Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published March 2001 | public
Journal Article

The evolutionary history of early-type galaxies as derived from the fundamental plane

Abstract

The fundamental plane (FP) scaling relations and their evolution are a powerful tool for studying the global properties of early-type galaxies and their evolutionary history. The form of the FP, as derived by surveys in the local Universe at wavelengths ranging from the U to the K band, cannot be explained by metallicity variations alone among early-type galaxies; systematic variations in age, dark matter content, or homology breaking are required. A large-scale study of early-type galaxies at 0.1 < z < 0.6demonstrates that the SB intercept of the FP, the rest frame (U-V) colour, and the absorption line strengths all evolve passively, thereby implying a high mean formation redshift for the stellar content. The slope of the FP evolves with redshift, which is broadly consistent with systematic age effects occurring along the early-type galaxy sequence. The implication that the least luminous early-type galaxies formed later than the luminous galaxies is discussed in the context of the evolution of thecolour–magnitude relation, the Butcher–Oemler effect and hierarchical galaxy formation models.

Additional Information

© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. MAP was supported by Hubble Fellowship grant HF-01099.01-97A from STScI (which is operated by AURA under NASA contract NAS5-26555) and by a grant from the conference organizers.

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023