Kinematics of elliptical galaxies with a diffuse dust component - III. A Monte Carlo approach to include the effects of scattering

Abstract

This paper is the third one in a series, intended to investigate how the observed kinematics of elliptical galaxies are affected by dust attenuation. In Paper I and Paper II, we investigated the effects of dust absorption; here we extend our modelling in order to include the effects of scattering. We describe how kinematical information can be combined with the radiative transfer equation, and present a Monte Carlo code that can handle kinematical information in an elegant way. Compared to the case where only absorption is taken into account, we find that dust attenuation considerably affects the observed kinematics when scattering is included. For the central lines of sight, dust can either decrease or increase the central observed velocity dispersion. The most important effect of dust attenuation, however, is found at large projected radii. The kinematics at these lines of sight are strongly affected by photons scattered into these lines of sight, which were emitted by high-velocity stars in the central regions of the galaxy. These photons bias the LOSVDs towards high line-of-sight velocities, and significantly increase the observed velocity dispersion and LOSVD shape parameters. These effects are similar to the expected kinematical signature of a dark matter halo, such that dust attenuation may form an alternative explanation for the usual stellar kinematical evidence for dark matter halos around elliptical galaxies. We apply our results to discuss several other topics in galactic dynamics, where we feel dust attenuation should be taken into account. In particular, we argue that the kinematics observed at various wavelengths can help to constrain the spatial distribution of dust in elliptical galaxies.

21 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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