COLOR DISTRIBUTIONS IN E-S0 GALAXIES - III - E-OBJECTS WITH POWER-LAWOR CORE-LIKE CENTRAL PROFILES

Measurements of the central red color peak occurring in E-type galaxie s have been obtained from Nieto's CFHT observations in B and R of 39 o bjects. A careful equalization of the PSF of the two frames involved i n color maps and profiles was crucial in achieving significant results , although still affected by limited resolution. The class of the cent ral light profile, i.e. ''core-like'' or ''power-law'', was also deriv ed. The well known correlation between the class of central profile an d the large scale morphology is somewhat improved. The distributions o f central red peak amplitudes are obtained separately for the two clas ses of central profiles, and shown to be quite different; most objects with a core-like center also have a flat central color profile. The m odel of Silva & Wise (1996), for the production of broad cores by cent rally located diffuse dust, is not supported. This is in agreement wit h recent HST results by Carollo et al. (1997) from a special subsample of objects with kinematically decoupled cores.