Poster Presentation Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting including HWWS 2013

Is The Fundamental Plane Fundamental?  (#252)

Belinda A Nicholson 1 , Edward N Taylor 1 , Rachel L Webster 1
  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, Vic, Australia

The fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies can be transparently understood as a relation between stellar and dynamical mass. Using over 1400 mass-selected (log stellar mass< 10.5) galaxies at redshift less than 0.12 from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, we examine how the stellar-to-dynamical mass ratio varies with stellar mass, (g-i) colour, and Sersic index. We find a weak trend in stellar-to-dynamical mass ratio with colour and a stronger trend with Sersic index. These have significant implications for the reliability of mass estimates, as well as the tilt of the fundamental plane, and therefore for cosmological studies. Our poster explains these implications in more detail.