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Marcel Bergmann (University of Texas, Austin)
I have obtained very deep long-slit spectroscopy along the semi-major and semi-minor axes of the giant elliptical galaxy M86, using the Low Resolution Spectrometer on the 9.2m Hobby Eberly Telescope. I use these data to measure line of sight velocity dispersions and stellar population parameters out to ~3 re, over six times further out than previous integrated light studies for this galaxy. These data overlap and extend beyond the region probed by PNe studies. I will present a kinematic analysis of M86 from the very central regions out to large radii, tracing out kinematic wrinkles which are the signatures of past mergers and dynamical interaction. M86 has a kinematically decoupled core, which rotates about the photometric minor axis. The bulk of the galaxy, however, shows strong rotation about the photometric major axis, along with a declining velocity dispersion as a function of radius.
I measure radial profiles for the age and metallicity of the
stellar population using combinations of the H\beta,
C4668, Mgb, and
This study is part of a larger project to obtain deep spectroscopy for a sample of field and cluster elliptical galaxies, to better understand their kinematic and star formation histories.