Document Type

Article

Publication Date

September 2017

Publication Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

470

Issue Number

2

First Page

1321

Last Page

1328

DOI

10.1093/mnras/stx1348

Keywords

galaxies: elliptical and lenticular: cD, galaxies: individual: NGC 821; NGC 3377; NGC 4278; NGC 4473, galaxies: kinematics and dynamics

Disciplines

External Galaxies | Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy

Abstract

We present radial tracks for four early-type galaxies with embedded intermediate-scale discs in a modified spin-ellipticity diagram. Here, each galaxy's spin and ellipticity profiles are shown as a radial track, as opposed to a single, flux-weighted aperture-dependent value as is common in the literature. The use of a single ellipticity and spin parameter is inadequate to capture the basic nature of these galaxies, which transition from fast to slow rotation as one moves to larger radii where the disc ceases to dominate. After peaking, the four galaxy's radial tracks feature a downturn in both ellipticity and spin with increasing radius, differentiating them from elliptical galaxies, and from lenticular galaxies whose discs dominate at large radii. These galaxies are examples of so-called discy elliptical galaxies, which are a morphological hybrid between elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) galaxies and have been designated ES galaxies. The use of spin-ellipticity tracks provides extra structural information about individual galaxies over a single aperture measure. Such tracks provide a key diagnostic for classifying early-type galaxies, particularly in the era of 2D kinematic (and photometric) data beyond one effective radius.

Comments

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.This article can also be found online at the following link: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx1348
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