Galactic Bulges from Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Observations: Global Scaling Relations

Balcells, Marc; Graham, Alister W.; Peletier, Reynier F.
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 665, Issue 2, pp. 1104-1114.

Advertised on:
8
2007
Number of authors
3
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
66
Refereed citations
59
Description
We investigate bulge and disk scaling relations using a volume-corrected sample of early- to intermediate-type disk galaxies in which, importantly, the biasing flux from additional nuclear components has been modeled and removed. Structural parameters are obtained from a seeing-convolved, bulge + disk + nuclear-component decomposition applied to near-infrared surface brightness profiles spanning ~10 pc to the outer disk. Bulge and disk parameters, and bulge-to-disk ratios, are analyzed as a function of bulge luminosity, disk luminosity, galaxy central velocity dispersion, and galaxy Hubble type. Mathematical expressions are given for the stronger relations, which can be used to test and constrain galaxy formation models. Photometric parameters of both bulges and disks are observed to correlate with bulge luminosity and with central velocity dispersion. In contrast, for the unbarred, early to intermediate types covered by the sample, Hubble type does not correlate with bulge and disk components, nor their various ratios. In this sense, the early-to-intermediate spiral Hubble sequence is scale free. However, galaxies themselves are not scale free, the critical scale being the luminosity of the bulge. Bulge luminosity is shown to affect the disk parameters, such that central surface brightness becomes fainter, and scale length bigger, with bulge luminosity. The lack of significant correlations between bulge parameters (size, luminosity, or density) on disk luminosity, remains a challenge for secular evolution models of bulge growth. The average near-infrared bulge-to-total flux ratio for our S0-S0a galaxies is 0.25 (+/-0.09). Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Based on observations made with the Isaac Newton and William Herschel Telescopes operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.