Revisiting the Dichotomy of Early-type Galaxies

We study the relationship between isophotal shapes, central light profiles and kinematic properties of early-type galaxies (ETGs) based on a compiled sample of 184 ETGs. These sample galaxies are included in Data Release 8 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and have central light profiles and kinematic properties available from the literature, which were compiled from observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the ATLAS(3D) integral-field spectrograph, respectively. We find that there is only a weak correlation between the isophotal shape (a(4)/a) and the central light profile (within 1 kpc) of ETGs. About two-fifths of "core" galaxies have disky isophotes, and one-third of "power-law" galaxies are boxy. Our statistical results also show that there are weak correlations between galaxy luminosity and dynamical mass with a(4)/a, but such correlations are tighter with a central light profile. Moreover, no clear link has been found between the isophotal shape and the Sersic index. Comparisons show that there are similar correlations between a(4)/a and ellipticity, and between a(4)/a and specific angular momentum, lambda(Re/2) for "power-law" ETGs, but there are no such correlations for "core" ETGs. Therefore, we speculate that the bimodal classifications of ETGs are not as simple as previously thought, though we also find that the disky ETGs with highest a(4)/a are more elongated and fast rotators.