A near-infrared ?0,K - log h relation for early-type spiral galaxy disks

The K-band light-profiles from a sample of roughly 100 disk galaxies have been simultaneously modelled with a seeing convolved Sersic r1/n bulge and an exponential disk. Rather than a constant central disk surface brightness, in the near-infrared, ?0,K is shown to decrease with the logarithm of the disk scale-length (log h) - with a correlation coefficient equal to 0.78, a slope of -2, and a standard deviation of 0.47 mag arcsec-2. Galaxy types Scd or later are observed to have fainter disks.