Tracing Dark Matter Halo Mass Using Central Velocity Dispersion of Galaxies

Most of the galaxy mass is known to be occupied by dark matter. However, it is difficult to directly measure the mass and distribution of dark matter in a galaxy. Recently, the velocity dispersion of the stellar population in a galaxy's center has been suggested as a possible probe of the mass of the dark matter halo. In this study, we test and verify this hypothesis using the kinematics of the satellite galaxies of isolated galaxies. We use the Friends-of-Friends (FoF)algorithm to build a catalog of primary galaxies and their satellite galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR 12. We calculate the dynamical mass of the primary galaxies from the velocity dispersion of their satellite galaxies. We then investigate the correlation between the dynamical mass and the central velocity dispersion of the primary galaxies. The stellar velocity dispersion of the central host galaxies has a strong linear correlation with the velocity dispersion of their satellite galaxies. Also, the stellar velocity dispersion of the central galaxy is strongly correlated with the dynamical mass of the galaxy, which can be described as a power law. The results of this study show that the central velocity dispersion of the primary galaxies is a good proxy for tracing the mass of dark matter halo.