Abstract Using a sample of 70 793 early-type galaxies from SDSS DR7, we study the environmental dependence of the fundamental plane relation. With the help of the galaxy group catalog based on SDSS DR7, we calculate the fundamental planes in different dark matter halo mass bins for both central and satellite galaxies. We find the environmental dependence of the fundamental plane coefficients is similar in the g, r, i and z bands. The environmental dependence for central and satellite galaxies is significantly different. Although the fundamental plane coefficients for centrals vary systematically with the halo mass, those of satellites are similar in different halo mass bins. The discrepancy between centrals and satellites is significant in small halos, but negligible in the largest halo mass bins. These results remain the same when we only keep red galaxies, or galaxies with b/a > 0.6, or galaxies in a specific radius range in the sample. After the correction for the sky background, the results are still similar. We suggest that the different environmental effects of the halo mass on centrals and satellites may arise from their different quenching processes.

Keywords galaxies: elliptical and lenticular — galaxies: halo — galaxies: statistics

https://doi.org/10.1088/1674–4527/15/5/004