English

Kinematical signatures of hidden stellar discs

Astrophysics 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

The deprojection of the surface brightness distribution of an axisymmetric galaxy does not have a unique solution unless the galaxy is viewed precisely edge-on. I present an algorithm that finds the full range of smooth axisymmetric density distributions consistent with a given surface brightness distribution and inclination angle, and use it to investigate the effects of this non-uniqueness on the line-of-sight velocity profiles (VPs) of two-integral models of both real and toy disky galaxies viewed at a range of inclination angles. Photometrically invisible face-on disks leave very clear signatures in the minor-axis VPs of the models (Gauss--Hermite coefficients h_4>0.1), provided the disk-to-bulge ratio is greater than about 3%. I discuss the implications of these hitherto neglected disks for dynamical modelling.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9902033,
  title  = {Kinematical signatures of hidden stellar discs},
  author = {John Magorrian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9902033},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

7 pages, 7 figures, uses mn.tex