The inner-workings of dwarf galaxies in the Fornax Cluster

This thesis undertakes a comprehensive exploration of low-mass early-type dwarf galaxies, elucidating their properties, formation mechanisms, and the challenges they pose to current galaxy evolution understanding. In Chapter 2, the focus is on the specific stellar angular momentum in dwarf galaxies, revealing a distinct trend where the specific stellar angular momentum decreases with decreasing stellar mass, with values much lower than in giant galaxies. This challenges the conventional belief that morphology dictates angular momentum and raises questions about the origins of dwarf early-type galaxies. Chapter 3 investigates the structural properties of dwarfs, showing deviations from the Stellar Mass Fundamental Plane, indicating how the dynamical and stellar mass properties are influenced by their dark matter content. Chapter 4 analyzes their stellar populations, finding positive age gradients and negative metallicity gradients in dwarf galaxies, suggesting distinct formation histories from giant ellipticals. The study concludes that low-mass dwarf galaxies display unique characteristics, such as significant dark matter fractions and deviations from scaling relations, urging further exploration into their intricate evolution.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/90ef10e2-6b35-4c81-84eb-c41f45aaee81