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M. Bernardi (The University of Chicago), Sloan Digital Sky Survey Collaboration
The SDSS multi-band imaging data, coupled with the redshifts, velocity dispersions, and absorption line indices from the SDSS spectroscopic survey, will soon provide unprecedented information about the structural properties and stellar populations of early-type galaxies out to z < 0.4. At the moment, the SDSS sample is large enough that we can compare the Fundamental Plane occupied by early-type galaxies at different redshifts. I will present preliminary results of a multi-band analysis of the SDSS Fundamental Plane and discuss what they imply about the evolution of early-type galaxies in the relatively unexplored intermediate redshift range: 0.05 < z < 0.4. In addition I will discuss a novel way of using the observed velocity dispersions to constrain the mass-to-light ratio of early-type galaxies.
The SDSS survey is supported by a large number of institutions and organizations, too numerous to list individually here.