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R.C. Berrington, M.J. Pierce (University of Wyoming)
We present line-of-sight velocity dispersions for a large sample of elliptical galaxies in the Perseus, Coma, and Abell 2199 clusters. These data are used to construct the Velocity Dispersion Distribution Function (VDDF) of elliptical galaxies. A similar distribution function can be constructed from the circular velocity distribution function of spiral galaxies assuming an isothermal halo. In this case we make use of complete samples of disk galaxies from the Virgo and Ursa Major clusters. We suggest that the kinematic nature of the VDDF makes it ideally suited for tracing the the mass function of galaxies and is thus applicable to galaxy formation models. The resulting VDDF of both elliptical and spiral galaxies is remarkably similar, and we conclude that the halo properties of elliptical and spiral galaxies are similar.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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