Rotation curves and scaling relations of extremely massive spiral galaxies

We study the kinematics and scaling relations of a sample of 43 giant spiral galaxies that have stellar masses exceeding 10(11) M-circle dot and optical discs up to 80 kpc in radius. We use a hybrid 3D-1D approach to fit 3D kinematic models to long-slit observations of the H alpha-[N II] emission lines and we obtain robust rotation curves of these massive systems. We find that all galaxies in our sample seem to reach a flat part of the rotation curve within the outermost optical radius. We use the derived kinematics to study the high-mass end of the two most important scaling relations for spiral galaxies: the stellar/baryonic mass Tully-Fisher relation and the Fall (mass-angular momentum) relation. All galaxies in our sample, with the possible exception of the two fastest rotators, lie comfortably on both these scaling relations determined at lower masses, without any evident break or bend at the high-mass regime. When we combine our high-mass sample with low-mass data from the Spitzer Photometry & Accurate Rotation Curves catalogue, we find a slope of alpha = 4.25 +/- 0.19 for the stellar Tully-Fisher relation and a slope of gamma = 0.64 +/- 0.11 for the Fall relation. Our results indicate that most, if not all, of these rare, giant spiral galaxies are scaled up versions of less massive discs and that spiral galaxies are a self-similar population of objects up to the very high-mass end.

Automated summary

We studied the kinematics and scaling relations of 43 giant spiral galaxies and found that most of them conform to the standards set by low-mass galaxies. It is speculated that these rare giant galaxies are scaled up versions of smaller discs, indicating that spiral galaxies exhibit self-similarity at the high-mass end.