Dynamical Versus Stellar Masses in Compact Early-Type Galaxies: Further Evidence for Systematic Variation in the Stellar Initial Mass Function

Several independent lines of evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in early-type galaxies becomes increasingly bottom-heavy' with increasing galaxy mass and/or velocity dispersion, sigma. Here we consider evidence for IMF variation in a sample of relatively compact early-type galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These galaxies are of sufficiently high stellar density that a dark halo likely makes a minor contribution to the total dynamical mass, Mdyn, within one effective radius. We fit our detailed stellar population synthesis models to the stacked absorption line spectra of these galaxies in bins of sigma and find evidence from IMF-sensitive spectral features for a bottom-heavy IMF at high sigma. We also apply simple mass-follows-light’ dynamical models to the same data and find that Mdyn is significantly higher than what would be expected if these galaxies were stellar dominated and had a universal Milky Way IMF. Adopting Mdyn M_* therefore implies that the IMF is `heavier’ at high sigma. Most importantly, the quantitative amount of inferred IMF variation is very similar between the two techniques, agreeing to within 0.1 dex in mass. The agreement between two independent techniques, when applied to the same data, provides compelling evidence for systematic variation in the IMF as a function of early-type galaxy velocity dispersion. Any alternative explanations must reproduce both the results from dynamical and stellar population-based techniques.