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How Non-Linear Scaling Relations Unify Dwarf and Giant Elliptical Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2011

A.W. Graham*
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia
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Abstract

Dwarf elliptical galaxies are frequently excluded from bright galaxy samples because they do not follow the same linear relations in diagrams involving effective half light radii, Re, or mean effective surface brightnesses, ⟨μ⟩e. However, using two linear relations which unite dwarf and bright elliptical galaxies we explain how these lead to curved relations when one introduces either Re or ⟨μ⟩e. In particular, the curved ⟨μ⟩eRe relation is derived here. This and other previously misunderstood curved relations, once heralded as evidence for a discontinuity between faint and bright elliptical galaxies at MB ≈ −18 mag, actually support the unification of such galaxies as a single population whose structure (i.e. stellar concentration) varies continuously with stellar luminosity and mass.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2011

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