The Rising Stellar Velocity Dispersion of M87 from Integrated Starlight

Abstract

We have measured the line-of-sight velocity distribution from integrated stellar light at two points in the outer halo of M87 (NGC 4486), the second-rank galaxy in the Virgo Cluster. The data were taken at R = 480" ($\sim 41.5$ kpc) and R = 526" ($\sim 45.5$ kpc) along the SE major axis. The second moment for a non-parametric estimate of the full velocity distribution is $420\pm 23$ km/s and $577\pm 35$ km/s respectively. There is intriguing evidence in the velocity profiles for two kinematically distinct stellar components at the position of our pointing. Under this assumption we employ a two-Gaussian decomposition and find the primary Gaussian having rest velocities equal to M87 (consistent with zero rotation) and second moments of $383\pm 32$ km/s and $446\pm 43$ km/s respectively. The asymmetry seen in the velocity profiles suggests that the stellar halo of M87 is not in a relaxed state and confuses a clean dynamical interpretation. That said, either measurement (full or two component model) shows a rising velocity dispersion at large radii, consistent with previous integrated light measurements, yet significantly higher than globular cluster measurements at comparable radial positions. These integrated light measurements at large radii, and the stark contrast they make to the measurements of other kinematic tracers, highlight the rich kinematic complexity of environments like the center of the Virgo Cluster and the need for caution when interpreting kinematic measurements from various dynamical tracers.

arXiv comment16 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (89)

• Parametric Recovery of Line-of-Sight Velocity Distributions from Absorption-Line Spectra of Galaxies via Penalized Likelihood
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• MILES: A Medium resolution INT Library of Empirical Spectra
• The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III
• The Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Minor mergers and the size evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Structure and Formation of Elliptical and Spheroidal Galaxies
• Passively Evolving Early-type Galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Evolutionary Stellar Population Synthesis with MILES. Part I: The Base Models and a New Line Index System
• The Growth of Massive Galaxies Since z=2
• The Two Phases of Galaxy Formation
• The 2MASS Redshift Survey - Description and Data Release
• Confirmation of the remarkable compactness of massive quiescent galaxies at z~2.3: early-type galaxies did not form in a simple monolithic collapse
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster
• Optimal Techniques in Two-dimensional Spectroscopy: Background Subtraction for the 21st Century
• The Indo-U.S. Library of Coude Feed Stellar Spectra
• The SAURON project - III. Integral-field absorption-line kinematics of 48 elliptical and lenticular galaxies
• The Black-Hole Mass in M87 from Gemini/NIFS Adaptive Optics Observations
• Can Minor Merging Account for the Size Growth of Quiescent Galaxies? New Results from the CANDELS Survey
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• Old Galaxies in the Young Universe
• Formation of early-type galaxies from cosmological initial conditions
• The cosmological size and velocity dispersion evolution of massive early-type galaxies
• Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster
• The K20 survey. I. Disentangling old and dusty star-forming galaxies in the ERO population
• The Black Hole Mass, Stellar M/L, and Dark Halo in M87
• Recent Structural Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies: Size Growth from z=1 to z=0
• The Importance of Mergers for the Origin of Intracluster Stars in Cosmological Simulations of Galaxy Clusters
• Axisymmetric, 3-Integral Models of Galaxies: A Massive Black Hole in NGC3379
• The Efficiency of Globular Cluster Formation
• Compact High-Redshift Galaxies Are the Cores of the Most Massive Present-Day Spheroids
• HST and Spitzer imaging of red and blue galaxies at z~2.5: A correlation between size and star formation activity from compact quiescent galaxies to extended star forming galaxies
• Dynamics of the Globular Cluster System Associated with M87 (NGC 4486). II. Analysis
• Extremely compact massive galaxies at z~1.4
• Stellar Kinematics of z~2 Galaxies and the Inside-Out Growth of Quiescent Galaxies
• Kinematic properties of early-type galaxy haloes using planetary nebulae
• Evolved Galaxies at z > 1.5 from the Gemini Deep Deep Survey: The Formation Epoch of Massive Stellar Systems
• HST/WFC3 Confirmation of the Inside-Out Growth of Massive Galaxies at 0<z<2 and Identification of their Star Forming Progenitors at z~3
• Galaxy groups and clouds in the Local (z~0.01) universe
• Sizes and surface brightness profiles of quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2
• Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift
• Wide-Field Precision Kinematics of the M87 Globular Cluster System
• Forming Early-Type Galaxies in LambdaCDM Simulations -I. Assembly histories
• Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z~2: Are they truly superdense?
• Early assembly of the most massive galaxies
• HETDEX pilot survey for emission-line galaxies - I. Survey design, performance, and catalog
• Internal Properties of Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
• Redshift-Distance Survey of Early-Type Galaxies: Spectroscopic Data
• The Origin and Properties of Intracluster Stars in a Rich Cluster
• Kinematics of Ten Early-Type Galaxies from HST and Ground-Based Spectroscopy
• Stellar velocity profiles and line strengths out to four effective radii in the early-type galaxies NGC 3379 and NGC 821
• Diffuse Tidal Structures in the Halos of Virgo Ellipticals
• The Dark Matter Distribution in Abell 383: Evidence for a Shallow Density Cusp from Improved Lensing, Stellar Kinematic and X-ray Data
• The evolution of the brightest cluster galaxies since z~1 from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS)
• Determination of the Dark Matter Profile of Abell 2199 from Integrated Starlight
• The XMM Cluster Survey: The build up of stellar mass in Brightest Cluster Galaxies at high redshift
• The Supermassive Black Hole and Dark Matter Halo of NGC 4649 (M60)
• The ongoing assembly of a central cluster galaxy: Phase-space substructures in the halo of M87
• The line-of-sight velocity distributions of intracluster planetary nebulae in the Virgo cluster core
• Structure, mass and distance of the Virgo cluster from a Tolman-Bondi model
• Galaxy Kinematics with VIRUS-P: The Dark Matter Halo of M87
• Dynamics of Stars and Globular Clusters in M87
• Optical Colors of Intracluster Light in the Virgo Cluster Core
• The Dynamics of the M87 Globular Cluster System
• The Stellar Halos of Massive Elliptical Galaxies II: Detailed Abundance Ratios at Large Radius
• Evolution in the structural properties of early-type Brightest Cluster Galaxies at small lookback time and dependence on the environment
• The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z ~ 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field
• Spectroscopic Determination of the Faint End of the Luminosity Function in the Nearby Galaxy Clusters A2199 and Virgo
• Little change in the sizes of the most massive galaxies since z = 1
• The Kinematics of Intracluster Planetary Nebulae and the On-Going Subcluster Merger in the Coma Cluster Core
• Superdense massive galaxies in the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS)
• The role of dry mergers for the formation and evolution of brightest cluster galaxies
• Central Stellar Mass Deficits in the Bulges of Local Lenticular Galaxies, and the Connection with Compact z ~ 1.5 Galaxies
• The Stellar Halos of Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• Comparison of an approximately isothermal gravitational potentials of elliptical galaxies based on X-ray and optical data
• Insights on the Formation, Evolution, and Activity of Massive Galaxies From Ultra-Compact and Disky Galaxies at z=2-3
• Radial kinematics of brightest cluster galaxies
• Recovering Velocity Distributions via Penalized Likelihood
• The edge of the M87 halo and the kinematics of the diffuse light in the Virgo cluster core
• Diffuse Stellar Light at 100 kpc Scales in M87
• Evolution of BCGs structural parameters in the last $\sim$6 Gyr: feedback processes versus merger events
• Dynamics of the Globular Cluster System Associated with M87 (NGC 4486). I. New CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and the Composite Database
• Steepening mass profiles, dark matter and environment of X-ray bright elliptical galaxies
• Kinematics, Abundances, and Origin of Brightest Cluster Galaxies
• Counter-dispersed slitless-spectroscopy technique: planetary nebula velocities in the halo of NGC 1399
• Mapping the galaxy NGC 4486 (M87) through its Globular Cluster System
• The dynamically hot stellar halo around NGC 3311: a small cluster-dominated central galaxy
• The inner structure of very massive elliptical galaxies: implications for the inside-out formation mechanism of z~2 galaxies
• Kinematics and stellar population of NGC 4486A

