STELLAR KINEMATICS AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF VIRGO CLUSTER DWARF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES FROM THE SMAKCED PROJECT. III. ANGULAR MOMENTUM AND CONSTRAINTS ON FORMATION SCENARIOS
- UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Aix Marseille Universit, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, F-13388 Marseille (France)
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen (Netherlands)
- European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
- Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Mönchhofstraße 12-14, D-69120 Heidelberg (Germany)
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
- Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Vía Láctea s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 (United States)
- Departamento de Astrofísica y Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid (Spain)
- Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstraße 17, A-1180 Vienna (Austria)
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, VIC 3122 (Australia)
- Division of Astronomy, Department of Physics, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 3000, FI-90014 Oulu (Finland)
We analyze the stellar kinematics of 39 dwarf early-type galaxies (dEs) in the Virgo Cluster. Based on the specific stellar angular momentum λ{sub Re} and the ellipticity, we find 11 slow rotators and 28 fast rotators. The fast rotators in the outer parts of the Virgo Cluster rotate significantly faster than fast rotators in the inner parts of the cluster. Moreover, 10 out of the 11 slow rotators are located in the inner 3° (D < 1 Mpc) of the cluster. The fast rotators contain subtle disk-like structures that are visible in high-pass filtered optical images, while the slow rotators do not exhibit these structures. In addition, two of the dEs have kinematically decoupled cores and four more have emission partially filling in the Balmer absorption lines. These properties suggest that Virgo Cluster dEs may have originated from late-type star-forming galaxies that were transformed by the environment after their infall into the cluster. The correlation between λ{sub Re} and the clustercentric distance can be explained by a scenario where low luminosity star-forming galaxies fall into the cluster, their gas is rapidly removed by ram-pressure stripping, although some of it can be retained in their core, their star formation is quenched but their stellar kinematics are preserved. After a long time in the cluster and several passes through its center, the galaxies are heated up and transformed into slow rotating dEs.
- OSTI ID:
- 22364333
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 799, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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