Families of dynamically hot stellar systems over ten orders of magnitude in mass

Abstract

Dynamically hot stellar systems, whether star clusters or early-type galaxies, follow well-defined scaling relations over many orders of magnitudes in mass. These fundamental plane relations have been subject of several studies, which have been mostly confined to certain types of galaxies and/or star clusters so far. Here, we present a complete picture of hot stellar systems ranging from faint galaxies and star clusters of only a few hundred solar masses up to giant ellipticals (gEs) with 10^12 M_sun, in particular including large samples of compact ellipticals (cEs), ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs), dwarf ellipticals (dEs) of nearby galaxy clusters and Local Group ultra-faint dwarf spheroidals (dSphs). For all those stellar systems we show the effective radius-luminosity, effective radius-stellar mass, and effective mass surface density-stellar mass plane. Two families of hot stellar systems can be differentiated: the 'galaxian' family, ranging from gEs over Es and dEs to dSphs, and the 'star cluster' family, comprising globular clusters (GCs), UCDs and nuclear star clusters (NCs). Interestingly, massive ellipticals have a similar size-mass relation as cEs, UCDs and NCs, with a clear common boundary towards minimum sizes. No object of either family is located in the 'zone of avoidance' beyond this limit. Even the majority of early-type galaxies at high redshift obeys this relation. The sizes of dEs and dSphs as well as GCs barely vary with mass over several orders of magnitude. We use the constant galaxy sizes to derive the distances of several local galaxy clusters. Both, galaxies and star clusters, do not exceed a surface density of Σ_eff = 3.17*10^{10}*M^{-3/5} M_sun pc^{-2}, causing an orthogonal kink in the galaxy sequence for ellipticals more massive than 10^{11} M_sun. The densest stellar systems (within their effective radius) are nuclear star clusters. (abridged)

13 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Errors for mean effective radii and related quantities in Table 3 corrected, references added and affiliation changed in the replaced version

References in corpus (21)

• Cats and Dogs, Hair and A Hero: A Quintet of New Milky Way Companions
• Empirical Color Transformations Between SDSS Photometry and Other Photometric Systems
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. VIII. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies
• The Observed properties of Dark Matter on small spatial scales
• Evidence for TP-AGB stars in high redshift galaxies, and their effect on deriving stellar population parameters
• The Luminosity Function of the Milky Way Satellites
• From star clusters to dwarf galaxies: The properties of dynamically hot stellar systems
• The Nature of UCDs: Internal Dynamics from an Expanded Sample and Homogeneous Database
• A trio of new Local Group galaxies with extreme properties
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. II. The Central Brightness Profiles of Early-Type Galaxies: A Characteristic Radius on Nuclear Scales and the Transition from Central Luminosity Deficit to Excess
• Uniting Old Stellar Systems: From Globular Clusters to Giant Ellipticals
• On the mass-radius relation of hot stellar systems
• Structural Properties of Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies in the Fornax and Virgo Clusters
• The early-type dwarf galaxy population of the Hydra I cluster
• Merging of globular clusters within inner galactic regions. II. The Nuclear Star Cluster formation
• The early-type dwarf galaxy population of the Centaurus cluster
• From Galaxy Clusters to Ultra-Faint Dwarf Spheroidals: A Fundamental Curve Connecting Dispersion-supported Galaxies to Their Dark Matter Halos
• Kinematics and Stellar Populations of Low-Luminosity Early-Type Galaxies in the Abell 496 Cluster
• Galaxy populations in the Antlia cluster. I. Photometric properties of early-type galaxies
• Galaxy populations in the Antlia cluster. II. Compact elliptical galaxy candidates
• Local Group Dwarf Galaxies and the Fundamental Manifold of Spheroids

Cited by in corpus (149)

