Large stellar disks in small elliptical galaxies

Abstract

We present the rotation velocities V and velocity dispersions sigma along the principal axes of seven elliptical galaxies less luminous than M_B= -19.5. These kinematics extend beyond the half-light radii for all systems in this photometrically selected sample. At large radii the kinematics not only confirm that rotation and "diskiness" are important in faint ellipticals, as was previously known, but also demonstrate that in most sample galaxies the stars at large galactocentric distances have (V/sigma)_max of about 2, similar to the disks in bona-fide S0 galaxies. Comparing this high degree of ordered stellar motion in all sample galaxies with numerical simulations of dissipationless mergers argues against mergers with mass ratios <=3:1 as an important mechanism in the final shaping of low-luminosity ellipticals, and favors instead the dissipative formation of a disk.

11 pages LaTex with 4 Postscript figures

References in corpus (2)

• Unequal-mass galaxy mergers and the creation of cluster S0 galaxies
• Evidence from Intrinsic Shapes for Two Families of Elliptical Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (47)

• Rotation Curves of Spiral Galaxies
• The ATLAS3D project - III. A census of the stellar angular momentum within the effective radius of early-type galaxies: unveiling the distribution of Fast and Slow Rotators
• The SAURON project -- X. The orbital anisotropy of elliptical and lenticular galaxies: revisiting the (V/sigma,epsilon) diagram with integral-field stellar kinematics
• Measuring the inclination and mass-to-light ratio of axisymmetric galaxies via anisotropic Jeans models of stellar kinematics
• The SAURON project - III. Integral-field absorption-line kinematics of 48 elliptical and lenticular galaxies
• Kinematic Structure of Merger Remnants
• A Correlation between Galaxy Light Concentration and Supermassive Black Hole Mass
• The influence of gas on the structure of merger remnants
• Angular momentum and galaxy formation revisited
• The (black hole mass)-(host spheroid luminosity) relation at high and low masses, the quadratic growth of black holes, and intermediate-mass black hole candidates
• Evidence for a New Elliptical-Galaxy Paradigm: Sersic and Core Galaxies
• Quantifying the Coexistence of Massive Black Holes and Dense Nuclear Star Clusters
• A log-quadratic relation for predicting supermassive black hole masses from the host bulge Sersic index
• Kinematic properties of early-type galaxy haloes using planetary nebulae
• The SAURON project - XII. Kinematic substructures in early-type galaxies: evidence for disks in fast rotators
• The Black Hole Mass - Spheroid Luminosity relation
• The local space density of Sb-Sdm galaxies as function of their scalesize, surface brightness and luminosity
• Fundamental Planes, and the "barless" M-sigma relation, for supermassive black holes
• Dust attenuation, bulge formation and inside-out cessation of star-formation in Star-Forming Main Sequence galaxies at z~2
• The line of sight velocity distributions of simulated merger remnants
• Surface density profiles of collisionless disc merger remnants
• Surface density effects in quenching: cause or effect?
• The SLUGGS Survey: Wide-field Stellar Kinematics of Early-type Galaxies
• Host Galaxy Bulge Predictors of Supermassive Black Hole Mass
• The stellar accretion origin of stellar population gradients in massive galaxies at large radii
• The effects of a hot gaseous halo in galaxy major mergers
• A Broad Search for Counterrotating Gas and Stars: Evidence for Mergers and Accretion
• Are disk galaxies the progenitors of giant ellipticals?
• Elliptical galaxies from mergers of discs
• HST detection of spiral structure in two Coma Cluster dwarf galaxies
• The near-IR $M_{bh}$ - L and $M_{bh}$ - n relations
• The kinematics of 3:1-merger remnants and the formation of low-luminosity elliptical galaxies
• HI in four star-forming low-luminosity E/S0 and S0 galaxies
• Planetary Nebulae Kinematics in M31
• The slowing down of galaxy disks in dissipationless minor mergers
• CL 1358+62: Characterizing the Physical Properties of Cluster Galaxies at z=0.33
• Kinematics and line strength indices in the halos of the Coma Brightest Cluster Galaxies NGC 4874 and NGC 4889
• Early-type galaxies at large galactocentric radii - I. Stellar kinematics and photometric properties
• The Dynamical Evolution of Substructure
• Field spheroid-dominated galaxies in a Λ-CDM Universe
• Supermassive Black Holes and Nuclear Star Clusters: Connection with the Host Galaxy Kinematics and Color
• 1.65 micron (H-band) surface photometry of galaxies. VIII: the near-IR k-space at z=0
• What are S0 (0) Galaxies?
• The Stellar Kinematics of Extragalactic Bulges
• Influence of Cooled Interstellar Gas on the Fundamental Plane for Elliptical Galaxies
• New clues to the evolution of dwarf early-type galaxies
• Modelling Kinematics and Dark Matter: The Halos of Elliptical Galaxies