The SAMI-Fornax Dwarfs Survey I: sample, observations, and the specific stellar angular momentum of dwarf elliptical galaxies
- Author(s)
- Nicholas Scott, F. Sara Eftekhari, Reynier F. Peletier, Julia J. Bryant, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Massimo Capaccioli, Scott M. Croom, Michael Drinkwater, Jésus Falcón-Barroso, Michael Hilker, Enrichetta Iodice, Nuria F. P. Lorente, Steffen Mieske, Marilena Spavone, Glenn van de Ven, Aku Venhola
- Abstract
Dwarf ellipticals are the most common galaxy type in cluster environments; however, the challenges associated with their observation mean that their formation mechanisms are still poorly understood. To address this, we present deep integral field observations of a sample of 31 low-mass (107.5 < M⋆ < 109.5 M☉) early-type galaxies in the Fornax cluster with the SAMI instrument. For 21 galaxies, our observations are sufficiently deep to construct spatially resolved maps of the stellar velocity and velocity dispersion - for the remaining galaxies, we extract global velocities and dispersions from aperture spectra only. From the kinematic maps, we measure the specific stellar angular momentum λR of the lowest mass dE galaxies to date. Combining our observations with early-type galaxy data from the literature spanning a large range in stellar mass, we find that λR decreases towards lower stellar mass, with a corresponding increase in the proportion of slowly rotating galaxies in this regime. The decrease of λR with mass in our sample dE galaxies is consistent with a similar trend seen in somewhat more massive spiral galaxies from the CALIFA survey. This suggests that the degree of dynamical heating required to produce dEs from low-mass starforming progenitors may be relatively modest and consistent with a broad range of formation mechanisms.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Astrophysics
- External organisation(s)
- The University of Sydney, University of Groningen, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II, University of Queensland, Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, European Southern Observatory (Germany), INAF Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte , Macquarie University, European Southern Observatory (Chile), University of Oulu
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume
- 497
- Pages
- 1571-1582
- No. of pages
- 12
- ISSN
- 0035-8711
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2042
- Publication date
- 09-2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/fb9874cc-b4c4-412d-932c-77ea1b2e0396