• The Atlas3D project - XX. Mass-size and mass-sigma distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function
• Structure and Kinematics of Early-Type Galaxies from Integral-Field Spectroscopy
• Nuclear Star Clusters
• The size - virial radius relation of galaxies
• Stellar mass -- halo mass relation and star formation efficiency in high-mass halos
• How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction?
• The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations
• Dwarf galaxies in CDM and SIDM with baryons: observational probes of the nature of dark matter
• "Galaxy," Defined
• Bent by baryons: the low mass galaxy-halo relation
• Surface Brightness Profile of the Milky Way's Nuclear Star Cluster
• A MegaCam Survey of Outer Halo Satellites. III. Photometric and Structural Parameters
• The Relationships Among Compact Stellar Systems: A Fresh View of Ultra Compact Dwarfs
• Masses and Scaling Relations for Nuclear Star Clusters, and their Coexistence with Central Black Holes
• Co-Evolution of Galactic Nuclei and Globular Cluster Systems
• The AIMSS Project I: Bridging the Star Cluster - Galaxy Divide
• Confirmation of Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the M81 Group
• The abundance and spatial distribution of ultra-diffuse galaxies in nearby galaxy clusters
• Greatly enhanced merger rates of compact-object binaries in non-spherical nuclear star clusters
• On the origin of the faint-end of the red sequence in high density environments
• Globular cluster formation in the context of galaxy formation and evolution
• The abundance of (not just) dark matter haloes
• A parsec-resolution simulation of the Antennae galaxies: Formation of star clusters during the merger
• Relaxation and Stripping: The Evolution of Sizes, Dispersions and Dark Matter Fractions in Major and Minor Mergers of Elliptical Galaxies
• Eccentric Black Hole Gravitational-Wave Capture Sources in Galactic Nuclei: Distribution of Binary Parameters
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. VI. The Nuclei of Early-Type Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster
• Composite Bulges: The Coexistence of Classical Bulges and Disky Pseudobulges in S0 and Spiral Galaxies
• A Universe of Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies: Theoretical Predictions from $\Lambda$CDM Simulations
• The impact of stellar feedback on the structure, size and morphology of galaxies in Milky Way size dark matter haloes
• Identification of old tidal dwarfs near early-type galaxies from deep imaging and HI observations
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): II. The Central Dwarf Galaxy Population
• Contribution of stripped nuclear clusters to globular cluster and ultra-compact dwarf galaxy populations
• The Atlas-3D project - IX. The merger origin of a fast and a slow rotating Early-Type Galaxy revealed with deep optical imaging: first results
• ELVES I: Structures of Dwarf Satellites of MW-like Galaxies; Morphology, Scaling Relations, and Intrinsic Shapes
• The nuclear cluster of the Milky Way: Our primary testbed for the interaction of a dense star cluster with a massive black hole
• On central black holes in ultra-compact dwarf galaxies
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey - Infrared (NGVS-IR): I. A new Near-UV/Optical/Near-IR Globular Cluster selection tool
• Detection of Supermassive Black Holes in Two Virgo Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxies
• Extending the evolution of the stellar mass-size relation at $z\le 2$ to low stellar mass galaxies from HFF and CANDELS
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): ugrizYJHK Sérsic luminosity functions and the cosmic spectral energy distribution by Hubble type
• Low-mass X-ray binaries indicate a top-heavy stellar initial mass function in ultra compact dwarf galaxies
• The Black Hole in the Most Massive Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy M59-UCD3
• A 3.5-million Solar Masses Black Hole in the Centre of the Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxy Fornax UCD3
• The AIMSS Project III: The Stellar Populations of Compact Stellar Systems
• A deep view into the nucleus of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy with MUSE. I. Data and stellar population characterization
• Exploring the physical properties of lensed star-forming clumps at $2\lesssim z\lesssim 6$
• Dwarf elliptical galaxies as ancient tidal dwarf galaxies
• Ultra diffuse galaxies in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields
• Connecting Transitions in Galaxy Properties to Refueling
• Redshift-Independent Distances in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content and Use of NED-D
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): IV. Mass and Age Bimodality of Nuclear Clusters in the Fornax Core Region
• Star Clusters in Evolving Galaxies
