Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997phdt.........9s&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PHD). CORNELL UNIVERSITY , Source DAI-B 58/06, p. 3091, Dec 1997, 267 pages.
Computer Science
10
Fundamental Plane
Scientific paper
The properties of the Fundamental Plane (FP) of E and S0 galaxies are analyzed using a sample of early-type galaxies in s nearby clusters of galaxies. I band CCD observations are presented for 631 galaxies in the A262, Cancer, A1367, Coma, Pegasus, and A2634 clusters, and in the NGC 383 and NGC 507 groups. Medium dispersion spectroscopic observations are presented for a sub-set composed of 212 galaxies. Combining this data-set with data taken from the literature, gives a FP sample of 294 galaxies. The clusters are chosen to span as large as possible a range of environmental conditions, from a rich, relaxed, X-ray luminous cluster like Coma, to rather poor groups of galaxies like the NGC 383 group. They are also chosen among the clusters that have the largest available samples of Tully-Fisher (TF) measurements, to allow an accurate comparison of the distance scales obtained using the FP and TF relations independently. Both selection criteria are aimed at quantifying the possible presence of environmental effects on the FP relation. The scatter observed around the FP template implies that the distance to a single galaxy can be obtained, using the FP, with a 22% uncertainty (a 0.48 mag uncertainty on the galaxy distance modulus). The peculiar velocity estimates for the 8 clusters in the sample are all small, consistent with the clusters being at rest in the Cosmic Microwave Background reference frame. Monte Carlo simulations are used to quantify the effects of sample selection and measurement uncertainties on the FP template, and correct the resulting biases. After these corrections are applied, it is found that the properties of the FP do not change significantly as a function of the cluster richness, or as a function of the galaxy position within the cluster. Moreover there is very good agreement between the distance measurements obtained using the FP relation, and those obtained using the TF relation. These results are used to derive an upper limit of 5% on distance measurement uncertainties introduced by environmental effects. A new relation, similar to the FP, is also presented. It is obtained from the traditional FP replacing the velocity dispersion parameter with a magnitude difference between a galaxy's measured magnitude and a characteristic magnitude for the entire cluster sample. If the characteristic magnitude could be measured with good accuracy (0.2-0.3 mag), this Photometric Fundamental Plane could provide distance measurements with an accuracy similar to that of the FP, being significantly more economical in terms of observational requirements, because it is a relation based entirely on photometric parameters.
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