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Title:
Galaxy concentrations are trimodal
Authors:
Bailin, Jeremy; Harris, William E.
Affiliation:
AA(Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M1; ), AB(Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4M1; )
Publication:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 385, Issue 4, pp. 1835-1845. (MNRAS Homepage)
Publication Date:
04/2008
Origin:
MNRAS
MNRAS Keywords:
galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD , galaxies: fundamental parameters , galaxies: spiral , galaxies: structure
DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12985.x
Bibliographic Code:
2008MNRAS.385.1835B

Abstract

We have analysed the distribution of inclination-corrected galaxy concentrations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that unlike most galaxy properties, which are distributed bimodally, the distribution of concentrations is trimodal: it exhibits three distinct peaks. The newly discovered intermediate peak, which consists of early-type spirals and lenticulars, may contain ~60 per cent of the number density and ~50 per cent of the luminosity density of 0.1Mr < -17 galaxies in the local universe. These galaxies are generally red and quiescent, although the distribution contains a tail of blue star-forming galaxies and also shows evidence of dust. The intermediate-type galaxies have higher apparent ellipticities than either disc or elliptical galaxies, most likely because some of the face-on intermediate types are misidentified as ellipticals. Their physical half-light radii are smaller than the radii of either the disc or elliptical galaxies, which may be evidence that they form from disc fading. The existence of a distinct peak in parameter space associated with early-type spiral galaxies and lenticulars implies that they have a distinct formation mechanism and are not simply the smooth transition between disc-dominated and spheroid-dominated galaxies.
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