Bibcode
DOI
Balcells, Marc; Graham, Alister W.; Peletier, Reynier F.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 665, Issue 2, pp. 1104-1114.
Fecha de publicación:
8
2007
Revista
Número de citas
66
Número de citas referidas
59
Descripción
We investigate bulge and disk scaling relations using a volume-corrected
sample of early- to intermediate-type disk galaxies in which,
importantly, the biasing flux from additional nuclear components has
been modeled and removed. Structural parameters are obtained from a
seeing-convolved, bulge + disk + nuclear-component decomposition applied
to near-infrared surface brightness profiles spanning ~10 pc to the
outer disk. Bulge and disk parameters, and bulge-to-disk ratios, are
analyzed as a function of bulge luminosity, disk luminosity, galaxy
central velocity dispersion, and galaxy Hubble type. Mathematical
expressions are given for the stronger relations, which can be used to
test and constrain galaxy formation models. Photometric parameters of
both bulges and disks are observed to correlate with bulge luminosity
and with central velocity dispersion. In contrast, for the unbarred,
early to intermediate types covered by the sample, Hubble type does not
correlate with bulge and disk components, nor their various ratios. In
this sense, the early-to-intermediate spiral Hubble sequence is scale
free. However, galaxies themselves are not scale free, the critical
scale being the luminosity of the bulge. Bulge luminosity is shown to
affect the disk parameters, such that central surface brightness becomes
fainter, and scale length bigger, with bulge luminosity. The lack of
significant correlations between bulge parameters (size, luminosity, or
density) on disk luminosity, remains a challenge for secular evolution
models of bulge growth. The average near-infrared bulge-to-total flux
ratio for our S0-S0a galaxies is 0.25 (+/-0.09).
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,
obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under
NASA contract NAS 5-26555.
Based on observations made with the Isaac Newton and William Herschel
Telescopes operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group
of Telescopes in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of
the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.