The mass distribution in early-type disk galaxies: declining rotation curves and correlations with optical properties

Abstract

We present rotation curves for 19, mostly luminous, early-type disk galaxies. Rotation velocities are measured from a combination of HI velocity fields and long-slit optical emission line spectra along the major axis. We find that the rotation curves generally rise rapidly in the central regions and often reach rotation velocities of 200 - 300 km/s within a few hundred parsecs of the centre. The detailed shape of the central rotation curves shows a clear dependence on the concentration of the stellar light distribution and the bulge-to-disk luminosity ratio: galaxies with highly concentrated stellar light distributions reach the maximum in their rotation curves at relatively smaller radii than galaxies with small bulges and a relatively diffuse light distribution. We interpret this as a strong indication that the dynamics in the central regions are dominated by the stellar mass. At intermediate radii, many rotation curves decline. The strength of the decline is correlated with the total luminosity of the galaxies, more luminous galaxies having on average more strongly declining rotation curves. At large radii, however, all declining rotation curves flatten out, indicating that substantial amounts of dark matter must be present in these galaxies too. A comparison of our rotation curves with the Universal Rotation Curve from Persic et al. (1996) reveals large discrepancies between the observed and predicted rotation curves; we argue that rotation curves form a multi-parameter family which is too complex to describe with a simple formula depending on total luminosity only. (abridged)