7-11 July 2014
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
<a href="http://events.saip.org.za/internalPage.py?pageId=16&confId=34"><font color=#0000ff>SAIP2014 Proceedings published on 17 April 2015</font></a>

Kinematics and stellar populations of dwarf ellipticals in the Fornax cluster.

10 Jul 2014, 15:00
20m
D Les 203

D Les 203

Oral Presentation Track D1 - Astrophysics Astro

Speaker

Mr Jaco Mentz (NWU)

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD)?

PhD

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

Despite being the most abundant galaxy type in galaxy clusters, the evolution of dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) in clusters is not well understood. Galaxy clusters serve as ideal laboratories to address the fundamental question of how environmental influence governs galaxy evolution. So the question of the origin of low surface brightness early-type dwarfs in clusters is key to determining the role of the environment in the formation of galaxies over cosmic time. Recent spectroscopic observations of dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster have shown that at least some of the brighter dEs may be descendants of rotationally supported gas-rich systems. A complete magnitude limited sample of 20 dEs in the Fornax cluster will be studied using dynamical modelling, scaling relations and stellar population analysis. We will study both the rotational support and stellar populations as a function of radius in these dwarf galaxies. We will compare the results of our analysis with recently obtained results for dEs in the Virgo cluster and with simulated models of galaxy evolution in clusters. Our spectroscopic survey will be complemented with ultra-deep surface photometry from the FOCUS survey which aims to provide a deep 5-band photometric survey of Fornax using OmegaCAM at VST, ESO at a simmilar depth as the NGVS survey of Virgo.
Important constraints on the evolution and amount of rotational support of dEs in the Fornax cluster may be provided.
Preliminary results will be presented.

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Dr. Ilani Loubser, Ilani.Loubser@nwu.ac.za, North West University, Potchefstroom campus

Primary author

Mr Jaco Mentz (NWU)

Co-authors

Dr Ilani Loubser (NWU) Prof. Reynier Peletier (Kapteyn Institute, Groningen)

Presentation Materials

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