Estimating distances to elliptical galaxies with a mass–luminosity relation

A metallicity-flattening relation for dwarf elliptical galaxies

It is shown that bright cluster dwarf ellipticals follow a relation between metallicity and apparent flattening. Rounder dwarfs tend to be more metal-rich. The evidence is based on colour as well as spectroscopic line-strength data from the literature. The large scatter of dEs around the mean metallicity-luminosity relation, usually ascribed to large observational errors, turns out to be an ell...

A simple recipe for estimating masses of elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies

We discuss a simple and robust procedure to evaluate the mass/circular velocity of massive elliptical galaxies and clusters of galaxies. It relies only on the surface density and the projected velocity dispersion profiles of tracer particles and therefore can be applied even in case of poor or noisy observational data. Stars, globular clusters or planetary nebulae can be used as tracers for mas...

Elliptical Galaxies

The impact of accurate distances to dwarf elliptical galaxies on cosmology

The Surface Brightness Fluctuation method has been shown to be a powerful distance indicator for dwarf elliptical galaxies to very low surface brightness levels. It is applicable to stellar systems that are out of reach for classical indicators requiring resolved stellar populations such as the tip magnitude of the red giant branch. I briefly discuss a few results from recent SBF studies of dEs...

Origin of the colour-magnitude relation of elliptical galaxies

Evolutionary models of elliptical galaxies are constructed by using a new population synthesis code. Model parameters are calibrated to reproduce the observed colour-magnitude (CM) relation of Coma ellipticals in V −K vs. MV diagram. The SEDs are degenerated in stellar age and metallicity. An attempt is performed to break this degeneracy, by simulating evolution of the CM relation of elliptical...