Quantitative summary with the results of the polytropic fit to the profiles shown in Fig. 1. Low (≤10⁷ M_⊙) and high (> 10⁷ M_⊙) stellar mass galaxies are represented with a different color, as indicated in the bottom panel. Top panel: Dependence of the inferred polytropic index, m, on the quality of the fits, as parameterized by the Relative RMS. There seems to be a trend for the best quality fits to have m ∼ 5 (marked with the horizontal solid gray line). Middle panel: Scatter plot with the size of the core versus the goodness of the fit. Bottom panel: Scatter plot with the stellar mass versus the goodness of the fit. More massive galaxies lead to slightly better fits.