Optical and near-infrared velocity dispersions of early-type galaxies

Abstract

We have carried out a systematic, homogeneous comparison of optical and near-infrared dispersions. Our magnitude-limited sample of early-type galaxies in the Fornax cluster comprises 11 elliptical and 11 lenticular galaxies more luminous than MB = -17. We were able to determine the central dispersions based on the near-infrared CO absorption band head for 19 of those galaxies. The velocity dispersions range from less than 70 km/s to over 400 km/s. We compare our near-infrared velocity dispersions to the optical dispersions measured by Kuntschner (2000). Contrary to previous studies, we find a one-to-one correspondence with a median fractional difference of 6.4%. We examine the correlation between the relative dust mass and the fractional difference of the velocity dispersions, but find no significant trend. Our results suggest that early-type galaxies are largely optically thin, which is consistent with recent Herschel observations.

10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (13)

• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. I. Introduction to the Survey and Data Reduction Procedures
• The supermassive black hole of Fornax A
• Stellar Populations of Elliptical Galaxies in the Local Universe
• A New Approach to the Study of Stellar Populations in Early-Type Galaxies: K-band Spectral Indices and an Application to the Fornax Cluster
• The supermassive black hole in NGC4486a detected with SINFONI at the VLT
• SPIDER - III. Environmental Dependence of the Fundamental Plane of Early-type Galaxies
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: III. A constraint on dust grain lifetime in early-type galaxies
• The dust morphology of the elliptical Galaxy M86 with SPIRE
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: VI. The far-infrared view of M87
• Dynamical Models of Elliptical Galaxies in z=0.5 Clusters: II. Mass-to-Light Ratio Evolution without Fundamental Plane Assumptions
• Structures in the fundamental plane of early-type galaxies
• Central K-band kinematics and line strength maps of NGC 1399
• Fundamental plane: dark matter and dissipation contributions

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Angular momentum and galaxy formation revisited
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey. I - VIMOS spectroscopy of compact stellar systems in the Fornax core region
• Kinetys II: Constraints on spatial variations of the stellar initial mass function from K-band spectroscopy
• Unveiling The Sigma-Discrepancy II: Revisiting the Evolution of ULIRGs & The Origin of Quasars
• Calibrating stellar velocity dispersions based on spatially-resolved h-band spectra for improving the m-sigma relation
• Differences between CO- and calcium triplet-derived velocity dispersions in spiral galaxies: evidence for central star formation?
• MUSE stares into the shadows: the high-resolution dust attenuation curve of NGC 5626
• NGC4370: a case study for testing our ability to infer dust distribution and mass in nearby galaxies
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey IV -- Cold kinematical substructures in the Fornax core from COSTA
• The imprint of the thick stellar disc in the mid-plane of three early-type edge-on galaxies in the Fornax cluster
• Detecting Intermediate-Mass Black Holes out to 20 Mpc with ELT/HARMONI: The Case of FCC 119
• Kinematics of Stellar Populations in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• What Drives the Bimodal Distribution of Eddington-Scaled Radio Luminosity in Nearby Early-Type Galaxies?
• A Comparison of Full Spectral Fitting Codes for Measuring the Stellar Initial Mass Function and Other Stellar Population Properties in Elliptical Galaxies