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Abstract:

ATLAS^3D is a multi-wavelength, volume-limited survey of 263 morphologicallyselected early-type galaxies within a distance of 42 Mpc and complete to MK ≤ -21.5. Here we present the ATLAS^3D project and our first results on the stellar populations of galaxies in the ATLAS^3Dsample based on SAURON integral-field spectroscopy. We show relations between integrated line-strength indices and stellar velocity dispersion o in the range 55 ≤ Σ(km/s) ≤ 350. We derive simple-stellar-population-equivalent age, metallicity and α/Fe abundance ratio and discuss their relation to stellar velocity dispersion, environment and galaxy internal kinematics. These preliminary results indicate that slow rotators tend to be older and have less variation in age than fast rotators. We also find that galaxies in lower density environments are on average younger than those in denser environments, as found by other authors. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

Abstract:

We present a preliminary analysis of the H I properties of early-type galaxies in the ATLAS^3D sample. Using WSRT data for ~100 galaxies outside the Virgo cluster and data from the Alfalfa project for galaxies inside Virgo, we discuss the dependence of H I properties on environment. We detect H I in about half of the galaxies outside Virgo. For these systems, the H I morphology and kinematics change as a function of environment, going from regular, rotating systems around “isolated” galaxies to progressively more disturbed structures for galaxies with neighbours or in groups. In denser environment, inside Virgo, nearly none of the galaxies contains H I. We discuss future work in this field which will be enabled by next-generation, pre-SKA radio instruments. We present a simulated Apertif H I observation of an ATLAS^3D early-type galaxy, showing how its appearance and detection level vary as a function of redshift.

Abstract:

We present mass models of a sample of 14 spiral and 14 S0 galaxies that constrain their stellar and dark matter content. For each galaxy, we derive the stellar mass distribution from near-infrared photometry under the assumptions of axisymmetry and a constant KS-band stellar mass-to-light ratio. To this we add a dark halo assumed to follow a spherically symmetric Navarro, Frenk and White profile and a correlation between concentration and dark mass within the virial radius, MDM. We solve the Jeans equations for the corresponding potential under the assumption of constant anisotropy in the meridional plane, βz. By comparing the predicted second velocity moment to observed long-slit stellar kinematics, we determine the three best-fitting parameters of the model: and βz. These simple axisymmetric Jeans models are able to accurately reproduce the wide range of observed stellar kinematics, which typically extend to ≈2-3Re or, equivalently, ≈0.5-1R25. Although our sample contains barred galaxies, we argue a posteriori that the assumption of axisymmetry does not significantly bias our results. We find a median stellar mass-to-light ratio at KS-band of with an rms scatter of 0.31. We present preliminary comparisons between this large sample of dynamically determined stellar mass-to-light ratios and the predictions of stellar population models. The stellar population models predict slightly lower mass-to-light ratios than we measure. The mass models contain a median of 15 per cent dark matter by mass within an effective radius Re (defined here as the semimajor axis of the ellipse containing half the KS-band light) and 49 per cent within the optical radius R25. Dark and stellar matter contribute equally to the mass within a sphere of radius 4.1Re or 1.0 R25. There is no evidence of any significant difference in the dark matter content of the spirals and S0s in our sample. Models without dark matter are also able to satisfactorily reproduce the observed kinematics in most cases. The improvement when a halo is added is statistically significant, however, and the stellar mass-to-light ratios of mass models with dark haloes match the independent expectations of stellar population models better. © 2009 RAS.