The Fundamental Plane of Cluster Ellipticals in the Near-Infrared
Session 107 -- Galaxies: Morphology and Interactions
Display presentation, Thursday, 12, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

## [107.03] The Fundamental Plane of Cluster Ellipticals in the Near-Infrared

M.A. Pahre, S.G. Djorgovski, R.R. de Carvalho (Caltech), J.R. Mould (MSSSO)

We present preliminary results from a near-infrared survey of elliptical galaxies in clusters within $cz = 10,000$~km~s$^{-1}$. Our goals are to calibrate various near-infrared distance-indicator relations for elliptical galaxies, investigate the differences between the relations in the optical and infrared, and to probe the Fundamental Plane correlations for elliptical galaxies in a bandpass which is relatively unaffected by the metallicity effects and dust extinction. We present $K$-band surface photometry of early-type galaxies in the Virgo, Perseus, and Abell 194 clusters. We have calculated the effective half-light radii $r_e$ and mean surface brightness $<\mu>_e$ enclosed within that radius, and draw velocity dispersion data from the literature. We construct the $K$-band Fundamental Plane ($r_e$-$<\mu>_e$-$\sigma$) from the data using bivariate analysis, and compare the tilt of the near-infrared plane to its optical counterpart. We also compute the infrared $D_n$ diameters and radii defined by the Petrosian's $\eta$ function for all of the galaxies in the sample. Finally, we examine the dispersion of each distance relation with respect to each other, and with respect to other distance measurements (optical $D_n$-$\sigma$, Fundamental Plane, and IR Tully-Fisher) from the literature.