Bibcode
Bettoni, Daniela; Falomo, Renato; Fasano, Giovanni; Govoni, Federica; Salvo, Marilena; Scarpa, Riccardo
Bibliographical reference
The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift: Proceedings of the European Southern Observatory and Universitäts-Sternwarte München Workshop Held in Venice, Italy, 24-26 October 2001, ESO ASTROPHYSICS SYMPOSIA. ISBN 3-540-00205-7. Edited by R. Bender and A. Renzini. Springer-Verlag, 2003, p. 154
Advertised on:
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2003
Citations
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Refereed citations
0
Description
The global properties of early-type galaxies are fairly well described
through a linear relation (the Fundamental Plane, FP [2],[3]) in the
space defined by three observables: the effective radius r e,
the average surface brightness μ_e and the central velocity
dispersion σ_c. The FP has been shown to be close to the plane
defining the virial equilibrium condition, over the assumption of a
rigorous homology among galaxies [4]. The systematic deviation of the FP
from the one defined by the virial equilibrium, has been interpreted as
due to changes of the Mass to Light ratio (M/L) (due to different
stellar content or to differences in dark matter distribution) or to the
breakdown of the homology assumption. In this context it is therefore
important to determine whether the FP has universal validity among
ellipticals. In particular it is not yet clear if active and non-active
galaxies do follow the same FP, as it would be expected in view of the
recent results on Black Holes (BH) demography in galaxies [5],[8] that
suggest all, inactive and active, luminous ellipticals contain a massive
BH.