Central mass-to-light ratios and dark matter fractions in early-type galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the factors influencing mass-to-light ratios and dark matter fractions in early-type galaxies, finding dark matter plays a significant role and its distribution varies with galaxy luminosity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of stellar populations, IMF, and dark matter on the M/L ratio tilt using a large uniform dataset and refined dynamical models.

Findings

Dark matter fraction increases with galaxy luminosity.

Stellar M/L contributes little to the tilt.

Dark matter distribution varies with galaxy brightness.

Abstract

Dynamical studies of local ETGs and the Fundamental Plane point to a strong dependence of M/L ratio on luminosity (and stellar mass) with a relation of the form $M/L \propto L^{\gamma}$. The "tilt" $\gamma$ may be caused by various factors, including stellar population properties, IMF, rotational support, luminosity profile non-homology and dark matter (DM) fraction. We evaluate the impact of all these factors using a large uniform dataset of local ETGs from Prugniel & Simien (1997). We take particular care in estimating the stellar masses, using a general star formation history, and comparing different population synthesis models. We find that the stellar M/L contributes little to the tilt. We estimate the total M/L using simple Jeans dynamical models, and find that adopting accurate luminosity profiles is important but does not remove the need for an additional tilt component, which we ascribe to DM. We survey trends of the DM fraction within one effective radius, finding it to be roughly constant for galaxies fainter than $M_B \sim -20.5$, and increasing with luminosity for the brighter galaxies; we detect no significant differences among S0s and fast- and slow-rotating ellipticals. We construct simplified cosmological mass models and find general consistency, where the DM transition point is caused by a change in the relation between luminosity and effective radius. A more refined model with varying galaxy star formation efficiency suggests a transition from total mass profiles (including DM) of faint galaxies distributed similarly to the light, to near-isothermal profiles for the bright galaxies. These conclusions are sensitive to various systematic uncertainties which we investigate in detail, but are consistent with the results of dynamics studies at larger radii.