• Asymmetrical tidal tails of open star clusters: stars crossing their cluster's prah challenge Newtonian gravitation
• Metal-poor nuclear star clusters in two dwarf galaxies near Centaurus A suggesting formation from the in-spiraling of globular clusters
• The Size Scale of Star Clusters
• MSTAR -- a fast parallelised algorithmically regularised integrator with minimum spanning tree coordinates
• Threshing in Action - The tidal disruption of a dwarf galaxy by the Hydra I Cluster
• Wide-Field Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Globular Cluster System in NGC1399
• Constraining ultra-compact dwarf galaxy formation with galaxy clusters in the local universe
• Globular cluster clustering and tidal features around ultra compact dwarf galaxies in the halo of NGC1399
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXIV. The Red Sequence to $\sim$10${}^6$ L${}_{\odot }$ and Comparisons with Galaxy Formation Models
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. IX. The catalog of sources in the FDS area, with an example study for globular clusters and background galaxies
• The AIMSS Project II: Dynamical-to-Stellar Mass Ratios Across the Star Cluster - Galaxy Divide
• Galaxies lacking dark matter in the Illustris simulation
• The nucleation fraction of Local Volume galaxies
• Dozens of compact and high velocity-dispersion early-type galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• A High-Resolution Multiband Survey of Westerlund 2 With the Hubble Space Telescope I: Is the Massive Star Cluster Double?
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). IX. The dual origin of low-mass cluster galaxies as revealed by new structural analyses
• A deep view into the nucleus of the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy with MUSE. II. Kinematic characterization of the stellar populations
• An environmental dependence of the physical and structural properties in the Hydra Cluster galaxies
• Upper limits on the presence of central massive black holes in two ultra-compact dwarf galaxies in Centaurus A
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) XXXI. The kinematics of intra-cluster globular clusters in the core of the Virgo cluster
• An evolutionary continuum from nucleated dwarf galaxies to star clusters
• Hubble Space Telescope survey of the Perseus Cluster -IV: Compact stellar systems in the Perseus Cluster core and Ultra Compact Dwarf formation in star forming filaments
• A Catalog of Extended Clusters and Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies - An Analysis of their Parameters in Early- and Late-Type Galaxies
• Peculiar compact stellar systems in the Fornax cluster
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): VII. A MUSE view of the nuclear star clusters in Fornax dwarf galaxies
• An extensive catalogue of early-type galaxies in the nearby Universe
• Deep Chandra Monitoring Observations of NGC 4649: II. Wide-Field Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Globular Clusters
• Infant-phase reddening by surface Fe-peak elements in a normal Type Ia Supernova
• $R_{\mathrm{e}}$. I. Understanding galaxy sizes, associated luminosity densities, and the artificial division of the early-type galaxy population
• Evaporation of planetary atmospheres due to XUV illumination by quasars
• Formation of star clusters and enrichment by massive stars in simulations of low-metallicity galaxies with a fully sampled initial stellar mass function
• On the formation mechanisms of compact elliptical galaxies
• Understanding the internal dynamics of elliptical galaxies without non-baryonic dark matter
• An isolated, compact early-type galaxy with a diffuse stellar component: merger origin?
• The properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Cen A group: Stellar populations, internal dynamics, and a heart-shaped Halpha ring
• The SLUGGS Survey: HST/ACS Mosaic Imaging of the NGC 3115 Globular Cluster System
• NGC 3628-UCD1: A possible $\omega$ Cen Analog Embedded in a Stellar Stream
• Probing the boundary between star clusters and dwarf galaxies: A MUSE view on the dynamics of Crater/Laevens I
• Stellar population and structural properties of dwarf galaxies and young stellar systems in the M81 group
• A metal-poor ultra compact dwarf galaxy at a kiloparsec distance from the low-mass elliptical galaxy FCC47
• Ultra compact dwarfs in the Perseus Cluster: UCD formation via tidal stripping
• A search for active galactic nuclei in low-mass compact galaxies
• Isolated elliptical galaxies and their globular cluster systems. II. NGC 7796 - globular clusters, dynamics, companion
• Euclid: Early Release Observations -- Globular clusters in the Fornax galaxy cluster, from dwarf galaxies to the intracluster field
• Beyond Ultra-diffuse Galaxies. I. Mass--Size Outliers among the Satellites of Milky Way Analogs
