Bibcode
DOI
Graham, Alister W.; Trujillo, I.; Caon, N.
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 122, Issue 4, pp. 1707-1717.
Advertised on:
10
2001
Citations
97
Refereed citations
82
Description
We explore the stability of different galaxy light concentration indices
as a function of the outermost observed galaxy radius. With a series of
analytical light-profile models, we show mathematically how varying the
radial extent to which one measures a galaxy's light can strongly affect
the derived galaxy concentration. The ``mean concentration index,''
often used for parameterizing high-redshift galaxies, is shown to be
horribly unstable, even when modeling one-component systems such as
elliptical, dwarf elliptical, and pure exponential disk galaxies. The
C31 concentration index performs considerably better but is
also heavily dependent on the radial extent, and hence exposure depth,
of any given galaxy. We show that the recently defined central
concentration index is remarkably stable against changes to the outer
radius and observational errors and provides a both meaningful and
reliable estimate of galaxy concentration. The Sérsic index n
from the r1/n models is shown to be monotonically related
with the central concentration of light, giving the index n a second and
perhaps more tangible meaning. With a sample of elliptical and dwarf
elliptical galaxies, we present correlations between the central light
concentration and the global parameters: luminosity (Pearson's r=-0.82),
effective radius (r=0.67), central surface brightness (r=-0.88), and
velocity dispersion (r=0.80). The more massive elliptical galaxies are
shown to be more centrally concentrated. We speculate that the physical
mechanism behind the recently observed correlation between the central
velocity dispersion (mass) of a galaxy and the mass of its central
supermassive black hole may be connected with the central galaxy
concentration. That is, we hypothesize that it may not simply be the
amount of mass in a galaxy but rather how that mass is distributed that
controls the mass of the central black hole.