The Dark Matter and Baryon Content of a Sample of Isolated Elliptical Galaxies

The mass profiles of elliptical galaxies are important probes of galaxyformation and cosmology. Only a few elliptical galaxies have detailed massmeasurements from Xrays because of the lack of suitable targets in terms oftotal mass (< virgul10^{13} m_sun) and relaxed dynamical states appropriate forhydrostatic analysis. We have identified a sample of 10 (hot) gasrich isolatedelliptical galaxies wellsuited for Xray studies of mass profiles on the galaxyscale. We request deep XMM observations to map the detailed profiles of stars,dark matter, and hot gas for the 5 systems in the sample lacking highqualityXMM data. This sample will serve as a benchmark laboratory for hydrostaticstudies of the hot gas in isolated elliptical galaxies. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]