Bibcode
La Barbera, F.; de Carvalho, R. R.; de la Rosa, I. G.; Lopes, P. A. A.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 408, Issue 3, pp. 1335-1360.
Advertised on:
11
2010
Citations
66
Refereed citations
60
Description
We present a complete analysis of the Fundamental Plane (FP) of
early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the nearby Universe (z < 0.1). The
sample, as defined in Paper I, comprises 39993 ETGs located in
environments covering the entire domain in local density (from field to
cluster). We derive the FP in the grizYJHK wavebands with a detailed
discussion on fitting procedure, bias due to selection effects and bias
due to correlated errors on the effective parameters, re and
<μ>e, as key factors in obtaining meaningful FP
coefficients. Studying the Kormendy relation (KR) we find that its slope
varies from g (3.44 +/- 0.04) through K (3.80 +/- 0.02) implying that
smaller size ETGs have a larger ratio of optical to near-infrared (NIR)
radii than galaxies with larger re. We also examine the
Faber-Jackson (FJ) relation and find that its slope is similar for all
wavebands, within the uncertainties, with a mean value of 0.198 +/-
0.007. Writing the FP equation as logre =
alogσ0 + b<μ>e + c, we find that
the `a' varies from 1.38 +/- 0.02 in g to 1.55 +/- 0.02 in K, implying a
12 per cent variation across the grizYJHK wavelength baseline. The
corresponding variation of `b' is negligible (b ~ 0.316), while `c'
varies by ~10 per cent. We show that the waveband dependence of the FJ
and KR results from the complex variation of the distribution of
galaxies in the face-on projection of the FP as well as by the change of
FP coefficients with waveband. We find that `a' and `b' become smaller
for higher Sersic index and larger axial ratios, independent of the
waveband. This suggests that these variations are likely to be related
to differences in structural and dynamical (rather than stellar
population) properties of ETGs. It is noticeable that galaxies with
bluer colours and disc-like isophotes have smaller `b', with the effect
decreasing smoothly from g through K. Considering a power-law relation
between mass-to-light ratio and (dynamical) mass, M/L ~
Mγ, we estimate γ from the FP coefficients in
grizYJHK. The γ decreases from 0.224 +/- 0.008 in g to 0.186 +/-
0.009 in K band. Using the γ values, we estimate the variation of
age and metallicity of the stellar populations present in massive
galaxies per decade in stellar mass. This analysis shows that in the NIR
the tilt of the FP is not due to stellar population variation, and that
ETGs have coeval stellar populations with an age variation of a few per
cent per decade in mass, and a corresponding metallicity increase of ~23
per cent. We also show that current semi-analytical models of galaxy
formation reproduce very well these amounts of variation of age and
metallicity with respect to stellar mass.