Signatures of accretion events in the halos of early-type galaxies from comparing PNe and GCs kinematics

Abstract

We have compared the halo kinematics traced by globular clusters (GCs) and planetary nebulae (PNe) for two elliptical galaxies in the Fornax and Virgo clusters NGC 1399 and NGC 4649, and for the merger remnant NGC 5128 (Centaurus A). We find differences in the rotational properties of the PN, red GC, and blue GC systems in all these three galaxies. NGC 1399 PNe and GCs show line of sight velocity distributions in specific regions that are significantly different, based on Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. The PN system shows multi-spin components, with nearly opposite direction of rotation in the inner and the outer parts. The GCs velocity field is not point-symmetric in the outer regions of the galaxy, indicating that the system has not reached dynamical equilibrium yet. In NGC 4649 PNe, red and blue GCs have different rotation axes and rotational velocities. Finally, in NGC 5128 both PNe and GCs deviate from equilibrium in the outer regions of the galaxy, and in the inner regions the PN system is rotationally supported, whereas the GC system is dominated by velocity dispersion. The observed different kinematic properties, including deviations from point-symmetry, between PNe and GCs suggest that these systems are accreted at different times by the host galaxy, and the most recent accretion took place only few Gyr ago.We discuss two scenarios which may explain some of these differences: i) tidal stripping of loosely-bound GCs, and ii) multiple accretion of low luminosity and dwarf galaxies. Because these two mechanisms affect mostly the GC system, differences with the PNe kinematics can be expected.

14 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS. This new version contains an improved analysis, which includes the study of point-symmetry in the velocity fields and its implications for dynamical equilibrium

References in corpus (16)

• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• Kinematic properties of early-type galaxy haloes using planetary nebulae
• The SLUGGS Survey: Kinematics for over 2500 Globular Clusters in Twelve Early-type Galaxies
• A deep kinematic survey of planetary nebulae in the Andromeda Galaxy using the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph
• Planetary nebulae as tracers of galaxy stellar populations
• A Spitzer mid-infrared spectral survey of mass-losing carbon stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Dearth of dark matter or massive dark halo? Mass-shape-anisotropy degeneracies revealed by NMAGIC dynamical models of the elliptical galaxy NGC 3379
• The Kinematics and Dynamics of the Globular Clusters and the Planetary Nebulae of NGC 5128
• Planetary Nebula Spectrograph survey of S0 galaxy kinematics. II. Clues to the origins of S0 galaxies
• Dynamics of the NGC 4636 globular cluster system II. Improved constraints from a large sample of globular cluster velocities
• The Planetary Nebula Spectrograph survey of S0 galaxy kinematics. Data and Overview
• Counter-dispersed slitless-spectroscopy technique: planetary nebula velocities in the halo of NGC 1399
• The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). I. CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and Database
• Radially Extended Kinematics in the S0 Galaxy NGC 2768 from Planetary Nebulae, Globular Clusters and Starlight
• Kinematic Evidence for Halo Substructure in Spiral Galaxies
• The Evolution of the ISM in the Mildly Disturbed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4647

Cited by in corpus (44)

• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. I. The extended and diffuse stellar halo of NGC~1399 out to 192 kpc
• Binary stars as the key to understanding planetary nebulae
• On feathers, bifurcations and shells: the dynamics of tidal streams across the mass scale
• The mass and angular momentum distribution of simulated massive early-type galaxies to large radii
• The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. VIII. Connecting the accretion history with the cluster density
• Kinematics and simulations of the stellar stream in the halo of the Umbrella Galaxy
• The extended Planetary Nebula Spectrograph (ePN.S) early-type galaxy survey. The kinematic diversity of stellar halos and the relation between halo transition scale and stellar mass
• The outer regions of the giant Virgo galaxy M87. Kinematic separation of stellar halo and intracluster light
• The Extended Spatial Distribution of Globular Clusters in the Core of the Fornax Cluster
• The Fornax3D project: Tracing the assembly history of the cluster from the kinematic and line-strength maps
• The stellar halos of ETGs in the IllustrisTNG simulations: the photometric and kinematic diversity of galaxies at large radii
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey II - Planetary Nebulae kinematics within 200 kpc of the cluster core
• The kinematics of the outer halo of M87 as mapped by planetary nebulae
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) XXXI. The kinematics of intra-cluster globular clusters in the core of the Virgo cluster
• Substructure and Tidal Streams in the Andromeda Galaxy and its Satellites
• The halo of M49 and its environment as traced by planetary nebulae
• To the Edge of M87 and Beyond: Spectroscopy of Intracluster Globular Clusters and Ultra Compact Dwarfs in the Virgo Cluster
• The Two-Dimensional Spatial Distributions of the Globular Clusters and Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries of NGC4649
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey III -- Kinematical characterisation of globular clusters across the Fornax galaxy cluster
• A SLUGGS and Gemini/GMOS combined study of the elliptical galaxy M60: wide-field photometry and kinematics of the globular cluster system
• The SLUGGS survey: combining stars, globular clusters and planetary nebulae to understand the assembly history of early-type galaxies from their large radii kinematics
• Kinematics of the diffuse intragroup and intracluster light in groups and clusters of galaxies in the Local Universe within 100 Mpc distance
• Young globular clusters in NGC 1316
• The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. IV. A Method to Determine the Average Mass Ratio of Mergers That Built Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• Constraining the Physical State of the Hot Gas Halos in NGC 4649 and NGC 5846
• The low dark matter content of the lenticular galaxy NGC 3998
• Scaling relations for globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies. II. Is there an environmental dependence?
• Spatial Structures In the Globular Cluster Distribution of the Ten Brightest Virgo Galaxies
• The assembly history of the nearest S0 galaxy NGC 3115 from its kinematics out to six half-light radii
• The Fornax3D project: The assembly history of massive early-type galaxies in the Fornax cluster from deep imaging and integral field spectroscopy
• On the assembly history of massive galaxies. A pilot project with VEGAS deep imaging and M3G integral field spectroscopy
• An imaging and spectroscopic study of the planetary nebulae in NGC 5128 (Centaurus A): Planetary nebulae catalogues
• The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey IV -- Cold kinematical substructures in the Fornax core from COSTA
• The SLUGGS Survey: Globular cluster kinematics in a "double sigma" galaxy - NGC 4473
• Galaxy archaeology for wet mergers: Globular cluster age distributions in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies
• New Velocity Measurements of NGC 5128 Globular Clusters out to 130 kpc: Outer Halo Kinematics, Substructure and Dynamics
• Investigating the Dark Matter Halo of NGC 5128 using a Discrete Dynamical Model
• Dark matter in massive galaxies
• Shapes of dark matter haloes with discrete globular cluster dynamics: The example of NGC 5128 (Centaurus A)
• Architecture of the Andromeda: a quantitative analysis of clustering in the inner stellar halo
• The Planetary Nebulae Populations in the Local Group
• The galactic acceleration scale is imprinted on globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies of most masses and on red and blue globular cluster subpopulations
• COSTA: the COld STream finder Algorithm. Searching for kinematical substructures in the phase space of discrete tracers