Small scatter and nearly-isothermal mass profiles to four half-light radii from two-dimensional stellar dynamics of early-type galaxies

Abstract

We study the total mass-density profile for a sample of 14 fast-rotator early-type galaxies (stellar masses $10.2<\log M_\ast/M_\odot<11.7$). We combine observations from the SLUGGS and Atlas3D surveys to map out the stellar kinematics in two-dimensions, out to a median radius for the sample of four half-light radii $R_e$ (or 10 kpc), and a maximum radius of 2.0-6.2 $R_e$ (or 4-21 kpc). We use axisymmetric dynamical models based on the Jeans equations, which allow for a spatially varying anisotropy, and employ quite general profiles for the dark halos, and in particular do not place any restriction on the profile slope. This is made possible by the availability of spatially extended two-dimensional kinematics. We find that our relatively simple models provide a remarkably good description of the observed kinematics. The resulting total density profiles are well described by a nearly-isothermal power law $ρ_{\rm tot}(r)\propto r^{-γ}$ from $R_e$/10 to at least 4$R_e$, the largest average deviation being 11%. The average logarithmic slope is $\langleγ\rangle=2.19\pm0.03$ with observed rms scatter of just $σ_γ=0.11$. This scatter out to large radii, where dark matter dominates, is as small as previously reported by lensing studies around $r\approx R_e/2$, where the stars dominate. Our bulge-halo conspiracy places much tighter constraints on galaxy formation models. It illustrates the power of two-dimensional stellar kinematics observations at large radii. It would now be important to test the generality of our results for different galaxy types and larger samples.