Cited by in corpus (22)

• The SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS): Sample definition, methods, and initial results
• The MASSIVE Survey - V. Spatially-Resolved Stellar Angular Momentum, Velocity Dispersion, and Higher Moments of the 41 Most Massive Local Early-Type Galaxies
• The Cluster Velocity Dispersion of the Abell 2199 cD Halo of NGC 6166
• The MASSIVE Survey - VIII. Stellar Velocity Dispersion Profiles and Environmental Dependence of Early-Type Galaxies
• The outer regions of the giant Virgo galaxy M87. Kinematic separation of stellar halo and intracluster light
• Photometric dissection of Intracluster Light and its correlations with host cluster properties
• A kinematically distinct core and minor-axis rotation: the MUSE perspective on M87
• Structural Transition in the NGC 6251 Jet: An Interplay with the Supermassive Black Hole and Its Host Galaxy
• The kinematics of the outer halo of M87 as mapped by planetary nebulae
• Diversity in the stellar velocity dispersion profiles of a large sample of Brightest Cluster Galaxies $z\le 0.3$
• Sloshing in its cD halo: MUSE kinematics of the central galaxy NGC 3311
• To the Edge of M87 and Beyond: Spectroscopy of Intracluster Globular Clusters and Ultra Compact Dwarfs in the Virgo Cluster
• The Hydra I cluster core - II. Kinematic complexity in a rising velocity dispersion profile around the cD galaxy NGC 3311
• Kinematics of the diffuse intragroup and intracluster light in groups and clusters of galaxies in the Local Universe within 100 Mpc distance
• Minor Mergers are not enough: The importance of Major Mergers during Brightest Cluster Galaxy assembly
• Study of gravitational fields and globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies
• Globular Cluster Formation in the Virgo Cluster
• Dynamical masses of brightest cluster galaxies I: stellar velocity anisotropy and mass-to-light ratios
• What Would Happen If We Were About 1 pc Away from a Supermassive Black Hole?
• Constraining $p$-wave Dark Matter Annihilation with Gamma-ray Observations of M87
• Fresh Insights on the Kinematics of M49's Globular Cluster System with MMT/Hectospec Spectroscopy
• Axion-like particle searches with MeerKAT and SKA