Related papers: Are "dwarf" Ellipticals genuine Ellipticals?
The globular cluster luminosity function, specific globular cluster frequency, S_N, specific globular cluster mass, T_MP, and globular cluster mass fraction in dwarf elliptical galaxies are explored using the full 69 galaxy sample of the…
The environmental dependence of the morphology of dwarf galaxies in isolated satellite systems is analyzed to understand the origin of the dwarf galaxy morphology using the visually classified morphological types of 5836 local galaxies with…
It is shown that the violent relaxation of dissipationless stellar systems leads to universal de Vaucouleurs profiles only outside 1.5 effective radii $R_e$. Inside $1.5 R_e$ the surface density profiles depend strongly on the initial…
We have analyzed archival HST/ACS images in Sloan g and z of the globular cluster (GC) systems of 53 ellipticals in the Virgo Cluster, spanning massive galaxies to dEs. Among the new results are: (1) In the gEs M87 and NGC 4649, there is a…
The dynamical friction timescale for globular clusters to sink to the center of a dwarf elliptical galaxy (dE) is significantly less than a Hubble time if the halos have King-model or isothermal profiles and the globular clusters formed…
We study dynamical models for elliptical galaxies, deriving the projected kinematic profiles in a form that is valid for general surface-brightness profiles and (spherical) total mass profiles, without the need for any explicit…
Optical parameters of elliptical galaxies are tightly correlated, but their x-ray parameters vary widely. The x-ray luminosity L_x ranges over more than an order of magnitude for ellipticals having similar optical luminosity L_B. The source…
The properties of dust in giant elliptical galaxies are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the influence of the environment. After normalizing by the optical luminosities, a strong anti-correlation between the masses of dust and hot gas…
White dwarfs are routinely observed to have polluted atmospheres, and sometimes significant infrared excesses, that indicate ongoing accretion of circumstellar dust and rocky debris. Typically this debris is assumed to be in the form of a…
In the present paper, we show that elliptical galaxies (Es) obey a scaling relation between potential energy and mass. Since they are relaxed systems in a post violent-relaxation stage, they are quasi-equilibrium gravitational systems and…
Observations consistently show that elliptical galaxies follow a tight "fundamental plane" scaling relation between size, mean surface brightness and velocity dispersion, with the form $R \propto \sigma^{a}\mu^{b}$. This relation not only…
M32 is the prototype for the relatively rare class of galaxies referred to as `compact ellipticals'. It has been suggested that M32 may be a tidally disturbed r^(1/4) elliptical galaxy, or the remnant bulge of a disk-stripped early-type…
The light profiles of elliptical (E) galaxies are known to display small systematic deviations (0.1-0.2 mag.) from the R^1/4 law. In this paper we show that the senses and amplitudes of these departures can be naturally accounted for by a…
This paper looks for any correlation between the internal dynamics of elliptical galaxies and the relatively mild nuclear activity found in many such systems. We show that there is such a relation in the sense that the active ellipticals…
We show that the small scatter around the Fundamental Plane (FP) of massive elliptical galaxies can be used to derive important properties of their dark and luminous matter. The central velocity dispersion sigma_0, appearing in (e.g.) the…
Using semi-analytical models of galaxy formation, the origin of boxy and disky elliptical galaxies is investigated. We find that the simple scenario, motivated by N-body simulations, in which the isophotal shape is only dependent on the…
Dynamical systems in equilibrium have a stationary entropy; we suggest that elliptical galaxies, as stellar systems in a stage of quasi-equilibrium, may have a unique specific entropy. This uniqueness, a priori unknown, should be reflected…
Narrow band photometry is presented on 27 dwarf ellipticals in the Fornax cluster. Calibrated with Galactic globular cluster data and spectrophotometric population models, the colors indicated that dwarf ellipticals have a mean [Fe/H] of…
Recent results from gravitational lensing are combined with new modeling of the stellar velocity distributions in nearby galaxies to probe the connection between the luminous and the dark matter in elliptical galaxies. From analysing a…
The most massive elliptical galaxies have low-density centers or cores that differ dramatically from the high-density centers of less massive ellipticals and bulges of disk galaxies. These cores have been interpreted as the result of…