Stellar kinematics of X-ray bright massive elliptical galaxies

Abstract

We discuss a simple and fast method for estimating masses of early-type galaxies from optical data and compare the results with X-ray derived masses. The optical method relies only on the most basic observables such as the surface brightness I(R) and the line-of-sight velocity dispersion σp(R) profiles and provides an anisotropy-independent estimate of the galaxy circular speed Vc. The mass-anisotropy degeneracy is effectively overcome by evaluating Vc at a characteristic radius Rsweet defined from local properties of observed profiles. The sweet radius Rsweet is expected to lie close to R2, where I(R) α R-2, and not far from the effective radius Reff. We apply the method to a sample of five X-ray bright elliptical galaxies observed with the 6 m telescope BTA-6 in Russia. We then compare the optical Vc estimate with the X-ray derived value, and discuss possible constraints on the non-thermal pressure in the hot gas and configuration of stellar orbits. We find that the average ratio of the optical Vc estimate to the X-ray one is equal to ≈0.98 with 11 per cent scatter, i.e. there is no evidence for the large non-thermal pressure contribution in the gas at ≈Rsweet. From analysis of the Lick indices Hβ, Mgb, Fe5270 and Fe5335, we calculate the mass of the stellar component within the sweet radius. We conclude that a typical dark matter fraction inside Rsweet in the sample galaxies is ~60 per cent for the Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) and ~75 per cent for the Kroupa IMF. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.