The Near-Infrared Fundamental Plane of Elliptical Galaxies

We present results from a near-infrared K-band imaging survey of 59 elliptical galaxies in five nearby clusters. We measure photometric parameters for each galaxy using surface photometry and draw velocity dispersions from the literature. Three observables define a near-infrared fundamental plane (FP) of elliptical galaxies with Re ~ sigma ^{1.44 +/- 0.04}Sigma ^{-0.79 +/- 0.04}_e . The scatter in the near-infrared relation is small at 16.5% in distance, which is equivalent to, or less than, the scatter of the optical FP. We suggest that the small deviation of the near-infrared FP relation from the optical FP is due to the reduction of metallicity effects in the near-infrared bandpass. While the small scatter of the optical FP could be consistent with compensating effects of age and metallicity, the similarly small scatter of the near-infrared FP is nearly independent of metallicity and hence places a strong constraint on possible age spreads among elliptical galaxies at every point along the FP. We suggest that the departure of the near-infrared FP from the pure virial form Re ~ sigma ²Sigma ^{-1}_e , and the corresponding observed relation (M/L) ~ M0.16 +/- 0.01, may be explained by slight systematic departures of the structure and dynamics of elliptical galaxies from a homology.