Related papers: Dynamical analysis of elliptical galaxy halos
Several proposed models for dark matter posit the existence of self-interaction processes that can impact the shape of dark matter halos, making them more spherical than the ellipsoidal halos of collisionless dark matter. One method of…
Photometric data from the literature is combined with triaxial mass models to derive variation in the intrinsic shapes of the light distribution of elliptical galaxies NGC 720, 2768 and 3605. The inferred shape variation in given by a…
We use 118 strong gravitational lenses observed by the SLACS, BELLS, LSD and SL2S surveys to constrain the total mass profile and the profile of luminosity density of stars (light-tracers) in elliptical galaxies up to redshift $z \sim 1$.…
We determine the orientations of the light distribution of individual elliptical galaxies by combining the profiles of photometric data from the literature with triaxial models. The orientation is given by a Bayesian probability…
We investigate the dark matter density profile of the massive elliptical galaxy, NGC 1407, by constructing spherically symmetric Jeans models of its field star and globular cluster systems. Two major challenges in such models are the…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) may be the most promising tracers in the halos of early-type galaxies. We have used multi-object spectrographs on the WHT and the VLT, and the new Planetary Nebula Spectrograph on the WHT, to obtain hundreds of PN…
In the context of recent observational results that show massive ellipticals were in place at high redshifts, we reassess the status of monolithic collapse in a LCDM universe. Using a sample of over 2000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky…
We analyze six X-ray bright elliptical galaxies, observed with Chandra and XMM-Newton, and approximate their gravitational potentials by isothermal spheres phi(r)=v_c^2 ln(r) over a range of radii from ~0.5 to ~25 kpc. We then compare the…
We review the origin and structure of hot (cooling flow) gas in elliptical galaxies. X-ray observations can be used to determine the stellar mass to light ratio, the mass profiles of dark matter halos, and the interstellar magnetic field.…
The mass profile for the moderately bright elliptical NGC 3377 is studied through an spherical Jeans analysis, combined with a Bayesian approach. The prior distributions are generated from dark matter simulations and observational…
We report on ongoing photometric and spectroscopic work on a sample of isolated elliptical galaxies. We investigate their globular cluster systems, and use the kinematics of globular clusters and the integrated galaxy light to constrain…
We compare optical and high quality x-ray data for three bright ellipticals in the Virgo cluster, NGC 4472, 4649, and 4636. The distribution of total mass in NGC 4472 and 4649 determined from x-ray data is sensitive to the stellar mass over…
New photometric and long-slit spectroscopic observations are presented for NGC 7113, PGC 1852, and PGC 67207 which are three bright galaxies residing in low-density environments. The surface-brightness distribution is analysed from the…
A kinematical analysis applied to a sample of galaxy clusters indicates that the differences between the velocity distribution of elliptical and spiral galaxies are associated with the shape of their orbit families. The orbital anisotropies…
(shortened for babbage) We describe (1) a new test for dark matter and alternate theories of gravitation based on the relative geometries of the X-ray and optical surface brightness distributions and an assumed form for the potential of the…
The dynamics of an elliptical galaxy within a couple of effective radii can be probed effectively by stars. However, at larger distances planetary nebulae (PNe) replace stars as the tracer of the dynamics. Making use of the motion of PNe,…
We investigate the velocity distribution of elliptical galaxies in the framework of Non-local Gravity. According to this approach, it is possible to recover the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies without the dark matter hypothesis.…
We argue that the stellar velocity dispersion observed in an elliptical galaxy is a good proxy for the halo velocity dispersion. As dark matter halos are almost completely characterized by a single scale parameter, the stellar velocity…
We consider the consequences of applying general relativity to the description of the dynamics of a galaxy, given the observed flattened rotation curves. The galaxy is modeled as a stationary axially symmetric pressure-free fluid. In spite…
The kinematics of stars and planetary nebulae in early type galaxies provide vital clues to the enigmatic physics of their dark matter halos. We fit published data for fourteen such galaxies using a spherical, self-gravitating model with…