observed velocities of the ionised gas for asymmetric drift, and hereby disentangle the random motions of the gas caused by gravitational interaction from those caused by turbulence. To reproduce the observed flat rotation curve of the HI gas, we need to include a dark halo in our mass models. A pseudo-isothermal sphere provides the best model to fit our data, but we also tested an NFW halo and Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), which fit the data marginally worse. The mass-to-light ratio M/L_I increases in NGC 2974 from 4.3 (M/L_I)sun at one effective radius to 8.5 (M/L_I)sun at 5 Re. This increase of M/L already suggests the presence of dark matter: we find that within 5 Re at least 55 per cent of the total mass is dark.

17 pages, 20 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (4)

• The SAURON project -- IX. A kinematic classification for early-type galaxies
• The mass distribution in early-type disk galaxies: declining rotation curves and correlations with optical properties
• Confrontation of MOND with the rotation curves of early-type disc galaxies
• Insight into the baryon-gravity relation in galaxies

Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Kinematic properties of early-type galaxy haloes using planetary nebulae
• The Causes of Halo Shape Changes Induced by Cooling Baryons: Disks Versus Substructures
• The PN.S Elliptical Galaxy Survey: the dark matter in NGC 4494
• Enormous disc of cool gas surrounding the nearby powerful radio galaxy NGC 612 (PKS 0131-36)
• New evidence for dark matter
• Dynamical modelling of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2974