Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Caon, N.
• Capaccioli, M.
• D'Onofrio, M.

Titel

On the shape of the light profiles of early-type galaxies

Ist Teil von

• Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1993-12, Vol.265 (4), p.1013-1021

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

1993

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We have obtained the best fit to the light profiles of a luminosity- limited sample of elliptical and S0 galaxies with a power law r1/n, letting the exponent remain free rather than keeping it fixed at 1/n = 1/4 as in the well-known de Vaucouleurs formula. The introduction of a free parameter in the fitting formula (ranging from n = 0.5 for $\langle{r}_{e}\rangle=0.3$ kpc to n = 16 for $\langle{r}_{e}\rangle=25$ kpc) is justified by the existence of a good correlation between n and the global galaxian parameters, such as total luminosity and scale-radius. This result seems to be in line with the segregation of properties between the ‘ordinary’ and ‘bright’ families of early-type galaxies, and has consequences for the claimed independence of the shape of galaxy profiles with respect to the Fundamental Plane parameters.