Kinematic Properties and Dark Matter Fraction of Virgo Dwarf Early-Type Galaxies

What happens to dwarf galaxies as they enter the cluster potential well is one of the main unknowns in studies of galaxy evolution. Several evidence suggests that late-type galaxies enter the cluster and are transformed to dwarf early-type galaxies (dEs). We study the Virgo cluster to understand which mechanisms are involved in this transformation. We find that the dEs in the outer parts of Virgo have rotation curves with shapes and amplitudes similar to late-type galaxies of the same luminosity. These dEs are rotationally supported, have disky isophotes, and younger ages than those dEs in the center of Virgo, which are pressure supported, often have boxy isophotes and are older. Ram pressure stripping, thus, explains the properties of the dEs located in the outskirts of Virgo. However, the dEs in the central cluster regions, which have lost their angular momentum, must have suffered a more violent transformation. A combination of ram pressure stripping and harassment is not enough to remove the rotation and the spiral/disky structures of these galaxies. We find that on the the Faber-Jackson and the Fundamental Plane relations dEs deviate from the trends of massive elliptical galaxies towards the position of dark matter dominated systems such as the dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way and M31. Both, rotationally and pressure supported dEs, however, populate the same region in these diagrams. This indicates that dEs have a non-negligible dark matter fraction within their half light radius.Comment: Proceeding of the XXVIII IAU General Assembly, Special Session 3: Galaxy Evolution through Secular Processes. Edts: R. Buta and D. Pfennige

NH and Mg Index Trends in Elliptical Galaxies

We examine the spectrum in the vicinity of the NH3360 index of Davidge & Clark (1994), which was defined to measure the NH absorption around 3360 \AA and which shows almost no trend with velocity dispersion (Toloba et al. 2009), unlike other N- sensitive indices, which show a strong trend (Graves et al. 2007). Computing the effect of individual elements on the integrated spectrum with synthetic stellar population integrated spectra, we find that, while being well correlated with nitrogen abundance, NH3360 is almost equally well anti-correlated with Mg abundance. This prompts the definition of two new indices, Mg3334, which is mostly sensitive to magnesium, and NH3375, which is mostly sensitive to nitrogen. Rather surprisingly, we find that the new NH3375 index shows a trend versus optical absorption feature indices that is as shallow as the NH3360 index. We hypothesize that the lack of a strong index trend in these near-UV indices is due to the presence of an old metal-poor component of the galactic population. Comparison of observed index trends and those predicted by models shows that a modest fraction of an old, metal-poor stellar population could easily account for the observed flat trend in these near-UV indices, while still allowing substantial N abundance increase in the larger galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, 6 table

Formation and evolution of dwarf early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster II. Kinematic Scaling Relations

We place our sample of 18 Virgo dwarf early-type galaxies (dEs) on the V-K - velocity dispersion, Faber-Jackson, and Fundamental Plane (FP) scaling relations for massive early-type galaxies (Es). We use a generalized velocity dispersion, which includes rotation, to be able to compare the location of both rotationally and pressure supported dEs with those of early and late-type galaxies. We find that dEs seem to bend the Faber-Jackson relation of Es to lower velocity dispersions, being the link between Es and dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs). Regarding the FP relation, we find that dEs are significantly offset with respect to massive hot stellar systems, and re-casting the FP into the so-called kappa-space suggests that this offset is related to dEs having a total mass-to-light ratio higher than Es but still significantly lower than dSph galaxies. Given a stellar mass-to-light ratio based on the measured line indices of dEs, the FP offset allows us to infer that the dark matter fraction within the half light radii of dEs is on average >~ 42% (uncertainties of 17% in the K band and 20% in the V band), fully consistent with an independent estimate in an earlier paper in this series. We also find that dEs in the size-luminosity relation in the near-infrared, like in the optical, are offset from early-type galaxies, but seem to be consistent with late-type galaxies. We thus conclude that the scaling relations show that dEs are different from Es, and that they further strengthen our previous findings that dEs are closer to and likely formed from late-type galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 2 appendixes. Accepted for publication in A&

Color-Magnitude Relations of Early-type Dwarf Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster: An Ultraviolet Perspective

We present ultraviolet (UV) color-magnitude relations (CMRs) of early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster, based on Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) UV and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) optical imaging data. We find that dwarf lenticular galaxies (dS0s), including peculiar dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) with disk substructures and blue centers, show a surprisingly distinct and tight locus separated from that of ordinary dEs, which is not clearly seen in previous CMRs. The dS0s in UV CMRs follow a steeper sequence than dEs and show bluer UV-optical color at a given magnitude. We also find that the UV CMRs of dEs in the outer cluster region are slightly steeper than that of their counterparts in the inner region, due to the existence of faint, blue dEs in the outer region. We explore the observed CMRs with population models of a luminosity-dependent delayed exponential star formation history. We confirm that the feature of delayed star formation of early-type dwarf galaxies in Virgo cluster is strongly correlated with their morphology and environment. The observed CMR of dS0s is well matched by models with relatively long delayed star formation. Our results suggest that dS0s are most likely transitional objects at the stage of subsequent transformation of late-type progenitors to ordinary red dEs in the cluster environment. In any case, UV photometry provides a powerful tool to disentangle the diverse subpopulations of early-type dwarf galaxies and uncover their evolutionary histories.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the ApJ