Stellar Dynamical Modeling - Accuracy of 3D Density Estimation for Edge-on Axisymmetric Galaxies
Abstract
From Rybicki's analysis using the Fourier slice theorem, mathematically it is possible to reproduce uniquely an edge-on axisymmetric galaxy's 3D light distribution from its 2D surface brightness. Utilizing galaxies from a cosmological simulation, we examine the ability of Syer and Tremaine's made-to-measure method and Schwarzschild's method for stellar dynamical modeling to do so for edge-on oblate axisymmetric galaxies. Overall, we find that the methods do not accurately recover the 3D distributions, with the made-to-measure method producing more accurate estimates than Schwarzschild's method. Our results have implications broader than just luminosity density, and affect other luminosity-weighted distributions within galaxies, for example, age and metallicity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2102.04189,
title = {Stellar Dynamical Modeling - Accuracy of 3D Density Estimation for Edge-on Axisymmetric Galaxies},
author = {Richard J. Long and Shengdong Lu and Dandan Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.04189},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication by Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 26 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables