Astron. Astrophys. 361, 863-876 (2000)

1.65 µm (H-band) surface photometry of galaxies

V. Profile decomposition of 1157 galaxies ^* **

G. Gavazzi ¹, P. Franzetti ¹, M. Scodeggio ², A. Boselli ³ and D. Pierini <sup>4

1</sup> Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
² Istituto di Fisica Cosmica "G. Occhialini", CNR, Via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, Traverse du Siphon, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 103980, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received 10 April 2000 / Accepted 20 July 2000

Abstract

We present near-infrared H-band (1.65 µm) surface brightness profile decomposition for 1157 galaxies in five nearby clusters of galaxies: Coma, A1367, Virgo, A262 and Cancer, and in the bridge between Coma and A1367 in the "Great Wall". The optically selected () sample is representative of all Hubble types, from E to Irr+BCD, except dE and of significantly different environments, spanning from isolated regions to rich clusters of galaxies. We model the surface brightness profiles with a de Vaucouleurs law (dV), with an exponential disk law (E), or with a combination of the two (B+D). From the fitted quantities we derive the H band effective surface brightness () and radius () of each component, the asymptotic magnitude and the light concentration index . We find that: i) Less than 50% of the Elliptical galaxies have pure dV profiles. The majority of E to Sb galaxies is best represented by a B+D profile. All Scd to BCD galaxies have pure exponential profiles. ii) The type of decomposition is a strong function of the total H band luminosity (mass), independent of the Hubble classification: the fraction of pure exponential decompositions decreases with increasing luminosity, that of B+D increases with luminosity. Pure dV profiles are absent in the low luminosity range   and become dominant above   .

Key words: galaxies: fundamental parameters galaxies: photometry infrared: galaxies

* Based on observations taken at TIRGO, Gornergrat, Switzerland (operated by CAISMI-CNR, Arcetri, Firenze, Italy) and at the Calar Alto Observatory (operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Heidelberg) jointly with the Spanish National Commission for Astronomy).
** Table 2 and Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 are available in their entirety only in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to ftp://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/pub/cats/J/A+A/361/863 (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/361/863

Send offprint requests to: G. Gavazzi

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Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Sample selection
• 3. Data reduction procedures
• 4. Results
  • 4.1. Consistency of multiple measurements
  • 4.2. Comparison with independent measurements
  • 4.3. Effects of the seeing
  • 4.4. Consistency of empirical vs. fitted quantities
• 5. Analysis
  • 5.1. Isophotal, empirical, and optical radii
  • 5.2. The frequency of profile decompositions
• 6. Summary
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: October 10, 2000
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