Wide-field kinematics of globular clusters in the Leo I group

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA e-mail: gilles@iaa.es;zepf@pa.msu.edu
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, C/ Camino Bajo de Huétor 50, 18008 Granada, Spain
³ GEPI/CAI, Observatoire de Paris, 77 avenue Denfert-Rochereau, 75014 Paris, France
⁴ Departamento de Física, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160, Concepción, Chile e-mail: romanow@astro-udec.cl
⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK e-mail: r.m.sharples@durham.ac.uk
⁷ Department of Astronomy, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459, USA e-mail: kathy@astro.wesleyan.edu
⁸ Department of Astronomy, Yale University, PO Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

Received: 24 June 2005
Accepted: 4 November 2005

Abstract

We present wide-field spectroscopy of globular clusters around the Leo I group galaxies NGC 3379 and NGC 3384 using the FLAMES multi-fibre instrument at the VLT. We obtain accurate radial velocities for 42 globular clusters (GCs) in total, 30 for GCs around the elliptical NGC 3379, eight around the lenticular NGC 3384, and four which may be associated with either galaxy. These data are notable for their large radial range extending from 07 to 145 (2 to 42 kpc) from the centre of NGC 3379, and small velocity uncertainties of about 10 km s^-1. We combine our sample of 30 radial velocities for globular clusters around NGC 3379 with 8 additional GC velocities from the literature, and find a projected velocity dispersion of km s^-1 at and at . These velocity dispersions are consistent with a dark matter halo around NGC 3379 with a concentration in the range expected from a ΛCDM cosmological model and a total mass of 6. Such a model is also consistent with the stellar velocity dispersion at small radii and the rotation of the ring at large radii, and has a that increases by a factor of five from several kpc to 100 kpc. Our velocity dispersion for the globular cluster system of NGC 3379 is somewhat higher than that found for the planetary nebulae (PNe) in the inner region covered by the PN data, and we discuss possible reasons for this difference. For NGC 3384, we find the GC system has a rotation signature broadly similar to that seen in other kinematic probes of this SB0 galaxy. This suggests that significant rotation may not be unusual in the GC systems of disc galaxies.