The kinematic properties of faint elliptical galaxies

Abstract

Rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles are obtained for 11 faint elliptical galaxies, together with central velocity dispersions for an additional six faint ellipticals. It is noted that faint ellipticals rotate more rapidly than bright ellipticals, and almost as rapidly as predicted by models with oblate figures and isotropic distributions of residual velocities. No significant difference is found between disk galaxy bulge rotational properties and ellipticals with similar absolute magnitudes, when ellipticity differences are taken into account. Attention is given to the relation between central velocity dispersion and luminosity, and indication is found that it may be steeper at low luminosities. It may be possible to satisfy the empirical correlation between rotation and luminosity, if the ellipticals formed in a clustering hierarchy, although the slow rotation of bright ellipticals is difficult to reconcile with their high densities