Massive elliptical galaxies: From cores to halos

Journal article

In the context of recent observational results that show massive ellipticals were in place at high redshifts, we reassess the status of monolithic collapse in a ACDM universe. Using a sample of over 2000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, by comparing the dynamical mass and stellar mass (estimated from colors) we find that ellipticals have "cores" that are baryon-dominated within their half-light radius. These galaxies correspond to 3 σ peaks in the spherical collapse model if the total mass in the halo is assumed to be 20 times the dynamical mass within the half-light radius. This value yields stellar mass-to-total mass ratios of 8%, compared to a cosmological baryon fraction of 18% derived from the first 3 years of WMAP observations alone. We further develop a method for reconstructing the concentration halo parameter c of the progenitors of these galaxies by utilizing adiabatic contraction. Although the analysis is done within the framework of monolithic collapse, the resulting distribution of c is lognormal with a peak value of c ∼ 3-10 and a distribution width similar to the results of N-body simulations. We also derive scaling relations between stellar and dynamical mass and the velocity dispersion, and find that these are sufficient to recover the tilt of the fundamental plane. © 2006. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Authors: Lintott, C; Ferreras, I; Lahav, O

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing
• Journal: ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
• Volume: 648
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 826-834
• Publication date: 2006-09-10
• DOI: 10.1086/505415
• EISSN: 1538-4357
• ISSN: 0004-637X
• Language: English
• Keywords: galaxies : formation; galaxies : evolution; galaxies : elliptical and lenticular, cD; dark matter; galaxies : fundamental parameters