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THE VIRIAL RELATION AND INTRINSIC SHAPE OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES
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저자
TRIPPE, SASCHA
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저널명
The Korean Astronomical Society
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발행년도
2016
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권호
V .49, N .5
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Early-type galaxies (ETGs) are supposed to follow the virial relation $M=k_e{\sigma}^2R_e/G$ , with M being the mass, σ* being the stellar velocity dispersion, Re being the effective radius, G being Newton's constant, and ke being the virial factor, a geometry factor of order unity. Applying this relation to (a) the ATLAS3D sample of Cappellari et al. (2013) and (b) the sample of Saglia et al. (2016) gives ensemble-averaged factors 〈ke〉 = 5.15 ± 0.09 and 〈ke〉 = 4.01 ± 0.18, respectively, with the difference arising from different definitions of effective velocity dispersions. The two datasets reveal a statistically significant tilt of the empirical relation relative to the theoretical virial relation such that $M{\propto}({\sigma}^2_*R_e)^{0.92}$ . This tilt disappears when replacing Re with the semi-major axis of the projected half-light ellipse, a. All best-fit scaling relations show zero intrinsic scatter, implying that the mass plane of ETGs is fully determined by the virial relation. Whenever a comparison is possible, my results are consistent with, and confirm, the results by Cappellari et al. (2013). The difference between the relations using either a or Re arises from a known lack of highly elliptical high-mass galaxies; this leads to a scaling (1 - ϵ ) ∝ M0.12, with ϵ being the ellipticity and $R_e=a\sqrt[]{1-{\epsilon}}$ . Accordingly, a, not Re, is the correct proxy for the scale radius of ETGs. By geometry, this implies that early-type galaxies are axisymmetric and oblate in general, in agreement with published results from modeling based on kinematics and light distributions.