Near-infrared bulge-disc correlations of lenticular galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates how the structural parameters of lenticular galaxies in the near-infrared vary with luminosity and environment, revealing different formation mechanisms for faint and bright galaxies and environmental effects on their evolution.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the luminosity and environmental dependence of bulge and disk parameters in lenticular galaxies using near-infrared imaging and galaxy decomposition techniques.

Findings

Faint lenticulars likely formed via secular processes forming pseudobulges.

Brighter lenticulars probably formed through major mergers.

Environmental effects cause faint cluster lenticulars to fade and transform from spirals.

Abstract

We consider the luminosity and environmental dependence of structural parameters of lenticular galaxies in the near-infrared K band. Using a two-dimensional galaxy image decomposition technique, we extract bulge and disk structural parameters for a sample of 36 lenticular galaxies observed by us in the K band. By combining data from the literature for field and cluster lenticulars with our data, we study correlations between parameters that characterise the bulge and the disk as a function of luminosity and environment. We find that scaling relations such as the Kormendy relation, photometric plane and other correlations involving bulge and disk parameters show a luminosity dependence. This dependence can be explained in terms of galaxy formation models in which faint lenticulars (M_T > -24.5) formed via secular formation processes that likely formed the pseudobulges of late-type disk galaxies, while brighter lenticulars (M_T < -24.5) formed through a different formation mechanism most likely involving major mergers. On probing variations in lenticular properties as a function of environment, we find that faint cluster lenticulars show systematic differences with respect to faint field lenticulars. These differences support the idea that the bulge and disk components fade after the galaxy falls into a cluster, while simultaneously undergoing a transformation from spiral to lenticular morphologies.