A Radial Velocity Dispersion Profile for the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

Abstract

We have measured precise (± 3 km/s) radial velocities for 180 stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy, spanning the region R=0 to just beyond the nominal tidal radius. We perform a “classical” analysis of the resulting velocity dispersion profile. A mass-follows-light King model is ruled out, while a constant velocity dispersion model remains a good fit out to the limits of our dataset. For the constant velocity dispersion case, we calculate a velocity dispersion of 11.1 ± 0.7 km/s, which implies a central M/L/[M/L]⊙ ratio of 7.6 ± 1.0.