• Dwarf Spheroidal Satellite Formation in a Reionized Local Group
• Ultra-compact dwarfs beyond the centre of the Fornax galaxy cluster: Hints of UCD formation in low-density environments
• Do ultra compact dwarf galaxies form monolithically or as merged star cluster complexes?
• The SAMI-Fornax Dwarfs Survey III: Evolution of [$\alpha$/Fe] in dwarfs, from Galaxy Clusters to the Local Group
• Low-mass compact elliptical galaxies: spatially-resolved stellar populations and kinematics with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager
• Is There a Fundamental Upper Limit to the Mass of a Star Cluster?
• Uncovering the formation of ultra-compact dwarf galaxies by multivariate statistical analysis
• The SAMI -- Fornax Dwarfs Survey II: The Stellar Mass Fundamental Plane and the Dark Matter fraction of Dwarf Galaxies
• Galaxy size trends as a consequence of cosmology
• The Stellar Mass Fundamental Plane and Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z < 0.6
• Compact elliptical galaxies in different local environments: a mixture of galaxies with different origins?
• Tully-Fisher Distances and Dynamical Mass Constraints for 24 Host Galaxies of Reverberation-Mapped AGN
• Abundance analysis of the outer halo globular cluster Palomar 14
• A Comprehensive Archival Chandra Search for X-ray Emission from Ultracompact Dwarf Galaxies
• The formation pathways of compact elliptical galaxies
• Catching Tidal Dwarf Galaxies at a Later Evolutionary Stage with ALFALFA
• About the linearity of the color-magnitude relation of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster
• SDSS J085431.18+173730.5: The First Compact Elliptical Galaxy Hosting an Active Nucleus
• The scaling relations of early-type dwarf galaxies across a range of environments
• A Normal Abundance of Faint Satellites in the Fossil Group NGC 6482
• The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. XII. Diffuse Star Clusters in Early-type Galaxies
• Discovery of a Bimodal Environmental Distribution of Compact Ellipticals in the Local Universe
• Study of central light concentration in nearby galaxies
• The formation of compact dwarf ellipticals through merging star clusters
• Mergers all the way down: stellar collisions and kinematics of a dense hierarchically forming massive star cluster in a dwarf starburst
• Simple interpolation functions for the galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function and its effects in early-type galaxies
• A Comprehensive HST BVI Catalogue Of Star Clusters In Five Hickson Compact Groups Of Galaxies
• What drives the corpulence of galaxies? I. The formation of central compact dwarf galaxies in TNG50
• The Blue Straggler Population in Dwarf Galaxies
• The Fundamental Plane of Early-Type Galaxies as a Confounding Correlation
• Tidal disruption of stellar clusters and their remnants' spatial distribution near the galactic center
• Distribution of star formation rates during the rapid assembly of NGC 1399 as deduced from its globular cluster system
• Two Channels of Metal-Rich Compact Stellar System Formation: Starbursts under High Ram Pressure versus Tidal Stripping
• Probabilistic distributions of $M/L$ values for ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies: stochastic samplings of the IMF
• Theoretical lower limits on sizes of ultra faint dwarf galaxies from dynamical friction
• Another look at the size of the low-surface brightness galaxy VCC 1661 in the Virgo Cluster
• Major mergers with small galaxies - the discovery of a Magellanic-type galaxy at z=0.12
• Introducing a new multi-particle collision method for the evolution of dense stellar systems. Crash-test N-body simulations
• Warm dark matter model with a few keV mass is bad for the too-big-to-fail problem
• The creation of a massive UCD by tidal threshing from NGC 936
• The secular evolution of a uniform density star cluster immersed in a compressible galactic tidal field
• UV and NIR size of the HI selected low surface brightness galaxies
• SDSS J122958.84+000138.0: A Compact, Optically red galaxy
• A Wide Field Map of Ultra-Compact Dwarfs in the Coma Cluster
• Dwarf galaxies in the MATLAS Survey: Hubble Space Telescope observations of nuclear star clusters
• Multi-layered characterization of hot stellar systems with confidence
• The Halos and Environments of Nearby Galaxies (HERON) Survey
• MONDian predictions for Newtonian M/L ratios for ultrafaint dSphs
• The MOND Depth Index and Dynamical Maturity Clock: Toward a Universal Classification of Galaxies and Star Clusters
• Evidence for Environmental Stripping in the Coma Cluster
• The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with the VST: III. Low Surface Brightness (LSB) dwarfs and Ultra Diffuse Galaxies (UDGs) in the center of the Fornax cluster
• Dynamical double black holes and their host cluster properties