Do the Low PN Velocity Dispersions Around Elliptical Galaxies Imply That These Lack Dark Matter?

摘要

While kinematical modelling of the low PN velocity dispersions observed in the outer regions of elliptical galaxies suggest a lack of dark matter around these galaxies, we report on an analysis of a suite of N-body simulations (with gas) of major mergers of spiral galaxies embedded in dark matter halos, and find that the outer velocity dispersions are as low as observed for the PNe. The inconsistency between our dynamical modelling and previous kinematical modelling is caused by very radial stellar orbits and projection effects when viewing face-on oblate ellipticals. Our simulations (weakly) suggest the youth of PNe around ellipticals, and we propose that the universality of the PN luminosity function may be explained if the bright PNe in ellipticals are formed after the regular accretion of very low mass gas-rich galaxies.