The 6dF Galaxy Survey: stellar population trends across and through the Fundamental Plane

  1. Christopher M. Springob1,*,
  2. Christina Magoulas2,
  3. Rob Proctor3,
  4. Matthew Colless1,
  5. D. Heath Jones1,4,
  6. Chiaki Kobayashi5,
  7. Lachlan Campbell5,6,
  8. John Lucey7,
  9. Jeremy Mould8,9

Article first published online: 3 FEB 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.19900.x

Issue

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume 420, Issue 4, pages 2773–2784, March 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Springob, C. M., Magoulas, C., Proctor, R., Colless, M., Jones, D. H., Kobayashi, C., Campbell, L., Lucey, J. and Mould, J. (2012), The 6dF Galaxy Survey: stellar population trends across and through the Fundamental Plane. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 420: 2773–2784. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.19900.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Australian Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia

  2. 2

    School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia

  3. 3

    Universidade de Sao Paulo, IAG, Rua do Mato 1226, Sao Paulo 05508-900, Brazil

  4. 4

    School of Physics, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia

  5. 5

    Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Cotter Road, Weston, ACT 2611, Australia

  6. 6

    Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Western Kentucky, Bowling Green, KY 42102-3576, USA

  7. 7

    Department of Physics, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE

  8. 8

    Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia

  9. 9

    ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

* E-mail: springob@aao.gov.au

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 1 MAR 2012
  2. Article first published online: 3 FEB 2012
  3. Accepted 2011 September 11. Received 2011 August 6; in original form 2011 May 25

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Keywords:

  • galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD;
  • galaxies: evolution;
  • galaxies: fundamental parameters;
  • galaxies: structure

ABSTRACT

We present results from an analysis of stellar population parameters for 7132 galaxies in the 6dF Galaxy Survey Fundamental Plane (FP) sample. We bin the galaxies along the axes, v1, v2 and v3, of the tri-variate Gaussian to which we have fitted the galaxy distribution in effective radius, surface brightness and central velocity dispersion (FP space), and compute median values of stellar age, [Fe/H], [Z/H] and [α/Fe]. We determine the directions of the vectors in FP space along which each of the binned stellar population parameters vary most strongly. In contrast to previous work, we find stellar population trends not just with velocity dispersion and FP residual, but with radius and surface brightness as well. The most remarkable finding is that the stellar population parameters vary through the plane (v1 direction) and across the plane (v3 direction), but show no variation at all along the plane (v2 direction). The v2 direction in FP space roughly corresponds to ‘luminosity density’. We interpret a galaxy’s position along this vector as being closely tied to its merger history, such that early-type galaxies with lower luminosity density are more likely to have undergone major mergers. This conclusion is reinforced by an examination of the simulations of Kobayashi, which show clear trends of merger history with v2.

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