Clues on the physical origin of the fundamental plane from self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations

Abstract

We report on a study of the parameters characterizing the mass and velocity distributions of two samples of relaxed elliptical-like objects (ELOs) identified, at z = 0, in a set of self-consistent hydrodynamical simulations operating in the context of a concordance cosmological model. Star formation (SF) has been implemented in the simulations in the framework of the turbulent sequential scenario through a phenomenological parameterization that takes into account stellar physics processes implicitly through the values of a threshold gas density and an efficiency parameter. Each ELO sample is characterized by the values these parameters take. We have found that the (logarithms of the) ELO stellar masses, projected stellar half-mass radii, and stellar central line-of-sight (LOS) velocity dispersions define dynamical fundamental planes (FPs). Zero points depend on the particular values that the SF parameters take, while slopes do not change. The ELO samples have been found to show systematic trends with the mass scale in both the relative content and the relative distributions of the baryonic and the dark mass ELO components. The physical origin of these trends lies in the systematic decrease, with increasing ELO mass, of the relative dissipation experienced by the baryonic mass component along ELO mass assembly, resulting in a tilt of the dynamical FP relative to the virial plane. ELOs also show kinematical segregation, but it does not appreciably change with the mass scale. We have found that the dynamical FPs shown by the two ELO samples are consistent with that shown by the SDSS elliptical sample in the same variables, with no further need for any relevant contribution from stellar population effects to explain the observed tilt. These effects could, however, have contributed to the scatter of the observed FP, as the dynamical FPs have been found to be thinner than the observed one. The results we report on hint, for the first time, at a possible way to understand the tilt of the observed FP in a cosmological context. © 2005. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.