An Extended, Physically Calibrated FP for Elliptical Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper develops a physically motivated extension of the fundamental plane for elliptical galaxies, incorporating key physical parameters to improve the fit to observational data and unify theoretical and empirical scaling relations.

Contribution

It introduces a new extended fundamental plane model based on the scalar virial theorem that accounts for stellar populations, dark matter, and structural non-homology, improving data fit.

Findings

Extended FP achieves higher accuracy than classical FP.

Parameters show strong statistical significance.

The model links observed relations with physical galaxy properties.

Abstract

We present a physically motivated extension of the FP for elliptical galaxies, derived from the scalar virial theorem and calibrated using observational data. Starting from the basic equilibrium condition, we incorporate key physical parameters that govern galaxy structure and dynamics, namely stellar mass-to-light ratio, central dark matter fraction, and structural non-homology as traced by the Sersic profile. The resulting model retains the original dependencies on velocity dispersion and surface brightness, but introduces physically interpretable corrections that significantly improve the fit to real data. Using a large galaxy sample, we demonstrate that this extended FP achieves a higher level of accuracy than the classical form, with all parameters showing strong statistical significance. Our results indicate that the observed FP can be understood as an empirical refinement of the virial prediction, once variations in stellar populations, dark matter content, and internal structure are taken into account. This work provides a unified framework that bridges theoretical expectations with observed scaling relations in elliptical systems.