Virgo Cluster Early-Type Dwarf Galaxies with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. III. Subpopulations: Distributions, Shapes, Origins

By T. Lisker, E. Grebel, B. Binggeli, K. Glatt. 2007

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From a quantitative analysis of 413 Virgo Cluster early-type dwarf galaxies (dEs) with SDSS imaging data, we find that the dE class can be divided into multiple subpopulations that differ significantly in their morphology and clustering properties. Three dE subclasses are shaped like thick disks and show no central clustering: (1) dEs with disk features like spiral arms or bars, (2) dEs with central star formation, and (3) ordinary, bright dEs that have no or only a weak nucleus. These populations probably formed from infalling progenitor galaxies. In contrast, ordinary nucleated dEs follow the picture of classical dwarf elliptical galaxies in that they are spheroidal objects and are centrally clustered like E and S0 galaxies, indicating that they have resided in the cluster for a long time or were formed along with it. These results define a morphology-density relation within the dE class. We find that the difference in the clustering properties of nucleated dEs and dEs with no or only a weak nucleus is not caused by selection biases, as opposed to previously reported suggestions. The correlation between surface brightness and observed axial ratio favors oblate shapes for all subclasses, but our derivation of intrinsic axial ratios indicates the presence of at least some triaxiality. We discuss possible interrelations and formation mechanisms (ram pressure stripping, tidally induced star formation, harassment) of these dE subpopulations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3f4a1812c221bfd2c48eb622372b23634c8d22ae

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Citations in the corpus

The Origin of Dwarf Ellipticals in the Virgo Cluster (2008, background): “We remark that, although still not virialized, nucleated objects are more centrally clustered than non nucleated systems (Lisker et al. 2007).”
THE SEVENTH DATA RELEASE OF THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY (2008, background): “Indeed, a number of authors (Lauer et al. 2007, Bernardi et al. 2007, Lisker et al. 2007) have pointed out systematic errors in SDSS galaxy photometry at the bright end.”
A STELLAR MASS THRESHOLD FOR QUENCHING OF FIELD GALAXIES (2012, background): “Similarly, in the nearby Virgo or Coma galaxy clusters, quenched dwarf galaxies dominate the clusters’ center and transition to a more star forming population in the outskirts (Binggeli et al. 1985; Ferguson & Sandage 1991; Lisker et al. 2007).”
A REVISED PARALLEL-SEQUENCE MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF GALAXIES: STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF S0 AND SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES (2011, background): “Similar but less obvious spiral structure has been seen in other spheroidals (Jerjen et al. 2001; Barazza et al. 2002; De Rijcke et al. 2003; Graham et al. 2003; Ferrarese et al. 2006; Lisker et al. 2006, 2007, 2009).”
Nuclear star clusters (2009, background): “Moreover, van den Bergh (1986), Ferguson and Sandage (1989), and Lisker et al. (2007) all find that low-mass early-type galaxies with NSCs are rounder than non-nucleated galaxies of the same galaxy mass. Similarly, den Brok et al. (2015) show that in the Coma cluster, rounder galaxies harbor more…”
THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY (2012, background): “Indeed, a growing number of studies of the Virgo cluster that rely on SDSS imaging (and spectroscopy) have begun to appear in the literature (e.g., Lisker et al. 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008; Rines & Geller 2008; Janz & Lisker 2008, 2009; McDonald et al. 2009, 2011; Kim et al. 2010; Chen et al. 2010).”