Related papers: The Shapes of Elliptical Galaxies with Central Den…
Tests for the intrinsic shape of the luminosity distribution in elliptical galaxies are discussed, with an emphasis on the uncertainties. Recent determinations of the ellipticity frequency function imply a paucity of nearly spherical…
The inner and outer shapes and orientations of core-Sersic galaxies may hold important clues to their formation and evolution. We have therefore measured the central and outer ellipticities and position angles for a sample of 24 core-Sersic…
We apply the dynamical modeling approach of Statler (1994b) to 13 elliptical galaxies from the Davies and Birkinshaw (1988) sample of radio galaxies to derive constraints on their intrinsic shapes and orientations. We develop an iterative…
We test the hypothesis that the apparent axis ratio of an elliptical galaxy is correlated with the age of its stellar population. We find that old ellipticals (with estimated stellar ages t > 7.5 Gyr) are rounder on average than younger…
The most massive elliptical galaxies have low-density centers or cores that differ dramatically from the high-density centers of less massive ellipticals and bulges of disk galaxies. These cores have been interpreted as the result of…
We have studied a large number of elliptical galaxies and found a correlation between their dark matter content and the ellipticity of their visible shape. The galaxies were strictly selected so that only typical medium-size elliptical…
Bright elliptical galaxies have a markedly different distribution of Hubble types than faint ellipticals; the division occurs near M_B=-20 and bright ellipticals are rounder on average. The Hubble types of galaxies in both groups are…
I compute the estimated distribution function f(q) for the apparent axis ratio q of various types of stellar systems, using a nonparametric kernel method. I then invert f(q) to find the distribution of intrinsic axis ratios, using two…
A model is developed for an idealised spherical galaxy evolving from a uniform mass distribution at the epoch of galactic separation until attaining an equilibrium state through gravitational collapse. The final theoretical radial surface…
A review of the present observational and theoretical status of elliptical galaxies is presented with the aim to clarify whether the monolithic or the hierarchical, is a more viable scenario for the origin of these structures. We describe…
Using recent dust continuum data, we generate the intrinsic ellipticity distribution of dense, starless molecular cloud cores. Under the hypothesis that the cores are all either oblate or prolate randomly-oriented spheroids, we show that a…
Ellipticals in very low density environments are extremely rare but hold important clues about galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper we continue our study of isolated elliptical galaxies, presenting results on the radial stellar…
Recent progress is summarized on the determination of the density distributions of stars and dark matter, stellar kinematics, and stellar population properties, in the extended, low surface brightness halo regions of elliptical galaxies.…
We analyze Hubble Space Telescope surface-brightness profiles of 61 elliptical galaxies and spiral bulges (hot galaxies). Luminous hot galaxies have cuspy cores with steep outer power-law profiles that break at r ~ r_b to shallow inner…
There are two families of luminous elliptical galaxies: cusp galaxies, with steep central surface-brightness profiles, and core galaxies, whose surface-brightness profiles have flat central cores. Thermal evaporation of accreted cold gas by…
Here we present HST WFPC2 imaging of 14 kinematically--distinct core ellipticals to examine their globular cluster systems. In particular, we probe the galaxy central regions, for which we might expect to see the strongest signatures of…
The last decade of research on elliptical galaxies has produced a wealth of new information concerning both their detailed structure and their global scaling relations. We review the old and new results about isophote shapes and…
We determine the underlying shapes of spiral and elliptical galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 from the observed distribution of projected galaxy shapes, taking into account the effects of dust extinction and reddening.…
We fit the surface-brightness profiles of 21 elliptical galaxies using both the Sersic function and a new empirical model which combines an inner power law with an outer Sersic function. The profiles are combinations of deconvolved HST…
We present a two-pronged approach to the formation of early-type galaxies, using a sample of 18 galaxies at 0.5 < z < 1 from the HST/ACS Ultra Deep Field and GRAPES surveys: 1) We combine slitless low resolution spectroscopy from the GRAPES…