The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. VII. Elliptical Galaxy Scaling Laws from Direct Observational Mass Measurements

TL;DR

This study uses gravitational lensing data from the SLACS survey to establish empirical scaling laws for elliptical galaxies, revealing that their mass structure is consistent across different masses and dominated by dark matter within one effective radius.

Contribution

It provides direct observational evidence for the mass scaling relations and dark matter fraction in massive elliptical galaxies, confirming the isothermal nature of their mass profiles.

Findings

Mass within half the effective radius scales linearly with dynamical mass.

The fundamental plane of SLACS lenses matches that of general early-type galaxies.

Dark matter constitutes at least 38% of the mass within one effective radius.

Abstract

We use a sample of 53 massive early-type strong gravitational lens galaxies with well-measured redshifts (ranging from z=0.06 to 0.36) and stellar velocity dispersions (between 175 and 400 km/s) from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey to derive numerous empirical scaling relations. The ratio between central stellar velocity dispersion and isothermal lens-model velocity dispersion is nearly unity within errors. The SLACS lenses define a fundamental plane (FP) that is consistent with the FP of the general population of early-type galaxies. We measure the relationship between strong-lensing mass M_lens within one-half effective radius (R_e/2) and the dimensional mass variable M_dim = G^-1 sigma_e2^2 R_e/2 to be log_10 [M_lens/10^11 M_Sun] = (1.03 +/- 0.04) log_10 [M_dim/10^11 M_Sun] + (0.54 +/- 0.02) (where sigma_e2 is the projected stellar velocity dispersion within R_e/2). The near-unity slope indicates that the mass-dynamical structure of massive elliptical galaxies is independent of mass, and that the "tilt" of the SLACS FP is due entirely to variation in total (luminous plus dark) mass-to-light ratio with mass. Our results imply that dynamical masses serve as a good proxies for true masses in massive elliptical galaxies. Regarding the SLACS lenses as a homologous population, we find that the average enclosed 2D mass profile goes as log_10 [M(<R)/M_dim] = (1.10 +/- 0.09) log_10 [R/R_e] + (0.85 +/- 0.03), consistent with an isothermal (flat rotation curve) model when de-projected into 3D. This measurement is inconsistent with the slope of the average projected aperture luminosity profile at a confidence level greater than 99.9%, implying a minimum dark-matter fraction of f_DM = 0.38 +/- 0.07 within one effective radius. (abridged)