1995A&A...297...28B

We present a kinematic study of three E+E galaxy pairs, NGC 741/742, 1587/1588 (CPG 99) and 2672/2673 (CPG 175). All three pairs show a similar morphological distortion (i.e. the off-centering of inner versus outer isophotes; Davoust & Prugniel 1988A&A...201L..30D) which is ascribed to the ongoing interaction. The data was obtained at the CFHT equipped with the Herzberg Spectrograph at a resolution of 0.88Apx^–1. NGC 741 and 2673 show significant rotation along the apparent minor axis. Both components of CPG 99 rotate very fast (with no evidence for rotation along the minor axis of either component). None of the galaxies show abnormally high central velocity dispersion. We report some of the first clear detections of well defined velocity dispersion curves for interacting pairs. They show a systematic decrease with distance from the center, as expected for normal ellipticals. They do not show obvious heating in the outer parts as was previously reported. NGC 741 and 2672 show, respectively, possible U and inverse U-shaped structure in their velocity profiles.